Hi all,
I've been all grain brewing for about 2yrs now and have been immersed in all the trappings of this hobby- I/C, grain mill, conical, fermentation chamber, stir plate, O2 setup, etc.. but haven't ventured much into water chemistry.. yet! I've even opened up my mill settings to avoid tannin extraction allowing my brewhouse efficiency (as measured through Brewer's Friend recipe calculator) to fall from 80 to 70%. I'm quite fine with that and typically hit my OG sometimes spot on, otherwise within 1-2 pts, so I feel well dialed in. My brother who has similar setup as mine, is always low, and we've been using a brewhouse eff of ~55% to help hit his OG. Wow that's low to me! Well today I brewed with him (and our other brother) at his house, and like him, I missed my OG by ~11pts (60 v target of 71). I brewed on all my own equipment, so the only variable, I was hitting my mash temps, wort collection, boil off etc, was his water.
So, my question. Can water profile impact extraction efficiency? In my case it sure seems so, as I never miss by this level. We likely will brew again at either my house or our other brother's house in the next few months, so will have yet another source to validate today's results. However, in the meantime, I'm wondering, and I haven't seen on web searches, if water profile can influence extraction efficiency. It sure seems to have today!
Any thoughts?? I'd appreciate any and all help. I know there are lot more out there with water chemistry knowledge. I'm a finance guy, this chemistry stuff makes my head spin!
Cheers,
Ken
I've been all grain brewing for about 2yrs now and have been immersed in all the trappings of this hobby- I/C, grain mill, conical, fermentation chamber, stir plate, O2 setup, etc.. but haven't ventured much into water chemistry.. yet! I've even opened up my mill settings to avoid tannin extraction allowing my brewhouse efficiency (as measured through Brewer's Friend recipe calculator) to fall from 80 to 70%. I'm quite fine with that and typically hit my OG sometimes spot on, otherwise within 1-2 pts, so I feel well dialed in. My brother who has similar setup as mine, is always low, and we've been using a brewhouse eff of ~55% to help hit his OG. Wow that's low to me! Well today I brewed with him (and our other brother) at his house, and like him, I missed my OG by ~11pts (60 v target of 71). I brewed on all my own equipment, so the only variable, I was hitting my mash temps, wort collection, boil off etc, was his water.
So, my question. Can water profile impact extraction efficiency? In my case it sure seems so, as I never miss by this level. We likely will brew again at either my house or our other brother's house in the next few months, so will have yet another source to validate today's results. However, in the meantime, I'm wondering, and I haven't seen on web searches, if water profile can influence extraction efficiency. It sure seems to have today!
Any thoughts?? I'd appreciate any and all help. I know there are lot more out there with water chemistry knowledge. I'm a finance guy, this chemistry stuff makes my head spin!
Cheers,
Ken