bwarbiany wrote:Were you doing anything with the water at that time? While I didn't have any trouble with hoppy back before doing RO, I generally didn't get the same "pop" in a recipe using only light-colored malts that I do now. And now when I make an IPA I do treat the water for an IPA specific water profile with a lot of sulfate.
Actually, I had to go back to summer 2011 for an APA that I felt really good about, and that was about 8 months before I started tinkering with water additions (and a Ward's water report). However, back then I was on my 5 gallon Rubbermaid mashtun, and would frequently use bottled 'drinking water' for my water, although I did not keep specific notes on that, as I was not 'into water' at that point.
Even though brewing beer at its concept is a very simple exercise, the devil is in the details! And my brew-days tend to be more 'Dante's Inferno' than 'Ode to Joy'!
So, I did brew my 2011 'Angry Indian Ale' on Sunday. A simple all Centennial hopped pale, with 76% 2-row, 17% Vienna, 7% Crystal-40L and San Diego Super Yeast. Even after pulling out everything I could find on Saturday, setting up, and doing a dry run with cleaning solution to ensure a good brewday... I had lots of issues (my own) on Sunday.
My box of water additions was ready to go, but I failed to realize that my lactic acid was missing. So, staring a a full MT with un-treated water and no acid was an issue. I decided to re-run my gypsum & CaCl calcs without an acid, and ended up doubling the dose in order to try and get the pH down. Now, I do not think that was the best call. (I should have ground up some dark malt, and moved my SRM towards 15).
I had unpacked my new pH meter on Saturday, activated the probe, and tested the source water at my house. I have no specific water report here, and the meter showed an 8.8pH tap water.. which seems really high! (Irvine was high at 8.1pH). When I did my salt calcs, I did not change the water profile from Irvine, as I had no new report of salt ions, and did not change the pH either. Thus my calcs would take me from 8.1 down to 5.2-5.4. When I measured my mash pH, it was 6.0pH.. about 0.7pH too high... duh.
The other crazy detail was setting up my brewstand with the back towards the prevailing breeze. It took 2.5 hours to bring my wort to a boil, and it struggled at the last 2 degrees for an hour. The breeze was really pushing the flame around, and heat wash everywhere, except on the kettle.
I knew my first brewday at the new house would be chaotic and unpredictable, and I was right. We'll see how everything turned out by the club meeting this month. Hopefully, it will not be too bad.
I will be buying new lactic acid, Ward's water tests, and probably some bleeder valves for my pumps (priming issues all day long). Anyways, every brewday is an opportunity to learn some new stuff! Also, I highly recommend going to a brewday at somebody else's place, and watching how they solve some of these issues. My 2 brews at Sam's house has really expanded my thoughts on what I can do with my own system.. I am inspired! Now, I just need to do the work!
Prost!
--LexusChris
