North Texas Homebrewers Association

My Ph meter is acting strange. I calibrated it at 7 and 4. A couple of hours later when I was checking my mash Ph, the meter was reading 5.4 instead of the Bru'n Water prediction of 5.2. My experience with Bru'n Water has been a very reliable predictor of Mash Ph. So I ignored my meter, added the re...

This happened yesterday with the 10 gallon lager batch I made. I am using a 55 liter (13.2 gallon) Fermzilla which is much taller than a 6 gallon carboy. I had chilled the wort down to 50F with my glycol chiller. I am guessing the yeast was about 60F, still cool from refrigeration. I pitched the yea...

Terry Olinger wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 10:07 am I did a starter last year on a pack that was 9 months past manufacture date. The first 24 hours saw 0 activity, then went about normal.

That is exactly what I saw.

Terry, The Brewers friend calculator just counts the yeast cells. You could either decant the spent beer off the yeast and add fresh wort to the yeast or add wort to the existing volume. The calculator does the same thing. I refrigerate my starter after each step and pour off the spent beer. When mo...

I thought about getting Dean to do a cell count. Good to know Smitty, that you can do counts.

The yeast was dark until this afternoon. Now it looks like what I normally see. That cream colored yeast look. The half liter is going into the fridge tonight. I'll start the second step on Thursday.

Beersmith uses the White/Zainasheff model. You can change your responses.

Let's talk about Yeast Starters.

I am planning to brew a Pilsner. I had a package of Omega German Lager I that was packaged a year ago. I am going to brew 10 gallons so I need a lot of yeast. I am doing a 3 step starter: 0.5 liter, 2 liter and 4 liter starters. I am in the first step now. It has taken 26 hours to see signs of ferme...

I do think the Ph goes lower after any wort boil, kettle sour or normal beer. I don't know what is happening that lowers the Ph.

Now I have to contradict myself on the less is more.

For hops, I think you need at least 2 different hops. Unless you are just want to see how the single hop turns out.

For American Ales, I think either Cascade or Centennial, in a diminished role, would round out the hop side of the beer.

My first post was more on recipe creation philosophy. On the recommendation between Victory and Amber malt, keep it simple, less is more. Go with just Victory for the first batch.

What hops are you planning? How much and when?

My go to starting point for recipes in Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles. His specialty malts for an American Brown use:
C40
C60
Chocolate Malt
Victory

Everything is BCS makes awesome beers. I brew a batch matching the recipe then branch out with changes I would like to make.

Looking at Kai's figure 2, it looks like carbonic acid, bicarbonate and carbonate are a continuum. It seems to me that the carbonic acid in high enough concentration consumes or converts all the bicarbonate and carbonate make carbonic acid.

So what is left, the Ca2+ ion?

I want to discuss Temporary Hardness and its contribution to the taste of Toto Chico and other beverages. This is hinged on the Brau Kaiser process for dissolving chalk into carbonated water. What does Temporary Hardness taste like? I have never worried about Temporary Hardness. Is worrying about te...

I am submitting Terry's Topo Chico recipes here because I want to discuss them. This recipe is in the February 2023 newsletter. Topo Chico Clone Recipe This month I have a slightly different brewing education article for you. More of a, what else can I make with my brewing equipment besides beer. In...

I usually start at 68F and start ramping up 1F a day when fermentation reaches 50%.

I don't think starting at 65F vs 68F would make any difference.

Here are some links on how to make Sauerkraut. They look delicious.

Youtube Video:
Video

Recipes from the video:
Recipes

I would go with Amber Balanced from Bru'n Water. Calcium: 50.00 ppm Sulfate: 75.00 ppm Magnesium: 10.00 ppm Chloride: 63.00 ppm Sodium: 15.00 ppm (Bicarbonate: 40.00 ppm, I do not use Bicarbonate for my Ph control. Instead I control my Ph with Phosphoric acid. So, for me, I would set Bicarbonate to ...

Looking at the RO analysis, I see the RO had TDS of 25. I now expect my RO water to have TDS in the low single digits.

Water treatment is 2nd Order or higher skill to learn in brewing. New brewers should focus on using chlorine free water. The following two images are results from a testing lab, to understand what the mineral content was after Reverse Osmosis. My take away was about 95% of the minerals are removed w...

I am assuming it will deal with condensation better. not rust or build up water and mold.

My go to book for recipes is Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.

I would look at their Old Ale and English Barley Wine recipes. The Old Ale uses Black Trecle which might add some interesting flavors.

I would like to taste your final beer when you make this.

Terry,

Brewers Friend allows you to select the model you want on each step independently.

The Morebeer calculator allows you to select no aeration or Stirplate for Troester and None, Shaking and Stirplate for White.

I also found this calculator on Morebeer's site. It has more options related to stirplates:

https://www.morebeer.com/content/yeast_pitch_calculator

Let me add that there was a White/Zainasheff calculator at mrmalty.com but it does not work anymore.

There is a github project for the http://yeastcalculator.com/ site at this location https://github.com/dboyd13/YeastCalculator