Hello from Michigan

ProSparky

ProSparky

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First post. Thought I'd see how my posts look here.
I've been brewing for about 23 years now. Started with a turkey fryer setup in the basement of my old house and now I'm breaking in an electric k-rims setup I recently built. Ive come here to try to up my game a little. I always used an old program called ProMash which came to me on a Floppy Disk! With this new brewing system I decided to check out what's available now which is how I ended up here. I've brewed twice on this new setup over the last year so I don't have a lot of time on it. The beer from it hasn't been bad but it definitely hasn't been great. Electric brewing feels a little detached compared to using flame IMO.
Right now I'm bringing it back to basics and starting with a blonde ale which I should be brewing tomorrow morning. I figure I'll keep the recipe easy so I can focus on details more. Im even going to alter my water profile. Usually I just use distilled water from the store, but since my last couple brews have been lackluster I am delving into this facet of brewing. Never done it before and I don't even know how the heck you measure brewing salts exactly. Going to learn how to use the calculator on this site today and then hopefully it will all start to make sense. I have the capacity to brew 10G batches but I'm only interested in 5G. Plus I don't have the drinking buddies I used to and I can only drink so much. I've actually thought about doing smaller batches to work on my recipes, but I don't think I can easily go smaller with my rig.

So hello all, I hope to have some fun here and learn and maybe share what I know as well
 
First, welcome to Brewers Friend. I think you'll find that there's a pretty good group here, and for every 10 who respond you'll get 12 opinions. And most of them will be good.

But yer showin' yer age with that Floppy reference...lol.

So brewing salts: in 5 gallons, you might put in a few grams of this or that, often calcium chloride or calcium sulphate (gypsum) (or both). I also use magnesium sulphate (epsom salt) if I need sulphate but already have too much cslcium, or sodium chloride (non-iodized table salt) if I need more chloride. There's other stuff too.

The water calculator (linked from the recipe editor) can help you figure out how much of each to put in, but it is very much a cut & try thing, where you try different amounts until you get close enough. And, know that a gram more or less if something won't really matter.

Pure distilled water needs some minerals, or the beer tastes lifeless. On one hand, don't sweat it that you have to be precise, but on the other hand, I think it will make a considerable difference if you're starting with distilled water. Best of luck on tomorrow's brew!
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I spent a couple hours playing with the calc and it became really obvious that I could waste a lot of time trying to dial it in perfectly. That tells me I should establish a baseline and run from there 'in the future'. I heard 1/2tsp of both gypsum and calcium chloride is a good ball park for a light beer.
 
ProSparky said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I spent a couple hours playing with the calc and it became really obvious that I could waste a lot of time trying to dial it in perfectly. That tells me I should establish a baseline and run from there 'in the future'. I heard 1/2tsp of both gypsum and calcium chloride is a good ball park for a light beer.
Click to expand...
It is. Enough calcium for the yeast to be happy, and about even amounts of sulfate and chloride, perfect for a lighter beer.
 
Welcome :)
As Don says, you'll get losts of different opinions, it's quite a friendly bunch.
I've never brewed with distilled water. Is there a reason you don't use tap water?
I'm just a simple stove top, small batch brewer, so please take what I say with a grain of (brewing) salt
 
Cheers @ProSparky what Don said and yup 1/2 teaspoon of each will get you off and racing for a Blonde ale.

one thing I like about electric over gas is dialing in mash temps or better yet step mashing is a breeze.

Welcome to the forum.
 
Welcome and interested in hearing more about the recent build.
Maybe share some pictures!
Cheers
Brian
 
I posted my opinion on a thread concerning reading recipes earlier this week. Without going through the same thing again, I like Spring Water. Not filtered, not drinking, not flavored, not fancy pants, not healing this or healing that or fancy names that mean nothing - regular, grocery store, bottled, spring water.
 
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Half way thru the mash!
 
Zambezi Special said:
Welcome :)
As Don says, you'll get losts of different opinions, it's quite a friendly bunch.
I've never brewed with distilled water. Is there a reason you don't use tap water?
I'm just a simple stove top, small batch brewer, so please take what I say with a grain of (brewing) salt
Click to expand...
I used to have well water. Not that it was bad, i just got into the habit because i didn't want any of flavors and it would change depending on how much rain we'd had. But I'd use distilled or spring which is just filtered water.
My present house has city water which just happened to have a lot of flouride and chlorine in it. You get a waft of it that his your face when you turn a faucet on. I don't want to use that and i read it's not good.
 
Trialben said:
Cheers @ProSparky what Don said and yup 1/2 teaspoon of each will get you off and racing for a Blonde ale.

one thing I like about electric over gas is dialing in mash temps or better yet step mashing is a breeze.
Click to expand...
Trialben said:
Welcome to the forum.
Click to expand...
Yes. The one thing i struggle with is having enough water in the boiler during the mash to cover the element on 5gal batches. Another is controlling the levels all through the mash. I can never find a sweet spot using the valves and i also need to cut one pump for a few seconds tolet the level let the level even out. So im sitting for an hour baby sitting it. With a cooler i could go do something else for an hour.
I think the answer may be building a standard RIMS element just for making and using my Kettle element just for the boil.
 
ProSparky said:
Yes. The one thing i struggle with is having enough water in the boiler during the mash to cover the element on 5gal batches. Another is controlling the levels all through the mash. I can never find a sweet spot using the valves and i also need to cut one pump for a few seconds tolet the level let the level even out. So im sitting for an hour baby sitting it. With a cooler i could go do something else for an hour.
I think the answer may be building a standard RIMS element just for making and using my Kettle element just for the boil.
Click to expand...
Dial back your pump on the recirc.
Maybe hold the mash for 15 minutes once doughd in this will convert some starches and geletanise some grain and settle the grain bed before you start recirculating.

If you recirculate too quickly at the start you'll just compact the grain bed and this will snowball out of control and back up and drop the liquid under your element.

Remember to add some rice hulls at mashing in this will help lautering.

It's a balancing act you'll get there just practice set the flow to a slow trickle and that ive found is plenty.
 
Definitely have some things to work on.
I ended up at 1.039 with a target of 1.045 so it shows in my efficiency. I used only 8 Gallons this time and ended up with just enough to fill a new bucket. Last time i had way too much wort left over. So i did better there. I think i was recirculating to fast. I can't really see the liquid moving so i can't guage how fast. I just have a half inch hose laying on top of the grain bed and that gets covered. Id like more of a sprinkler like i used to use.
Also, i don't use sparge water. It's all just the same recirculating until mashout and i collect it in the Kettle. So im not washing the grain out. If i did id end up with to much wort.
 
Welcome to Brewers Friend!
Sounds like you have been brewing a looooong time!
Water isn't as complex as it seems at first (remember when brewing beer seemed mysterious).
Dur to chloromine in my tap water, and my tap water coming from one, the other, or some mix of two sources I went to RO water, and adding "salts" years ago. Calcium Chloride and Gypsum are the main additives, along with Epsom, and pickling salt (don't use iodized table salt).
I occasionally use baking soda for a dark beer as well.
When I need to adjust the pH in the mash I use acidulated malt.
I always forgot to add lactic acid, so the small amount of acidulated malt just simplified things for me.
 
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