BeerBorg

Look one page back for the recipe with the secret ingredient.

Got to play with my ph meter today. EZ Water estimated 5.52 and I measured 5.38? I know thats close, but is it good, bad, ugly?

Now I remember.
I get closer than that with my ph but it's always lower than projected but now that I know that, I adjust accordingly. I think you wouldn't want 5.52 anyway as I think 5.38 is likely better for IPA's. 5.2-5.5 is the range and I try to stay in the mid 5.3 area for most of my IPA's and pales. You did good!

I guess I should throw more of mine in the fridge and see how they are doing. I've been trying very hard not to just drink all of it.

Beer-lord wrote:Now I remember.
I get closer than that with my ph but it's always lower than projected but now that I know that, I adjust accordingly. I think you wouldn't want 5.52 anyway as I think 5.38 is likely better for IPA's. 5.2-5.5 is the range and I try to stay in the mid 5.3 area for most of my IPA's and pales. You did good!

Do you use acid malt or lactic acid? I've been using acid malt and putting x oz amount into EZ Water to get an estimate on ph. I'm thinking it's a guesstmate with the malt.
I picked up the liquid acid Saturday, but had already formulated the recipe with the malt. Next brew day I'll use the lactic acid and see how close it gets.

Next question since you BIAB. How are you taking your samples?

Nope, never used acid malt and have lactic acid but only used it twice. I go 100% RO water and add gypsum, epson and calcium only to get my numbers.
I add the salts when I mash, then wait 15-20 minutes to pull a sample, cool to room temperature and test the ph. I stir well, then use pull a bit out the bottom of the kettle when I know the mash has been stirred enough to be even.

Go easy on the lactic acid. A little can go a long way so better to add a tiny bit other wise you'll need to add baking soda if you get too low and I'm not happy with what baking soda does to my beer.

I remember how good your water tasted out the tap. Tasted like some mountain spring somewhere nice. You have great water to work with but did you ever get it tested?

Oh, SG was 1.062 at 5.75 gallons. I whet with .75 Warrior at 60 then 1oz each Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic at flame out. I chilled rather quickly to 160 and then pitched another ounce of each for 12 minutes. Then chilled to 68 and pitched Wyeast 1318.

Why 160 for 12........well.....have been in touch with a rather enlightening gentleman about hop oils and when they break down so we shall see.
I will say the smell was amazing and I could taste the hops without the bitterness.

Beer-lord wrote:I remember how good your water tasted out the tap. Tasted like some mountain spring somewhere nice. You have great water to work with but did you ever get it tested?

Yep. I'm trying to post it, but the world is against me. My water is pretty close to RO and I have it plugged into EZ Water.

Inkleg wrote: Why 160 for 12........well.....have been in touch with a rather enlightening gentleman about hop oils and when they break down so we shall see.
I will say the smell was amazing and I could taste the hops without the bitterness.

FWIW, they don't actually break down (denature, go get destroyed), they simply evaporate into your air and make your house smell good. Unless you have perfume distilling equipment to capture them. OR unless you put a lid on the pot and then cool it back down below the temperature where they vaporize, then your lid acts like the distilling equipment and the oils will condense back into the wort (that's what they do in distillation equipment, except out the other end).

That's why I always lid on hopstand (besides brett). I don't lose much of anything.

FWIW, my first batch still looks ugly, still tastes great. It has lost some aroma, but it tastes so good it's not bugging me. It hasn't lost any flavor.

It is however a bit too highly carbonated now due to the Brett finding more stuff to eat. It's at high end wheat beer carb levels now. This is giving it a crazy whipped egg white head. I think I will need to chuck it all in the fridge soon.

So yeah, I have now officially moved all of both batches into my fridge. My bottles have almost an inch more headspace then they started off with due to how much pressure is in them (remember I bottle in PETs), and it's starting to pour like this (believe it or not, it's not gushering, it's just very highly carbed and has a lot of head forming compounds). The brett keeps on eating stuff in there, and it seems to not be running out of stuff.

This bottles foam tastes and smells like your getting punched in the face with a pineapple, and it's exploding all over you... I think that's the brett too.

Wow, that's a lot of carb. A blast of pineapple sounds good as long as the rest of the hop profile (flavor) remains. Is that the case?

Kealia wrote:Wow, that's a lot of carb. A blast of pineapple sounds good as long as the rest of the hop profile (flavor) remains. Is that the case?

Flavor wise yes it's all still there, flavor hasn't changed much at all. Aroma wise everything is there too but pineapple reigns supreme, especially while the head is like that.

That head does eventually fall and then I can pour more, let it fall, pour more, and end up with a nice glass, and the bottles don't foam over. It's perfectly fine to drink, it just requires some patience LOL.

Earlier in the week I dropped mine from 68* to 50 for 48 hours to drop some yeast out of suspension. Yep it's still cloudy, but the flocculated yeast looks more compact. I've let it free rise over the last few days back to 67 and have just dropped 3oz Citra, 2oz Mosaic and 1oz Galaxy into it and purged the fermenter with Co2. I will keg Sunday. I would have liked to have transferred these hops loose to a keg with my SS hop tube surrounding the liquid out tube, but with 5.75 gallons in the fermenter I didn't want to lose that much beer. I'm hoping for a full 5 gallon keg even with a 6oz dry hop.

Yes, a full 5g keg will be appreciated when you send it to me because you don't like the Citra

All kidding aside, I think this will turn out well. But why did you decide to crash out the yeast (to the extent that you could)? Just curious as to your thinking behind that.

Kealia wrote:Yes, a full 5g keg will be appreciated when you send it to me because you don't like the Citra

and it may come down to that because of the Citra , but it will be local pick up only.

Kealia wrote:All kidding aside, I think this will turn out well. But why did you decide to crash out the yeast (to the extent that you could)? Just curious as to your thinking behind that.

First time I made this I ended up with a lot of yeast in the keg so I thought I'd give it a shot to see what changes. The yeast cake looks more compact than last time so I think it will help with the racking. I'll put a muslin sack on the end of the siphon tube to help catch hop debris.