Hey all. I heard about the club through one of your members and came to check it out. I just moved to Laguna Hills a couple weeks ago and I'll be brewing this weekend (assuming my grain shows up on Friday).
I actually moved to Irvine in late 2012, but I was in a tiny apartment and couldn't run proper fermentation temperature control, so I threw in the towel and haven't brewed since moving to Orange County.
I've been brewing since 2003, at first on and off, then hardcore for several years, then I had this sad drought of brewing for over a year now.
Hopefully all of my stuff still works! I picked up a bunch of minor replacement parts like tubing, water salts, brew bucket, Star-San, etc. from MoreBeer so I should be ready to go.
My setup is pretty mundane... stir plate from Brewers Hardware (from... 4 years ago when I lived in Massachusetts), 10 gallon cooler MLT, 10 gallon Bayou Classic pot with no ports, immersion chiller, aquarium pump for aeration, siphon for transferring stuff (no pump), glass carboy, PID temperature controller (from Lightobject + Radio Shack) connected to a chest freezer and some lizard aquarium heat tape for fermentation, a fairly efficient bottling setup (big ass bottling tree that I sanitize bottles on the night before I bottle makes that day go quickly), PH meter, refractometer, just picked up a reverse osmosis system because the water here is horrible (brewed with filtered Colorado first, then distilled in Massachusetts, then filtered in Rhode Island. The water here is the worst I've encountered for brewing... or tasting).
I often feel the urge to upgrade but usually stop entertaining the idea due to money/wife and a lack of true need (usually it's just wants). I pretty much have everything needed for the best tasting beer possible with the possible exception of chilling the wort super quickly (I have a 20' copper chiller with no frills). I might be upgrading to a Chugger pump and chiller recirculation package (Jamil style from MoreBeer) for my birthday next month.
Let's see... I'm married and have a ~7 month old son. I'm a game designer at Blizzard. I have an ill-tended brewing blog at http://www.madalchemist.com/. And I heart brewing. Can't believe I'm letting myself get back into it while crunching at work...
Anyway, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself with a surprisingly long post.
Howdy!
Moderators: Post Moderators, Cheers Moderator
Re: Howdy!
Hey Luckbad: Welcome to Brewcommune!
Thanks for your intro ... always great to get a little info on those hanging out here. You should come to a meeting and get to know the gang ... and after that joining the club will be a no-brainer.
Do keep us posted on your brewing adventures ... with your experience I expect you'll jump to the "providing answers" versus "asking questions" side ... and we welcome both here with gusto!
I'm G.U. and don't attend meetings as often as I'd like but there is a core of guys in the OC that're always around. I stay connected via the board.
We'll all look forward to seeing you here on the board and hopefully at a BC meeting soon.
Cheers!
Dan
Thanks for your intro ... always great to get a little info on those hanging out here. You should come to a meeting and get to know the gang ... and after that joining the club will be a no-brainer.
Do keep us posted on your brewing adventures ... with your experience I expect you'll jump to the "providing answers" versus "asking questions" side ... and we welcome both here with gusto!
I'm G.U. and don't attend meetings as often as I'd like but there is a core of guys in the OC that're always around. I stay connected via the board.
We'll all look forward to seeing you here on the board and hopefully at a BC meeting soon.
Cheers!
Dan
-
JonW
- Site Admin
- Posts: 1163
- Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:21 am
- Location: Huntington Beach, CA
- Contact:
Re: Howdy!
Welcome to the forum.
If you didn't see the post on our next meeting, check it out here:
http://www.brewcommune.com/forum/viewto ... f=2&t=2795
If you didn't see the post on our next meeting, check it out here:
http://www.brewcommune.com/forum/viewto ... f=2&t=2795
-
maltbarley
- Posts: 2408
- Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:31 am
- Location: Orange, CA
Re: Howdy!
Welcome!
By the resume, I think you'll be a good fit around here.
By the resume, I think you'll be a good fit around here.
Re: Howdy!
Welcome,
Hope to see you at a meeting or event
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend many of these but keep in touch via board
Hope to see you at a meeting or event
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend many of these but keep in touch via board
Chris aka Dr Dually
drdually@att.net
Life is tough. It is even tougher when you are stupid. John Wayne
Bottled and enjoying: Nada, zip
Kegged: English Brown, American Amber, Double Barrel Ale
Next up: Kolsch
drdually@att.net
Life is tough. It is even tougher when you are stupid. John Wayne
Bottled and enjoying: Nada, zip
Kegged: English Brown, American Amber, Double Barrel Ale
Next up: Kolsch
Re: Howdy!
Welcome!
So you do think the LH water is really that bad? I've been contemplating RO for some time, but haven't pulled the trigger.
It would be purely brewing-related so I don't want to spring for a full system with a tank, but at the same time wonder how long it would take to fill ~20 gallons or so (my total water usage for a typical 10-gallon batch) with a tankless system...
So you do think the LH water is really that bad? I've been contemplating RO for some time, but haven't pulled the trigger.
It would be purely brewing-related so I don't want to spring for a full system with a tank, but at the same time wonder how long it would take to fill ~20 gallons or so (my total water usage for a typical 10-gallon batch) with a tankless system...
Brad
Re: Howdy!
Thanks for the welcome!
With regard to the Laguna Hills brewing water, it's much the same as all the surroundings.
Very hard with an incredible abundance of sulfates. It's partly why so many beers around are sharply bitter. It is also not suited to the best light or even medium/amber beers.
Here's our water quality report: http://www.etwd.com/pdfs/Quality13.pdf
Some pertinent numbers:
Calcium (ppm): 51
Chloride (ppm): 90
Sulfate (ppm): 160
Sodium: 80
Magnesium: 21
Alkalinity, total as CaCO3 (ppm): 98
Now some targets for brewing:
Calcium: 40-100 ppm
Chloride: 10-100 ppm (I sometimes go up to 150)
Sulfate: 0-150 ppm, 350 ppm max for intentionally sharply hoppy beers
Sodium: 0-150 ppm, less than 100 if sulfate is high (and often less than 50 is preferred, but I go up to ~125 to round some beers out)
Magnesium: 0-30 ppm (you need some, but malt adds some)
A balanced chloride:sulfate ratio is around 1:1 (with a few more chloride ppm being truly "balanced"). Right out the gate, we are at 0.56, which leans pretty far toward bitter. If we try to create a balanced beer, we need to get chloride up to at least the same level as Sulfate (more, really, so around 180), bringing not only the recommended amount of chloride too high, but further increasing the hardness of the water.
One of the happy side effects of using RO (or distilled) water is that there is absolutely no need to acidify the sparge water (which most people don't do anyway). The 8.1 pH of Laguna Hills water is too alkaline for proper sparging (short version: pH over 6.0 and temperature over 170 contribute to tannin extraction--RO water is generally between 5 and 6 pH).
I'm starting to type too long and have to stop my lunch shortly, but the gist is this:
Our water is hard. It lends itself to dark bitter beers. I like to brew a broad range of beers, so I like to build from very soft water. My RO system that I picked up produces 50-75 gallons per day (I can close off the tank and drip directly into my cooler to collect over the course of a couple hours). It reduces the Total Dissolved Solids in my water from ~385ppm to ~35ppm, and in theory can/will get even better. That means I can build ANY water profile, allowing the proper brewing of anything from the cleanest pilsner to the darkest stout.
Okay, I'm still typing. I'm stopping now. Getting into brewing water is interesting for some people like me. It is basically chemistry if you get really deep, but even on the surface it is pretty easy to build water from distilled/RO. Do it!
With regard to the Laguna Hills brewing water, it's much the same as all the surroundings.
Very hard with an incredible abundance of sulfates. It's partly why so many beers around are sharply bitter. It is also not suited to the best light or even medium/amber beers.
Here's our water quality report: http://www.etwd.com/pdfs/Quality13.pdf
Some pertinent numbers:
Calcium (ppm): 51
Chloride (ppm): 90
Sulfate (ppm): 160
Sodium: 80
Magnesium: 21
Alkalinity, total as CaCO3 (ppm): 98
Now some targets for brewing:
Calcium: 40-100 ppm
Chloride: 10-100 ppm (I sometimes go up to 150)
Sulfate: 0-150 ppm, 350 ppm max for intentionally sharply hoppy beers
Sodium: 0-150 ppm, less than 100 if sulfate is high (and often less than 50 is preferred, but I go up to ~125 to round some beers out)
Magnesium: 0-30 ppm (you need some, but malt adds some)
A balanced chloride:sulfate ratio is around 1:1 (with a few more chloride ppm being truly "balanced"). Right out the gate, we are at 0.56, which leans pretty far toward bitter. If we try to create a balanced beer, we need to get chloride up to at least the same level as Sulfate (more, really, so around 180), bringing not only the recommended amount of chloride too high, but further increasing the hardness of the water.
One of the happy side effects of using RO (or distilled) water is that there is absolutely no need to acidify the sparge water (which most people don't do anyway). The 8.1 pH of Laguna Hills water is too alkaline for proper sparging (short version: pH over 6.0 and temperature over 170 contribute to tannin extraction--RO water is generally between 5 and 6 pH).
I'm starting to type too long and have to stop my lunch shortly, but the gist is this:
Our water is hard. It lends itself to dark bitter beers. I like to brew a broad range of beers, so I like to build from very soft water. My RO system that I picked up produces 50-75 gallons per day (I can close off the tank and drip directly into my cooler to collect over the course of a couple hours). It reduces the Total Dissolved Solids in my water from ~385ppm to ~35ppm, and in theory can/will get even better. That means I can build ANY water profile, allowing the proper brewing of anything from the cleanest pilsner to the darkest stout.
Okay, I'm still typing. I'm stopping now. Getting into brewing water is interesting for some people like me. It is basically chemistry if you get really deep, but even on the surface it is pretty easy to build water from distilled/RO. Do it!
-
lexuschris
- Posts: 2126
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:08 pm
- Location: Corona del Mar, CA
- Contact:
Re: Howdy!
Welcome to Brewcommune!!Luckbad wrote:Let's see... I'm married and have a ~7 month old son. I'm a game designer at Blizzard. I have an ill-tended brewing blog at http://www.madalchemist.com/. And I heart brewing. Can't believe I'm letting myself get back into it while crunching at work...
I'm a retired game developer.. worked at Westwood Studios back when they were around. There was a few years back then where crunch-time, or one of my 3 infant daughters, got in the way of my brewing. They are all teenagers now, and I'm out of that crazy biz! (I am not in fact retired from work.... just from the game industry
)Thanks for the water chemistry info too! Some of us have only dabbled in it, and are hoping to learn a lot more. We had John Palmer speak at one of our club meetings last year... he covered many topics from his new book 'Water'. A lot went over my head, so I bought the book and have been staring at the pretty cover for a few weeks now.. ha ha!
Hope you can make the March meeting and get a chance to meet some folks!
--LexusChris
"A woman drove me to drink, and I hadn't even the courtesy to thank her." – W.C. Fields
Re: Howdy!
Westwood is one of the studios I used to really want to work for. Command & Conquer was the reason I finally managed to get my hands on a PC. Was sad to see it go.
Also, I went ahead and said "screw it" and officially joined the club despite never going to a meeting. What's $20 when I'm doing overtime at work and get paid for it?
Also, I went ahead and said "screw it" and officially joined the club despite never going to a meeting. What's $20 when I'm doing overtime at work and get paid for it?
-
lexuschris
- Posts: 2126
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:08 pm
- Location: Corona del Mar, CA
- Contact:
Re: Howdy!
I'll process your membership tonight, and get you access to the club section!
Yeah, was sad to see them go too. I got out about 1 year before they closed and opted for a career change instead of starting over somewhere else. Lots of great people were there, and I think Blizzard & Activision picked up a bunch of great ones! I'm sure we know a few folks in common over there..
--Lexuschris
Yeah, was sad to see them go too. I got out about 1 year before they closed and opted for a career change instead of starting over somewhere else. Lots of great people were there, and I think Blizzard & Activision picked up a bunch of great ones! I'm sure we know a few folks in common over there..
--Lexuschris
"A woman drove me to drink, and I hadn't even the courtesy to thank her." – W.C. Fields
-
lexuschris
- Posts: 2126
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:08 pm
- Location: Corona del Mar, CA
- Contact:
Re: Howdy!
EQ2 & WoW??
Yeah, you'll fit in nicely...
--LexusChris
Yeah, you'll fit in nicely...
--LexusChris
"A woman drove me to drink, and I hadn't even the courtesy to thank her." – W.C. Fields
Re: Howdy!
Welcome to BC ... looking forward to meeting you sometime!
Dan
Dan
Luckbad wrote:Westwood is one of the studios I used to really want to work for. Command & Conquer was the reason I finally managed to get my hands on a PC. Was sad to see it go.
Also, I went ahead and said "screw it" and officially joined the club despite never going to a meeting. What's $20 when I'm doing overtime at work and get paid for it?