I am sharing the outcome what I expect to be too much baking soda added to the mash AND fermented beer (shame).
I brewed a tweaked Old Rasputin imperial stout clone recipe in January. Recipe is here.
About 10 minutes into the mash, I got a pH reading of ~4.8 using pH strips (shame) near room temp so I added 1 tsp of calcium carbonate. 10 minutes later, I got the same pH reading. Understanding that calcium carbonate takes a while to dissolve, I decided to add .5 tsp of baking soda. I ended up hitting my pre boil gravity of 1.080 .
Fermentation was complete within 3 days using Wyeast German ale yeast. I then added 1 oz wet bourbon soaked oak chips to primary. I left the spent bourbon behind.
8 days into primary, I took a pH reading with a pH strip and got mid 4s (4.4 to 4.7). Since I didn't yet understand that pH is practically irrelevant at this stage, I added another 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the fermented beer. This pH chasing inspired me to buy a pH meter... so I measured the pH again before bottling 16 days post brew and got 4.88.
The outcome: Drinking the resulting beer 2 months post brew day, I can perceive an astringent harshness in the flavor that reminds me of soap. It covers some of the nice roasted malt and sweet caramel flavors that also exist in the flavor. This astringent harshness also exists in the aroma but this beer has a prevalent hop aroma that is pleasant. There is a lingering bitterness on the palate. I know there is a chance that this harshness in could be from the oak chips but after sampling a stout that I intentionally added extra baking soda to in the glass, the same off flavor came out. Could this be from less than 2 tsp of baking soda to a 4.75 gallon batch?
I brewed this for my wife for her birthday and she actually likes it. I will keep aging it and drink it over the next year. I have brewed twice since and I am putting more effort towards taking accurate pH readings during the mash and improving pH adjustment methods early in the mash.
I brewed a tweaked Old Rasputin imperial stout clone recipe in January. Recipe is here.
About 10 minutes into the mash, I got a pH reading of ~4.8 using pH strips (shame) near room temp so I added 1 tsp of calcium carbonate. 10 minutes later, I got the same pH reading. Understanding that calcium carbonate takes a while to dissolve, I decided to add .5 tsp of baking soda. I ended up hitting my pre boil gravity of 1.080 .
Fermentation was complete within 3 days using Wyeast German ale yeast. I then added 1 oz wet bourbon soaked oak chips to primary. I left the spent bourbon behind.
8 days into primary, I took a pH reading with a pH strip and got mid 4s (4.4 to 4.7). Since I didn't yet understand that pH is practically irrelevant at this stage, I added another 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the fermented beer. This pH chasing inspired me to buy a pH meter... so I measured the pH again before bottling 16 days post brew and got 4.88.
The outcome: Drinking the resulting beer 2 months post brew day, I can perceive an astringent harshness in the flavor that reminds me of soap. It covers some of the nice roasted malt and sweet caramel flavors that also exist in the flavor. This astringent harshness also exists in the aroma but this beer has a prevalent hop aroma that is pleasant. There is a lingering bitterness on the palate. I know there is a chance that this harshness in could be from the oak chips but after sampling a stout that I intentionally added extra baking soda to in the glass, the same off flavor came out. Could this be from less than 2 tsp of baking soda to a 4.75 gallon batch?
I brewed this for my wife for her birthday and she actually likes it. I will keep aging it and drink it over the next year. I have brewed twice since and I am putting more effort towards taking accurate pH readings during the mash and improving pH adjustment methods early in the mash.