Hi from South Australia

scottgze

scottgze

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Hi all,
As per the title, I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I've brewed a couple of extract brews in the past, with limited success (they contained some alcohol and fizz :p )
Recently bought a Digimash 240v kettle with the intent of going BIAB.
I only have filtered rainwater available, being in a rural area. How do I do a profile of my water so I can adjust it?
I'm mainly interested in dark beers and mead for now. I don't understand the current craze for IPA, XPA and hoppy beers. Can someone fill me in? The last IPA I tasted seemed to be a horribly bitter thing.

Anyway, hello!
 
Welcome Scott
I figure you can put your water down as RO water
 
Welcome Scott!

I too prefer dark beers. Mainly British & American Browns. In the beginning of the craft beer movement here in the US IPAs (at least the ones I tried) were very dry and bitter. I didn't like them. But, over the years, as the style has changed (and in my opinion have became more balanced) I have been trying, and enjoying, many different IPAs. While I don't know how diverse the commercial beer selection is in rural South Australia, I would advise you to keep trying IPAs from time to time. You might come across one you really like.
 
scottgze said:
Hi all,
As per the title, I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I've brewed a couple of extract brews in the past, with limited success (they contained some alcohol and fizz :p )
Recently bought a Digimash 240v kettle with the intent of going BIAB.
I only have filtered rainwater available, being in a rural area. How do I do a profile of my water so I can adjust it?
I'm mainly interested in dark beers and mead for now. I don't understand the current craze for IPA, XPA and hoppy beers. Can someone fill me in? The last IPA I tasted seemed to be a horribly bitter thing.

Anyway, hello!
Click to expand...
Hello!

I agree that rainwater is likely quite low in minerals. There are two ways to find out about your particular water. The first is send off a sample to a laboratory somewhere, pay them a few tens of dollars, and they'll tell you precisely. Easier/cheaper/faster is put maybe a liter in a clean glass jar or bowl and evaporate the water. What's left are the minerals, typically a fraction of a gram.

I suspect weighing accurately is difficult, but if you don't see anything, or a thin haze, your water is quite pure.
 
Welcome, you'll find many helpful people here.
Cheers,
Brian
 
Cheerz hope you stick around.
Enjoy the forum plenty of useful information and brewing rabbit holes to go here.
 
Welcome!
 
Welcome to Brewer's Friend. I have only ever made extract kits and the early ones were not much of a success but I stuck at it. Not very experienced in them overall but so far I prefer budget IPA kits to commercial IPAs in general, especially the very citrus craze types with the exception of Ghost Ship (Adnams). Although that beer was still something of an acquired taste I soon found it quite refreshing - there probably is an exception within any style of beer you don't particularly like so maybe don't draw a line just yet. But that's all for experimenting later on or picking up occasionally from a supermarket or local brewery. I make cider and wine which is what I prefer to taste of fruit. Knowing what sort of beers you prefer is a great starting point to focus on. Good luck with your water, I discovered how to dechlorinate my not too great tap water a couple of years back. It is nice to learn new things that improve your beer and life.
 
Heyythere Scott and welcome to the clubhouse!

So how does the water taste? Are you using it to drink currently? The old rule of if the water tastes good, it'll make good beer is a starting place if you ask me. I'm a dark and malty drinker too so I'm tracking you there.

Rainwater's pH is typically around 5 which is right in the ball park of where your mash pH would be but I don't know how the buffering effect that the grains have will react with the lower pH water will be since my personal experience is brewing with water between 6.2 and 7.5 pH so you might want to look into how that will work.

Another thing to consider is that the rainwater is going to have a fair amount of whatever is in the air it's passing through. I'd imagine that your filter is going to take some of that out so again, how's it taste? There's a lot on the internet about rainwater use so poke that bear and see what you get!
 
Hello from SA too.

You might be interested in joining the SA Brewing Club, you will learn a lot, especially about water. We have SA Water scientists in the 100-member club. We have members from the Barossa, Hills and Vales too. Meetings are at the Wheaty on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. The next is next Wednesday. Come for free and see. https://sabrew.com/

scottgze said:
Hi all,
As per the title, I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I've brewed a couple of extract brews in the past, with limited success (they contained some alcohol and fizz :p )
Recently bought a Digimash 240v kettle with the intent of going BIAB.
I only have filtered rainwater available, being in a rural area. How do I do a profile of my water so I can adjust it?
I'm mainly interested in dark beers and mead for now. I don't understand the current craze for IPA, XPA and hoppy beers. Can someone fill me in? The last IPA I tasted seemed to be a horribly bitter thing.

Anyway, hello!
Click to expand...
 
Hi Scott,
I'm no expert on water, but what I have learned (mostly on podcasts) is that ph is relative to a couple other factors. However, a quick Google search agrees with Ward Chillington. Average rainwater ph is 5.6 which is about perfect for mash conversion and wort. So, your water should be good to go. Also, agree with ... If it tastes good enough to drink, then it should make good beer. RO water is ok too. Several of the guys in my brew club have brewed with pure RO water and have made good beers. The idea of minerals is valid. However, trying to make a great (like competition worthy) beer vs an everyday, good drinkable beer, minerals are not necessarily super important.
Extract wort should have more than enough sugars for the yeast to convert to alcohol.
My first question to your situation is about the yeast you have used. Low alcohol level is most likely due to yeast If you used a kit with the yeast pack included. Cell count is important.
  1. How old was the yeast you used?
  2. Was it in a kit or smack pack?
  3. Wort temperature when yeast was pitched?
  4. Fermentation temperature? and how long did it last?

I would recommend getting a fresh pack and /or make a starter for a day or 2. If there is no activity in your starter then you know you will need a newer yeast pack.
Hope this helps.
Join your brew club and bring your beer with you. Homebrewers love to help other homebrewers!
Cheers!
 
G'day Scott, I also live in rural SA just north of Gawler and also brew with purely rainwater and get great results. I believe the secret is filter the water as you would and sanitize absolutely everything that touches the beer.
 
Brewer #390824 said:
G'day Scott, I also live in rural SA just north of Gawler and also brew with purely rainwater and get great results. I believe the secret is filter the water as you would and sanitize absolutely everything that touches the beer.
Click to expand...
Yeah ya wouldn't wanna brew with SA water lol

Your spoon would stand up in that water it's so hard!
 
The Missus is from the Barossa. Said they always used rain water for drinking because it was cleaner than the tap water. Been to Port Pirie (about 3 hours north of Adelaide) many times. Apparently the water is better there, mostly captured runoff up in the southern Flinders. Other than the 3rd arm I’m growing, I haven’t noticed any ill side effects, despite the lead smelter in Pirie.
 
RoadRoach said:
The Missus is from the Barossa. Said they always used rain water for drinking because it was cleaner than the tap water. Been to Port Pirie (about 3 hours north of Adelaide) many times. Apparently the water is better there, mostly captured runoff up in the southern Flinders. Other than the 3rd arm I’m growing, I haven’t noticed any ill side effects, despite the lead smelter in Pirie.
Click to expand...
We're I come from Nanango SE QLD it's much the same hard as all hell - washing machines last a few years then seize up from the calcium build up. I remember to taps would have a green whitish build up around the rim of the exit.

But compared to SA water man I'd have to say I'd risk drinking Nanango "town water" Over South Australian water bad enough to "kill a brown dog "!:D
 
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