GRJBowers
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2017
- Messages
- 45
- Reaction score
- 13
Hi, HBT. Longtime lurker finally signed up for some advice and apologies in advance for what will probably be a wall of text.
First some background info. I don't have an outdoor burner so my homebrew adventures are limited to partial mashes in a 5 gallon cooler with partial boils on the stove top. When I want to adapt an all-grain recipe, I try to mash all the specialty grains with enough base malt to convert all of the starches, then make up the rest of the gravity with malt extract.
Which leads me to this recipe (based off https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/255745/russian-imperial-stout):
2.75 lbs 2-Row
1.25 lbs roasted barley
1 lb Special B
0.75 lb pale chocolate
0.5 lb CaraFoam
6.6 lbs light LME
3.3 lbs Munich LME
0.2 lbs light DME (or however much I need to reach 1.092 sg)
1.375 oz Magnum (@ 13% AA) 60 minutes 65.94 IBU
1 oz Fuggles (@ 5% AA) 5 minutes 3.44 IBU
Nottingham or S-04 yeast (haven't decided yet)
CBC-1 for bottle conditioning
Predicted OG: 1.092
Predicted FG: 1.021
Predicted ABV: 9.25%
Total IBU: 69.37 IBU
This will go on some Hungarian oak cubes for a while (will determine how long by taste), and then it will be aged for at least 6 months.
The first thing I need advice on is water. I use RO water and build the water from there. Because of the amount of roasted malt, the pH of the mash water is pretty low (well below 5).
My target water profile:
120 ppm calcium
4 ppm magnesium
12 ppm sodium
55 ppm sulfate
19 ppm chloride
315 ppm bicarbonate
Mash additions:
0.8 g gypsum
0.3 g calcium chloride
0.5 g Epsom salts
2.1 g baking soda
2.4 g calcium hydroxide
With 3 gallons of mash water that gets me to the following:
141 ppm calcium
4 ppm magnesium
59 ppm sodium (high but should be below the flavor threshold)
56 ppm sulfate
21 ppm chloride
498 ppm bicarbonate (really, really high. Reason for concern?)
Residual Alkalinity: 408 ppm as calcium carbonate
pH: 5.21
As I mentioned, I use a 5 gallon cooler for mashing. So with the grain bill as is, I can only use about 3 gallons for mashing so dilution of the mash water to bring the concentrations down isn't really an option. Reducing the baking soda addition would bring the sodium and bicarbonate levels down but the pH would decrease to below 5.2, which as I understand is sort of the minimum pH for a good mash.
I guess my main question about the water is whether or not the bicarbonate level is a cause for concern? The high sodium level I can deal with.
The second question is about preparing the oak cubes. I'm not a fan of bourbon or rum, so soaking the cubes in either of those in advance isn't really something I want to do. For sanitation I was thinking of either boiling them for a few minutes or soaking them in vodka for a few weeks beforehand, which option would work best?
And finally the third question is one of yeast. I have Nottingham and S-04 on hand but I can get liquid yeasts with some legwork. What yeast would work well for a beer this big.
Thanks for any help.
-Bob
First some background info. I don't have an outdoor burner so my homebrew adventures are limited to partial mashes in a 5 gallon cooler with partial boils on the stove top. When I want to adapt an all-grain recipe, I try to mash all the specialty grains with enough base malt to convert all of the starches, then make up the rest of the gravity with malt extract.
Which leads me to this recipe (based off https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/255745/russian-imperial-stout):
2.75 lbs 2-Row
1.25 lbs roasted barley
1 lb Special B
0.75 lb pale chocolate
0.5 lb CaraFoam
6.6 lbs light LME
3.3 lbs Munich LME
0.2 lbs light DME (or however much I need to reach 1.092 sg)
1.375 oz Magnum (@ 13% AA) 60 minutes 65.94 IBU
1 oz Fuggles (@ 5% AA) 5 minutes 3.44 IBU
Nottingham or S-04 yeast (haven't decided yet)
CBC-1 for bottle conditioning
Predicted OG: 1.092
Predicted FG: 1.021
Predicted ABV: 9.25%
Total IBU: 69.37 IBU
This will go on some Hungarian oak cubes for a while (will determine how long by taste), and then it will be aged for at least 6 months.
The first thing I need advice on is water. I use RO water and build the water from there. Because of the amount of roasted malt, the pH of the mash water is pretty low (well below 5).
My target water profile:
120 ppm calcium
4 ppm magnesium
12 ppm sodium
55 ppm sulfate
19 ppm chloride
315 ppm bicarbonate
Mash additions:
0.8 g gypsum
0.3 g calcium chloride
0.5 g Epsom salts
2.1 g baking soda
2.4 g calcium hydroxide
With 3 gallons of mash water that gets me to the following:
141 ppm calcium
4 ppm magnesium
59 ppm sodium (high but should be below the flavor threshold)
56 ppm sulfate
21 ppm chloride
498 ppm bicarbonate (really, really high. Reason for concern?)
Residual Alkalinity: 408 ppm as calcium carbonate
pH: 5.21
As I mentioned, I use a 5 gallon cooler for mashing. So with the grain bill as is, I can only use about 3 gallons for mashing so dilution of the mash water to bring the concentrations down isn't really an option. Reducing the baking soda addition would bring the sodium and bicarbonate levels down but the pH would decrease to below 5.2, which as I understand is sort of the minimum pH for a good mash.
I guess my main question about the water is whether or not the bicarbonate level is a cause for concern? The high sodium level I can deal with.
The second question is about preparing the oak cubes. I'm not a fan of bourbon or rum, so soaking the cubes in either of those in advance isn't really something I want to do. For sanitation I was thinking of either boiling them for a few minutes or soaking them in vodka for a few weeks beforehand, which option would work best?
And finally the third question is one of yeast. I have Nottingham and S-04 on hand but I can get liquid yeasts with some legwork. What yeast would work well for a beer this big.
Thanks for any help.
-Bob