Topics

1

All Grain Brewing / Fun with Water

« on: March 27, 2017, 03:40:07 PM »

So sometimes I feel like too much knowledge truly is a dangerous thing. I feel John Palmer's book on water may have been a mistake at my level of brewing. Even knowing that I can't stop reading brewing articles and books, I figure I still have a great deal to learn. Onto my question.

I live in Atlanta. After researching the local water and looking into the rough profile of the water this is what I get too. The few sites that discuss it come to this.

Beer Smith Water Profile:
Calcium(Ca): 6.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 1.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 3.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 7.0 ppm
Bicarbonate(HCO3): 19.0 ppm
PH: 7.2 PH

First time I tried all grain I went with Distilled Water and used brunwater to determine my salt additions. It did well but after talking with some other homebrewers that said Atlanta water was a good starting point I decided to try that. I'm on my second batch just using Atlanta water and I'm having difficulty hitting my Mash pH. I follow the burnwater to the letter on salt additions (gypsum, calcium chloride, etc.) to hit the numbers but my pH is still coming in high around 5.8-6. Haven't tried using lactic acid or acid malt to try and bring it down. Has anyone else had similar issues with hitting target pH of ~5.2? Any suggestions?

Additionally I use a one vessel BIAB system currently.

2

Homebrewer Bios / New AHA Homebrewer

« on: March 13, 2017, 07:46:33 PM »

I've been brewing for a little over a year now. Just recently scaled up to All Grain BIAB process before that was a strict Partial Mash Brewer. I came in second last year in a BJCP competition in American Ales for an APA, 30 points. Still trying to work out the kinks in my process and get a stricter temperature control on my fermentation. It can be hard with GA summers, and no fermentation storage. I've been reading this forum for a while hope to be more involved as time goes on.

3

Beer Recipes / Why the Pale Not / An American Pale Ale

« on: March 12, 2017, 11:25:23 PM »

So I just got my results back on a beer I submitted for competition and it came back lower than the last time I had brewed a similar beer. I changed the recipe and this time was a full mash and not a partial mash. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the recipe, perhaps I skewed from style unintentionally.

Score Received was only a 24, which is strange to me as it seems to be to style, I'm waiting for the judge notes. I will post them when they are received.

Recipe
10 lbs 2-Row
1   lb Caramel 40L
9   oz Sucrose
.5  oz German Magnum (13.3 AA) - 60 min
.3  oz Cascade (6.7 AA) - 30 min
1   oz Willamette (4.6 AA) - 30 min
.7  oz Cascade (6.7 AA) - 5 min
2   oz Falconers Flight - Dry Hopped 3 Days

I made some water adjustments
8.5 Gallons Distilled Water
11.2 g gypsum
2.4  g Calcium Chloride
5.6  g Epsom
2.4  g Calcium Carbonate
2.4  g Baking Soda

Mashed at 148 F for 60 minutes and did a mash out at 170 for 10 minutes.

Used WLP001 California Ale Yeast and did a 1.5 L starter

Finally it was Cold Crashed for 7 days and Gelatin was used to clarify

Pre Boil Gravity 1.045
Post Boil           1.062
Final Gravity      1.010

5 Gallon Batch

Any advice would be greatly appreciated if there is anything glaringly bad.