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Author Topic: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?  (Read 2844 times)

Offline blatz

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Re: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2019, 09:25:15 am »
On a normal brew day, not bothering to measure pH and density through the sparge, the only thing I do observe is clarity, diverting runoff at the first sign of turbidity.  Maybe this is all that is important.

that's been my SOP for years, but unfortunately, I seemed to have developed this 'bite' in the finish of several recent beers and I want to try and eliminate it if possible.  Its not bad, and doesn't make the beers unquaffable, but I notice it and I'm a perfectionist - if I can make my beer a little more enjoyable by throwing in an extra pound or 2 of grain and altering my sparge a bit, I'm for it.  My amber ale, which I brewed successively 3 times at the end of last year and early this year, always had that bite. 

TBH, I have occasionally measured final runnings after I've filled the BK, and I've never been below or even close to 2 brix. 

just looking to keep improving. 
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

BJCP National: F0281

Offline blatz

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  • Paul Blatz - Jupiter, FL
Re: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2019, 09:28:27 am »
it could also be the pH of the wort in the kettle.  I bought a new pH meter (anyone want my old MW102?) and plan to be more vigilant taking readings until I resolve this issue and get back on track.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

BJCP National: F0281

Offline Robert

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Re: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #17 on: April 25, 2019, 09:31:07 am »
On a normal brew day, not bothering to measure pH and density through the sparge, the only thing I do observe is clarity, diverting runoff at the first sign of turbidity.  Maybe this is all that is important.

that's been my SOP for years, but unfortunately, I seemed to have developed this 'bite' in the finish of several recent beers and I want to try and eliminate it if possible.  Its not bad, and doesn't make the beers unquaffable, but I notice it and I'm a perfectionist - if I can make my beer a little more enjoyable by throwing in an extra pound or 2 of grain and altering my sparge a bit, I'm for it.  My amber ale, which I brewed successively 3 times at the end of last year and early this year, always had that bite. 

TBH, I have occasionally measured final runnings after I've filled the BK, and I've never been below or even close to 2 brix. 

just looking to keep improving.
Here's another thought.  Have you changed your milling practices?  Could fine husk particles in the mash be contributing?  If so a coarser grind could help?  Like with your idea of adding malt and running off at a higher gravity, sacrificing efficiency for quality is always acceptable.
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question.

Offline blatz

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  • Paul Blatz - Jupiter, FL
Re: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #18 on: April 25, 2019, 09:35:59 am »
On a normal brew day, not bothering to measure pH and density through the sparge, the only thing I do observe is clarity, diverting runoff at the first sign of turbidity.  Maybe this is all that is important.

that's been my SOP for years, but unfortunately, I seemed to have developed this 'bite' in the finish of several recent beers and I want to try and eliminate it if possible.  Its not bad, and doesn't make the beers unquaffable, but I notice it and I'm a perfectionist - if I can make my beer a little more enjoyable by throwing in an extra pound or 2 of grain and altering my sparge a bit, I'm for it.  My amber ale, which I brewed successively 3 times at the end of last year and early this year, always had that bite. 

TBH, I have occasionally measured final runnings after I've filled the BK, and I've never been below or even close to 2 brix. 

just looking to keep improving.
Here's another thought.  Have you changed your milling practices?  Could fine husk particles in the mash be contributing?  If so a coarser grind could help?  Like with your idea of adding malt and running off at a higher gravity, sacrificing efficiency for quality is always acceptable.

good trouble shooting thought.  I haven't changed the settings on my mill since I first set it up (bought a MM 6 or so years ago after blowing up my BC).  I have it set rather coarse relative to some folks (0.039-0.040") but perhaps I will add this to the list of things to try if I don't succeed with this first 'fix'. 
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

BJCP National: F0281

Online ynotbrusum

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Re: Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2019, 07:24:00 pm »
I moved my mill gap back to 1.040 from 1.030 and have added some rice hulls to my SOP, because I changed mash tuns to a 20 gallon InfuSSion in my HERMS set up.  I like the results so far, 2 batches in.  I wasn’t getting tannins, but a fair amount of fine particulate in the boil kettle during run off towards the end of the run.
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"

Offline blatz

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  • Paul Blatz - Jupiter, FL
Reverse Osmosis and Adding All Salts to the boil?
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2019, 12:02:56 pm »
forgot to reply last Monday. 

I used my house IPA recipe, yet altered the water profile to target a mash pH of 5.40 (at room temp) and lowered my BHE to 70% to account for stopping the sparge a gallon short in order to have a richer wort.

final runnings at the end were 1.028.  Mash pH was 5.4 dead on and preboil pH was 5.37 (all at room temp)

Despite lowering my BHE to account for the shortage and dilution, I wound up with 4-5 points over target on my gravity (1.069-1.070) so basically I could have left my efficiency alone.  Kinda stumped but oh well. But wort was beautiful and break was spot on. 

Will update again in a month or so when I taste the final dryhopped, kegged and conditioned sample.



« Last Edit: May 06, 2019, 12:05:58 pm by blatz »
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

BJCP National: F0281