The Homebrew Thread

[Chicken_Hunter]

Would be keen to do a swap whenever.

Cant wait to get my next brew down trying the water I can buy from my LHBS to see if that changes anything. Pretty sure I am going to do that Oatmeal stout.

I want to do a few brews before my dads Birthday and give him a bunch.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

had a play around with that water calculator.. It seems fairly complex to me, but it seems that my mash Ph is really high around 5.9 i was getting. Had a look at an ipswich water report and its similar to the brisbane one you posted but it has a hardness of 110?? which looks really high to me. Is hardness the same as alkalinity?

So what does a high ph mean for your mash? what do you do to bring it down?

And I got a mash ph of 5.8 when i added your Acacia Ridge water report, you said that you got a low ph?

 

[TiggaPlease]

I originally read it wrong. I get a high PH.

If you go to the water adjustments tab it lets you play around with the grain bill and water salts to see the effect on the PH. I'm pretty sure PH outside the ideal range lowers extraction and can give off flavours.

It took me ages to get my head around Bru'n water, ended up watching a YouTube vid which explained it all.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I used an online calculator just then and mash ph came to about 5.4 with the water report you gave me.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

nvm, I input the lovibond on the grain bill wrong for 5kg of pale malt, which is about 4-5 lovibond, the mash Ph came in at aroun 5.7.

So would need to add about 4 grams of an acid to get it to 5.4.

I used this calc http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/#help_AcidAdditions

 

[TiggaPlease]

That's similar to what I get. I just used acidulated malt, I figured that it is easier than messing around with droppers of acid.

I'll still use the gypsum in the mash because it's supposed to make the hops taste more pronounced.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

How does this look for an oatmeal stout. I have been looking at a few recipes and come up with this.

5.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC) Grain 1 76.3 %
0.75 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 2 11.5 %
0.30 kg Amber Malt (40.0 EBC) Grain 3 4.6 %
0.30 kg JWM Chocolate Malt (800.0 EBC) Grain 4 4.6 %
0.20 kg JWM Roasted Barley (1150.0 EBC) Grain 5 3.1 %

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
40.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 23.3 IBUs
10.00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 3.5 IBUs
10.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 3.2 IBUs

60 min mash @ 66, 15 min mash out @ 75.

60 min boil

IBU - 30
Colour - 66 EBC

I have estimated the mash efficiency at 60% so it will come in at around 5.8% ABV


Some of the guys on AHB highly recommend having an amber malt in a stout malt profile so thats why i put it there. Most of the stout recipes I have read all seem to be quite similar.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Looks good to me. I've never used Amber malt so can't comment on that.

You could chuck a bit of dark crystal in if you wanted?

What yeast are you using? If you're using something with high attenuation maybe mash higher than 66 so you don't have a thin body.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

When I was fooling around with the recipe i did put dark crystal in it. What will the dark crystal add? it seems to be in between the amber and chocolate.

The amber gives off a nice taste in my amber ale, and I want to expand on that and it seems to be in a few recipes too.

I was thinking US04 or Nottingham yeast?

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Also, how does the mash temperature a + high attenuating yeast effect body? Considering I will have 750 grams of flaked oats there should be heaps of body from all the protein?

 

[TiggaPlease]

The dark crystal would just give another dimension to the flavour, generally a dried fruit/raisin style sweetness, like I said I've never used amber malt so not sure if it gives a similar profile.

I mashed my oatmeal stout at 68 and used notto, the finish is slightly drier than I'd like even though I have half a kilo of oats in there.

In the future i'd possibly mash lower and use Windsor (which is has low attenuation) or mash about the same or maybe 69 and possibly use S-04. Nottingham ferments to a fairly low FG so can give the perception of lower mouthfeel/body.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Just mashed in on a galaxy and cascade amber ale. 250gm acidulated in the grain bill and 3gm gypsum in the mash.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Just mashed in on a galaxy and cascade amber ale. 250gm acidulated in the grain bill and 3gm gypsum in the mash.

That would be nice. I highly recommend Columbus and cascade too.

 

[TiggaPlease]

So brewhouse efficiency appears to have increased from approx 65% to 78% only differences to process being the acid malt and half a teaspoon of gypsum. I got 1.059 out of a 5.4kg grain bill. At 65% the estimated OG was 1.049.

Very pleased with this little experiment so far.

 

[TiggaPlease]

That would be nice. I highly recommend Columbus and cascade too.

Have used the old Columbus and Cascade combo in the past, it certainly gives that classic American craft taste.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

So brewhouse efficiency appears to have increased from approx 65% to 78% only differences to process being the acid malt and half a teaspoon of gypsum. I got 1.059 out of a 5.4kg grain bill. At 65% the estimated OG was 1.049.

Very pleased with this little experiment so far.

That's good to hear. The acid malt would have lowered the ph somewhat, did you test the mash ph at all?

The gypsum is just a salt to add yeah? Does it effect mash ph at all or efficiency?

 

[TiggaPlease]

Didn't test the PH, both of them should have lowered the PH though, acid malt doing most of the work.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Just did another batch with acid malt - efficiency bang on 65% again. Don't know if I read wrong yesterday or if I'd done something different to increase efficiency.

Feeling pretty bummed that the water adjustments might not be giving me an efficiency boost.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Just did another batch with acid malt - efficiency bang on 65% again. Don't know if I read wrong yesterday or if I'd done something different to increase efficiency.

Feeling pretty bummed that the water adjustments might not be giving me an efficiency boost.

I have taken a hydrometer reading pre boil which came is about 20 points over what I was expecting. The problem was that I didn't stir the wort which gave an inaccurate reading. When I measured post boil my reading had dropped way down.

Could this have been the case with your first batch?

 

[TiggaPlease]

I have taken a hydrometer reading pre boil which came is about 20 points over what I was expecting. The problem was that I didn't stir the wort which gave an inaccurate reading. When I measured post boil my reading had dropped way down.

Could this have been the case with your first batch?

It was actually really clear wort. Maybe just too many consumed while brewing?