BeerTools Discussion Forum

I bottled an APA a week ago and while inspecting a bottle now, I notice a considerable amount of what I believe to be the yeast in suspension. Normally the natural carbonation looks slightly cloudy as if the yeast were more microscopic before they fall out to a fine dust to the bottom. My question i...

My pre-boil volume is always the same. My software is always set to that as well and is why I always hit my final volume. Is it possible that the kettle collecting the extract from the mash is not fully mixed and is heavier on the bottom than on top? Hence, if I measure the gravity at the top it wou...

So I thought I had this down. I even nailed my pre-boil gravity of 1.046. Did my boil and got exactly the correct post-boil volume of 5 gallons. However..... my original gravity was 8 points more (1.069) than I wanted it to be using the software. Mind you, it tasted phenomenal and I'm sure it will j...

I successfully added two teaspoons of chalk last Friday night since I added it directly to the mash. It worked perfectly just as slothrob said. I never tried to dilute it in water but instead directly to the mash as was suggested in the beginning of this post.

OG: 1.039 FG: 1.008 SRM: 27 ABV: 4.07% IBU 29 79% Efficiency 4.8 lb Maris Otter 8 oz English Wheat Malt 4 oz Crystal 60 6 oz Chocolate 4.5 oz Roast Barley 1.5 oz British Black Patent 6 oz cane sugar (15) 3.5 AAU Challenger (60) 3.0 AAU East Kent Goldings (60) 1 AAU Hallertau Hersbruck (15) 1 tsp Iri...

yehp! I'm on the east coast near the beach.

Interesting what you said about raising the PH. So you are saying that dark roasted grains lowers the PH and I was adding it to raise the PH? I checked my PH with those strips. Seemed to work pretty well but it wasn't room temp. It was mash temp.

Well I brewed the stout Friday night and I started with 2 tsp of calcium carbonate. I checked my PH and indeed it was still a little high. I added one more tsp and it appeared to be around 5.8. I was satisfied with that since I was taking seriously the warning of not adding more that 1.5 tsp per gal...

Yeah, I'm already at Ca 211 with the two teaspoons.

I believe I will have to go with two teaspoons and watch my PH.

Hi jawbox, can you give an example of what you add to your distilled water? This is very intriguing.

4 teaspoons? I thought of that but then got scared when I saw the calcium increase. However, I was pleased with the RA for the stout. I think I may go with 4 teaspoons but I think that's more than the warning indicates on the calcium carbonate bottle.

The adjusted RA in the spreadsheet is 112. That doesn't seem too bad. It seems I could go with the whole 2 teaspoons right? Thanks BTW for helping this first time water adjuster.

Ok, so I called the water department and they called me back with all of the mineral counts (ppm) from my tap water. I downloaded the spreadsheet from Palmer (thank you slothrob) and worked out my water chemistry. Here is my water profile before adding the calcium carbonate: Calcium 20 Magnesium 4 C...

Thank you slothrob. How do I add it directly to the mash? I want to add 1/2 teaspoon to 5 gallons of water. This water will be used for the mash as well as for the sparge. I don't know how to measure the Calcium Bicarbonate powder for a small amount of water that will be in the mash. Are you saying ...

I'm going to use half a teaspoon, per 5 gallons of water, of Calcium Carbonate to my mash liquor for brewing a Stout to cut down on the acidity. I've bought the Calcium Carbonate and it looks like a powder. I will collect my water via water filter a couple days before brewing and was wondering how t...

Well, to follow up. Ever since I removed that black crud in the spigot of my bottling bucket, that off flavor has never returned. I've brewed 4 batches since and the taste has been great! I still maintain my PBW soak now and I always take apart (carefully) the Italian spigot. I also went to Lowes an...