Brewing advice

[Guineafowl]

I wonder if @brewdexta could help me with this. I can’t seem to brew bitters very well - stouts, and pale ales/IPAs turn out very well, but I particularly want to re-create something like Old Speckled Hen or Hobgoblin.

Malt is bought whole, and milled, brew is full mash type in a Grainfather. Water is soft and may need modifying.

 

[brewdexta]

I'm just about to make a clone of White Rat from the Ossett brewery as my neighbour has requested it.

I find most of the cloned recipes on line. If they are not already in the right format, I enter the recipes into Brewfather and adjust the size of the brew. The software them scales the recipe for me.

As I've already entered a water profile for my brewery's water, after testing with aquarium water test kits, once I enter the beer style the software automatically dials in the correct amounts of gypsum, calcium chloride and Epsom salts for the recipe.

Are you having problems or do you need a recipe? There's a Hobgoblin recipe here and an old speckled hen recipe here.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guineafowl]

Thanks, I’ve tried the recipes from malt miller and they’re just not quite right.

One thing I haven’t done is tested the water properly, other than adding 1tsp gypsum for IPAs. Looks like I should try using some aquarium test kits. I use the Grainfather app for recipes, and I think it has a water calculator.

Is it just those three minerals that you listed for bitters/ESBs?

 

[Shox Dr]

I'm just about to make a clone of White Rat from the Ossett brewery as my neighbour has requested it.



Cheers
Andy

How close do you have to live

 

[drjim]

you can get an approximate water profile from your utility company website. I get my water from united utilities, comes from the lake district and is lovely and soft. After a telling off on another forum I've taken to adding some calcium sulphate as my yeast tends not to flocculate that well, but last few batches I can't really say it makes a difference. If your water is hard you need to make more effort, but this soft stuff just seems to work!

 

[brewdexta]

I'm using a "spring" for brewing. It's mainly surface water from a stream, it hasn't been underground for any length of time. Apart from sheep poo, its relatively mineral free. So a bit of a blank canvas, I only have to add, not take away. In some hard water areas you have to add acids to reduce alkalinity. Hydrochloric and sulphuric acids are the best choice commercially, but for home brewers it's usually phosphoric or lactic acid.

I only linked to those recipes as an example, there are liads more about. I di use to frequent several beef forums and swap recipes, but I now tend to make up my own recipes based on style. By using the brewing software dialled into a particular style, I add malts and hops to get the required colour, ABV and bitterness to meet the style's range.

Getting the taste balance right is a bit more hit and miss but I like to experiment and I know what hops and malts I like. Fortunately I have friends that will drink anything that is free

 

[Guineafowl]

As far as I can see, the brewing calculators look for: Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, SO4, HCO3, pH, alkalinity.

There doesn’t appear to be an aquarium test kit that covers even a few of these. Where did you get yours from?

 

[Guineafowl]

@brewdexta did you see that this one? ^^^

 

[brewdexta]

@brewdexta did you see that this one? ^^^

I'll have a look when i get home, I've been working away.

 

[Guineafowl]

I'll have a look when i get home, I've been working away.

Thanks - sorry for pestering.

 

[brewdexta]

No worries. I just remembered that I've answered this one before

Brew day!

I'll have to look into water testing kits at some point. We've got a water softener at home, I've always wondered how much calcium it actually removes, and how much something it puts in - the softened water tastes awful, I think the manufacturer tells you not to drink it too. :dontknow...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[drjim]

Have you looked at utility website? They are required to provide basic analysis which will give you an approximate direction.

Lot of test kits seem to work at concentrations you don't get in tap water so be careful!

 

[Guineafowl]

Right, I’m all set with some Salifert kits and various treatment compounds on the way.

My current water brews a very nice stout/porter without modification, and good hoppy IPAs (Hazy Jane, for example) with some gypsum added, so I’ll be interested to see if the test kits bear this out.

 

[Guineafowl]

The alkalinity test kit is giving me a value of 18ppm, suitable for pale ales, which fits with what works. The export porter I brew comes out well too, though, which doesn’t make much sense. Perhaps it could be even better!

Unfortunately, I think my Ca level is too low for the test kit. It says to add a certain amount of reagent, then dropwise until colour change. But adding the initial amount causes a colour change. I should probably add a tsp of gypsum or CaCl to the mash and sparge water, then re-test.