Hello all. New to the forum, but been brewing for a few years now. I'm a partial mash brewer and usually use recipes from Charlie P's book and ad lib a bit. But today I noticed I had some extra grains left over from my last 3 brews and decided to play a bit. Look this over and tell me what you think. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... -brown-ale Charlie
Well carp! I can't figure out how to share it! Smells great as of now while it boils though! Help.... Charlie
Well, that was easy! Thanks for the assistance. I tried it in all ways but edit mode! Finished the boil last night and pitched about midnight. Bubbling like a charm this morning. Charlie
Your recipe mentioned using distilled water? Not a huge issue since you are doing extract (the extract will also contain high level of minerals as they would also be condensed down by the extract process) but as a general rule it is not recommended. Once you make the step to all grain using distilled water will become an issue. I did notice you steeped the grains in tap water. Let us know how it turns out.
Thanks for the reply. Right now it's bubbling away nicely and looks pretty good. This is the first time I've done this beer since it was a clean out the pantry type of brew. I've done the all grain in the past with my father, buy he hasn't brewed in the last 15 years or so, so I've never taken the next step at my place. Itching to do it though, I always liked the way his beer tasted over mine when it was basically the same recipe with the main difference being the extract vs. the all grain. I misspoke on the distilled water. My wife chastises me often for referring to it as distilled. We bought a reverse osmosis unit from her brother a couple of years ago and I use that unit to get my water. Growing up, all water bought in a bottle was distilled to me. We used it to mix up "baby" formula for some of the pups that we had to bottle feed when momma dried up or wouldn't nurse... :lol: The RO unit is a PITA to use since it only puts out 1 gallon per minute. I'm looking into a whole house filtration system that is carbon based and should remove most of the Cl from the water. I'm in Richardson, TX and the water here is pretty hard as well. If anyone can interpret the report, here it is on my municipalities water... http://www.cor.net/modules/showdocument ... entid=6716 Charlie
I think extract has gotten a lot better in recent years. Still All Grain gives you ultimate control and freshness.
When it comes to brewing, RO should be treated the same as distilled, and is nearly void of anything but H20. I created a water profile based on the report that you provided and you should be able to add it your profile, just search your city. What you can do is use your RO water to soften up you tap water, I believe the sites water profile tool will help you do the calculations. Happy brewing, and when you go all grain you will not be disappointed.
