Food So Has Anyone Brewed Beer Before?

Valve1138 said:
Is your water just dirty bog water or something?

We've got a UV light filter on ours for the poo that was in the well after the house sat for over a year. I doubt we need it now, the well just needed to be flushed out.
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The water is fine, its just that specific water profiles require different amounts of sodium, magnesium, and other shit that I'm probably butchering. So I usually cut it with distilled water, then add back the proper chems to get close to the required profile.

edit: If you're interested, this is what I did to approximate a Belgian water profile
https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?recipeId=764232
Essentially I just had to add some gypsum and calcium chloride.
 
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wetwille said:
I do a bit of metal plating and never use tap for that. ^If you soften your water then it is in slight flux as far as mineral content constantly. More sodium(or potassium if you use that) right after softener cycles/regenerates, little less as it nears time to regenerate. And that can be thrown off if someone runs water while it regenerates, as softeners bypass during that time and let unsoftened water into the pipes. You can tell the bypass isn't working right if you get up the next day and the water tastes salty AF.
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soft water = teh bads for beer. We turn it off when brewing.
 
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Water consistency is the huge deal if you want repeatable results across batches, beer being 90+% water and all.
Not a big deal just beginning but actual brewers invest ridiculous time in getting consistent water supply.
 
HipHugHer said:
Water consistency is the huge deal if you want repeatable results across batches, beer being 90+% water and all.
Not a big deal just beginning but actual brewers invest ridiculous time in getting consistent water supply.
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You're right that water is hugely important but it's more than just consistency though, as my treated city water is pretty much always the same. It's about the contents of the water. Stouts require entirely different water chemistry from IPAs or sours.

And working out the water profile has really improved the quality of our beers imho...
 
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fly said:
soft water = teh bads for beer. We turn it off when brewing.
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Soft water has the virtually the same amount of salt by weight as the minerals removed. So yeah, it can be as bad or worse for what I do or you do. More minerals in well, saltier out the tap. Distilled side steps all minerals.

Well water with high calcium would probably be better for beer than high sodium from tap.
 
wetwille said:
Soft water has the virtually the same amount of salt by weight as the minerals removed. So yeah, it can be as bad or worse for what I do or you do. More minerals in well, saltier out the tap. Distilled side steps all minerals.

Well water with high calcium would probably be better for beer than high sodium from tap.
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Yeast do not like salt. So if you want them to do their thing, you keep salt away. If you're interested, this is a pretty good primer on the stuff.

https://www.brewcabin.com/brewing-water/

Water is UNBELIEVABLY complex for brewing. John Palmer, who is basically *the* Beer God, has written books on yeast, hops, water, etc. I've read all of them, except I had to give up on the water book. It was WAAAAY too complex for my feeble mind.
 
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fly said:
Yeast do not like salt. So if you want them to do their thing, you keep salt away. If you're interested, this is a pretty good primer on the stuff.

https://www.brewcabin.com/brewing-water/

Water is UNBELIEVABLY complex for brewing. John Palmer, who is basically *the* Beer God, has written books on yeast, hops, water, etc. I've read all of them, except I had to give up on the water book. It was WAAAAY too complex for my feeble mind.
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:lol:
 
It’s up. Now I need the rest of the ductwork.

Mod Bot said:
190322862IMG0460.jpg
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And a sturdy o bolt up through the hood to a joist with added blocking.
 
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Valve1138 said:
Had to take the hood back down to install proper blocking above it for a piece of superstrut that will hold the beam trolley I got to hoist the brew bag in and out of the brew pot.

At least I hadn’t finished the ductwork yet.

PITA.
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You're being silly designing things around BIAB, knowing full well that you're going to switch to AG...
 
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Valve1138 said:
BIAB is all grain.

And the hood lets me brew year round. So the specific BIAB thing is the pulley setup.
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I get the hood. That makes sense.

The pulley for BIAB doesn't. First, since you aren't sparging, you're going to need a lot more grain than the same AG brew. Then how do you plan on keeping the temps stable in a pot? If it's 160F at the bottom and 152F at the top, you're going to have enzyme breakdown at the bottom. That's going to make consistency pretty hard and will result in some weird conversion. All this just to avoid an insulated mash tun seems shortsighted.
 
fly said:
I get the hood. That makes sense.

The pulley for BIAB doesn't. First, since you aren't sparging, you're going to need a lot more grain than the same AG brew. Then how do you plan on keeping the temps stable in a pot? If it's 160F at the bottom and 152F at the top, you're going to have enzyme breakdown at the bottom. That's going to make consistency pretty hard and will result in some weird conversion. All this just to avoid an insulated mash tun seems shortsighted.
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I'm far from the first person to do this and there are loads of people with great, consistent results, that have been doing it for years.

Just too quickly answer two of your questions.

1) Mill the grains finer. .25" is the commonly accepted size for BIAB. And I bought a decent mill.

2) this is e-brewing, no open flame, the pot gets wrapped in Reflectix insulation, some people use blankets, sleeping bags, etc. As a result there is very little heat loss, not enough to cause any issues, maybe 4 degrees if you suck at life. I'm also in a room that stays around 68F year round, so that helps too.

Check out the homebrewtalk BIAB forum, a wealth of info.
 
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