OK, I think I have water that does not go well with brewing lighter beers like pilsner or helles etc. I keep getting a grainy astringency I don't get with even a pale ale. I read in Designing Great Beers that certain waters are good for darker beers but not good for lighter brews and vice versa. The only "light" colored beer that comes out good with AG is wheat beers.
It's been buggin the heck out of me. Anyone here good at analysing water? I have a printout of the water makeup somewhere around here.
What factors affect astringency? Something is pulling tannins etc from the husks during sparge and it isn't temp or excessive sparging. I do know that the water PH is neutral.
My Pales. IPA's Stouts, etc all turn out great. My Vienna was awesome. But I'm getting to the point of just giving up on lighter brews. I guess I could go with bottled water but then you have to deal with a lack of anything in the
water and that's not great either.
It's been buggin the heck out of me. Anyone here good at analysing water? I have a printout of the water makeup somewhere around here.
What factors affect astringency? Something is pulling tannins etc from the husks during sparge and it isn't temp or excessive sparging. I do know that the water PH is neutral.
My Pales. IPA's Stouts, etc all turn out great. My Vienna was awesome. But I'm getting to the point of just giving up on lighter brews. I guess I could go with bottled water but then you have to deal with a lack of anything in the
water and that's not great either.