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Author Topic: Asking for a friend (cloudy beer)  (Read 3076 times)

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Asking for a friend (cloudy beer)
« Reply #15 on: December 29, 2015, 07:10:38 pm »

If there has been a change to the water supply there could be a shortage of calcium causing the yeast to drop out less. If the water supply for the home is surface water and there has been a lot of rain or melted snow flowing into the reservoirs then minerals could be diluted.

Also, if there is a bacterial or wild yeast infection in the beer that is often much more different to clear even with sufficient calcium or fining agents. Hard to rule this out without knowing the sanitation practices or source of yeast.

Calcium level of brewing water is 88 ppm. he is a Type A+++ which carries over to his cleaning regimen. Wyeast American Ale II and US05.

How certain is he of the water composition? made from RO or DI with minerals added back?

Tested water report. Full report
Ca 88
Mg 30
Na 7
Cl 16
SO 29

part of what others were talking about with water source and composition is that unless he collected all the water, took a sample of THAT water for analysis there is no guarantee that the test and the actual water on brew day match up. If your friend get's his water from a surface source, or shallow subsurface source, a lot of rain or melt water would change the composition significantly, if, for instance, he took a sample mid summer and there hadn't been rain for 5 months and then it rained for a week right before he could have brewed with near distilled water rather than 88 ppm calcium.

You could save a sample somewhere warm for a couple weeks and see if any funk develops that would rule out wild yeast or other contaminant pretty well.

^^^^^ this all the way

I'm betting on calcium deficiency or contamination


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So (for the sake of argument) if the water report is accurate; 88 ppm calcium is deficient?
No assuming the report is accurate, that is plenty of calcium. But assuming the report is accurate is not always a safe assumption due to seasonal changes in the water supply. If the report was run on a sample that was six months removed from brew day water a lot could have changed in that time.

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Offline JohnnyC

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Re: Asking for a friend (cloudy beer)
« Reply #16 on: December 30, 2015, 08:00:32 am »
Here is the recipe (for 10 gallons):
1# rice hulls
14# 2 row
2.5# C40
2 oz. roasted barley
2# C80
2# C10
1# Cara red
2# Munich 10 L
1.2# Acidulated
1 oz black malt
2 oz Chinook @ 60
2 oz Centenial @ 20
1 tablet Whirlfoc @ 15
2 packs US05

Water
13 gallons tap water (Ca 88 Mg 30 Na 7 Cl 16 SO 29)
2 gallons RO water

Mineral additions
8.5 grams Gypsum
2.1 grams NaCl
5.25 grams CaCL

Mashed at 152



Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Asking for a friend (cloudy beer)
« Reply #17 on: December 30, 2015, 08:02:32 am »
with those mineral additions it's unlikely that you are deficient on calcium even if it was 100% RO water.

I'm back to contamination.
"Creativity is the residue of wasted time"
-A Einstein

"errors are [...] the portals of discovery"
- J Joyce