What's everyone brewing?

[mumblecrunch]

Don't have a brew day scheduled but now I desperately want to because my Amazon order of brew toys came in:



(On a related note, I'll have a refractometer for sale shortly; it's non-ATC but it works fine)


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Is that a pedal switch?

Yessir, for my chugger. $25 from Amazon, but I've since been told that I probably could have found one at Busy Bee or Princess Auto.


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[jtmwhyte]

Don't have a brew day scheduled but now I desperately want to because my Amazon order of brew toys came in:



(On a related note, I'll have a refractometer for sale shortly; it's non-ATC but it works fine)


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Is that a pedal switch?

Yessir. $25 from Amazon, but I've since been told that I probably could have found one at Busy Bee or Princess Auto.


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I have a radio controlled outlet with a remote switch for my chugger. This was the other option I had in mind at that time... That digital refractometer is sexy

[Keith]

How much does the refractometer cost. The pedal switch would be nice. However I'm done with upgrades for a few months... Weeks? Next pay? Most likely

[mumblecrunch]

$145 right now. I've seen it as low at $140 while I've been tracking it over the last few months and never higher than $150.

I don't know a thing about them other than this is the one Chalmers said he uses.

[mcgster]

I have the same refractometer, i have been using it for a couple years now and i'm happy with it.

I was suspect at first but i prepared standard solutions to test it against and it worked very well. Better than the hydrometer in fact. The only issue is it really needs to be calibrated every brew day. All electronic refractometers should be. Fortunately it takes .2 seconds to calibrate it.

[mumblecrunch]

I have the same refractometer, i have been using it for a couple years now and i'm happy with it.

I was suspect at first but i prepared standard solutions to test it against and it worked very well. Better than the hydrometer in fact. The only issue is it really needs to be calibrated every brew day. All electronic refractometers should be. Fortunately it takes .2 seconds to calibrate it.

Excellent! Question for you since you have one: it comes with "steam distilled water" for calibrating and flushing. When that little bottle runs out, what should I use? Well-boiled or pressure cooked tap water? Distilled water from the drugstore? Do I seek out steam distilled water from somewhere?

[mcgster]

I picked up a 1 gallon jug of distilled water from the pharmacy for 2$ and compared it against the sample that came with it. Both read identically on the refractometer and on my TDS meter so I use that now. It should last me until I'm 70! I used digital refractometers in the lab for years and they used special calibration fluid which was essentially just distilled water that had been independently verified to be 0ppm dissolved solids.


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[Jimmy]

Geez... You guys are setting the bar kinda high, here. Hoping I get something drinkable out of it.

I'm brewing with spring water - the well water is a little too harsh. Are most of you adjusting water chemistry? (I'm not that advanced yet!!)

These are the water additions that I use for reverse osmosis water.

You can fill the 18.9l jugs at Sobeys (and likely some other spots)..there's a Culligan reverse osmosis fill station at the Sobeys that I normally go to. Keep in mind this is for a volume of 49.5 liters in the mash - you'll want to scale proportionately for whatever volume your using.

[mumblecrunch]

I picked up a 1 gallon jug of distilled water from the pharmacy for 2$ and compared it against the sample that came with it. Both read identically on the refractometer and on my TDS meter so I use that now. It should last me until I'm 70! I used digital refractometers in the lab for years and they used special calibration fluid which was essentially just distilled water that had been independently verified to be 0ppm dissolved solids.

I was really hoping you'd say something like that. Nice to know you did some verification on it too. My wife keeps distilled water from the drugstore on hand for the neti pots, so I'm pretty much set.

I was wondering why you'd take a $150 flyer on a device you were "suspect" about, but it sounds like the skepticism was because you have experience with (probably much more expensive) lab-grade devices?

[mcgster]

I was wondering why you'd take a $150 flyer on a device you were "suspect" about, but it sounds like the skepticism was because you have experience with (probably much more expensive) lab-grade devices?

Oh man where to begin lol, this is the root of all my problems. I'm a gadget junkie and a testing junkie so that combined made this a really appealing purchase. Until a few years ago i hadn't seen a reliable SG refractometer for $1000, so when the first units rolled out in the 200-300 range i was really curious. I use a lot of Milwaukee products for testing the water in my coral reef aquarium and am very familiar with the brand so when they released this line at 150 i figured i'd give it a shot.

[MitchK]

Just began the D-rest on a kolsch (probably not necessary but I'm in no rush) and the cold crash on a dubbel.

[RossBee]

Brewed 29 gallons of Red IPA, came in at 1.064 and 68 IBU.

Used my $12 hyrdometer to check the result of my $10 hydrometer, all verified by my $250 Refractometer. A bias of 0.002 was determined between all three.

Pardon my french, but that's just accurate enough for me.

[GAM]

Pardon my french, but that's just accurate enough for me.

Your French sucks.

S

[RossBee]

Pardon my french, but that's just accurate enough for me.

Your French sucks.

S

So does my ex-wife. We can't win them all.

[BBrianBoogie]

English Golden Ale for me today

[Swine]

Brewing my very first all grain this evening... BCS IPA is the one I am going with for a first try.

[GAM]

Go for it Ryan!!

S

[Swine]

So, some help may be needed.
I had a good brew evening, just over 4hr start to end of cleanup.
I used brew365 for water volumes. So mash water of 4.24gal and batch sparge water of 4.78gal.
Mash temp was supposed to be 152F, I measured 151.9F with my thermometer. After the hour I measured 151.6F.
I heated my sparge water to about 166F and added, stirred, let sit 10 minutes, then drained.
I don't know my pre-boil volume, but after the boil I had 19L to fermenter, had 0.5-1L in bottom of kettle of hop sluge.
My issue is, I was ecpecting an OG of 1.056 to 1.075 (according to BCS). However, my OG was 1.044.
I had a pre-boil gravity of 1.030 (not sure if was suppose to measure this).
The hops are not what is listed as BCS, I have Dave play with the jobs on my extract veins with tasty results.
How much do hops play in the OG? In addition to the 4 different 1oz additions of hops the kit came with, I added an additional 1oz of Citra with 10min remaining. Could this affect the gravity?

I have a Coleman extreme 70qt cooler with 12" bazooka screen for mash and a converted keg for kettle.

I have a few ideas to help make life easier next time (burned my hand slightly and my wrist hurts like hell from lifting) but my big concern is the OG.

Sorry for the long post, and maybe it should be somewhere else.
Any thoughts are welcome!

[jacinthebox]

gravities can be due to a few things... grain crush, mash ph, non calibrated hydrometer, or simply not enuf grains.

what was ur grain bill?

[Tim Gregory]

Your hops shouldn't effect your gravity. What was your estimated efficiency? If you're just getting started on the system it'll take a few brews to dial it in and figure out what kind of efficiency range you'll actually hit. Then you can calculate how much grains you need from there. Work on getting your efficiency consistent, then you can start tweaking things to increase it.

It's not uncommon to have low efficiency on your first few brews.

[LiverDance]

First thing that jumps out at me is "I heated my sparge water to about 166F and added". You should be trying to get your entire grain bed to a temp of about 168f which would mean you would have to add water of around 180f. This will help you retrieve more sugars from the grains when collecting them.

[Celiacbrew]

the amount you stir and the number of sparges makes a difference. I used to use a rectangular cooler and I would stir the snot out of it making sure I got into the corners. I would get a sizeable jump in efficiency when I did two batches. Likely because I was leaving liquid in the grains at the end so the liquid was more diluted when I did two sparges.

[Swine]

Thanks for the input.
I am jot 100% sure of exact grain bill, it was Dave's all grain IPA kit.
I did add almost 1 tablespoon of the five start pH stuff that is supposed to give you a 5.2 pH. I added this 2 times, with each water set to the mash.
Somewhere where I know I lack 100% is my water knowledge. We are well. Last time we had it tested we were told it is good, but I don't have the profile. I did take my water pre-softener.

I was unsure of what the water temp for sparge should be, the Web site for brew365 didn't specify that. I used the number I did from a causal conversation I had with someone. I will aim to get my mash temp higher with my next sparge.

Could I do 2 sparges next time? Just split the sparge quantity of water in 2?

I have a LOT to learn, what exactly efficiency is at top of the list.
I will try again!
The wort smelled good, so I am sure it will be drinkable, just not the 6.5% or so I am use to what I make this as a extract!

Thanks again everyone. i did have fun, so that's a good thing.

[saosborne]

one thing to consider is how you add the grains. I do a little at at time, stir add more, stir, and repeat. this helps to eliminate dough balls and can greatly effect your efficiency SG pre boil of 1.030 would indicate to me a few things: grain crush was too coarse, not strirred well enough, not rinsed well enough. next time take a gravity reading for the 2nd runnings. I fly sparge its usually around 1.010 by the time my kettle is ready to boil not sure how that translates to batch spargesbu tfrom the sounds of it you just didnt extract enough sugars

[RossBee]

Back to basics, what was the temperature of the sample for measuring gravity? Five degrees on the sample make a huge difference on the gravity reading.