Recent content by John Meerse

About 6 weeks ago I brewed this: Tart mango beer fermented with Philly Sour. Intended 5 gal batch: 4lbs 3oz white wheat malt 2lbs 2oz 2-row 2lbs 2oz pilsner 8oz dextrose 1 oz Huell Melon 60 min mash at 150F. No boil, brought to 185F for 15 minutes, chilled to 64F, pitched two packs of Philly...

Can someone help me with the required descriptions for entering beers in these categories? The first beer was made with maris otter, carafa II, and Omega's Bring on da Funk (oyl-212). For 28A Brett Beer - "The entrant must specify either a base beer style (Classic Style, or a generic style...

I decanted about 9.5 gallons for my strike water and added about 2 tsp each of gypsum and calcium chloride. With 8oz of acidulated malt (grain bill was 16.5# 2-row, 7# malted rye, and 8oz c-60), I hit a mash pH of 5.41. Very pleased!

Excellent, thanks Martin!

After letting the water sit for about 23 hours, the water is generally clear, pH is 9.77, alkalinity between 0 and 40, and total hardness between 0 and 100. Some small white “floaties” were on the surface, which dissolved when I gave a gentle stir. Am I good to go, or should I wait for the pH...

Thanks very much for your replies. I did my treatment this morning with 11 gallons water, anticipating about 1 gallon loss when I decant the water tomorrow. I added a bit over 2 tsp chalk, stirred well to suspend it, and then mixed 5.7g slaked lime with 150 ml water into a slurry. I started with...

Here’s the water report I’ve been using, from early 2018. I have well water. With these numbers, Brewer’s Friend advanced water calculator has been pretty reliable for paler ales. When I did my test runs of the slaked lime method, I kept the pH in the 10’s and it was clear the next day.

I’m planning on following A.J. deLange’s method for using slaked lime to decarbonate my water, as outlined in the Water book by Palmer and Kaminski. I’ve run through the process a couple times with small amounts of water (1 pint and 3 quarts) and feel confident I understand the process. I’m...

My scoresheets from Boston were emailed on April 17.

Currently have a NEIpa fermenting with this. Set my ferm chamber at 80F and slightly underpitched. Will report back on how it tastes. Question - fermentation seems to be slowing down; should I keep the chamber set at 80, or can I let it drop naturally?

Ani idea when we can expect scoresheets? That “up to 10 days after judging has been completed” has long come and gone...