21 year HB veteran, and still learning.

[Wables]

I’ve been home brewing for 21 years…in 2008 I moved from MI to MN, and quit measuring everything except an occasional OG or FG if I had a concern about something. I also quit spending time in home brewing forums, etc. Since then my beer has been great, except for the lighter ones. For example, my house ale has 20# of 2 row with 2# of light crystal and hopped to around 30 ibu. Since I moved, these beers have had a grainy taste to them that fades after a few weeks in the keg or secondary fermenter. I never considered my water. There is so much more info out there now! Water sample report and pH meter should be here soon. I have a lot to learn about this aspect of brewing.

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community! My bet is you have a ton of knowledge to share with us young guns (I've only been brewing 8 going on 9 years this December!)

 

[seatazzz]

That's what I love about homebrewing; there's always something new to learn. Maybe I don't want to learn it but it's out there. For example I recently decided to brew hard seltzers, and the first two were abject failures; third, slightly better (I'll drink it although the sulfur smell makes me think of the old days when everybody lit smokes with matches), and tomorrow's fourth attempt hoping to be better. Reminds me of my beginning brew days. And what Sammy86 said; I have knowledge that the folks in the BBF could benefit from, just from experience. Quite a heady feeling.

 

[csantoni]

That's what I love about homebrewing; there's always something new to learn.

So true. I brewed extract batches on and off for about 5 years but never learned anything about the process; I just followed instructions. A few months ago I decided to get serious about learning the craft and it’s been so much fun learning about styles, equipment, techniques,… I know I’ll always have something new to discover about brewing and that’s exciting. I brewed over the weekend in 100F degree weather and my wife said, “I know you’re committed to your passion when you’re willing to be out in the heat instead of cool on the couch.”

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I’ve been home brewing for 21 years…in 2008

Welcome back! I see that you haven't posted since 2009 recently.

I moved from MI to MN

There are a number of good craft (commercial) brewers in the Duluth MN / Superior WI area. Local water knowledge will offer insights that may not be available in home brew forums. Have you been able to connect with local pro / home brewers to learn about what they do for water adjustments?

Back in the late 2010s, my local home brew club was a great source of water knowledge. People lived in different cities and the water sources were significantly different. When I started bewing, I was in a city that had good tap water to brew with. Recently, I moved to a city that doesn't have good tap water for brewing. Point? consider finding local knowledge of water.

 

[Wables]

Welcome back! I see that you haven't posted since 2009 recently.


There are a number of good craft (commercial) brewers in the Duluth MN / Superior WI area. Local water knowledge will offer insights that may not be available in home brew forums. Have you been able to connect with local pro / home brewers to learn about what they do for water adjustments?

Back in the late 2010s, my local home brew club was a great source of water knowledge. People lived in different cities and the water sources were significantly different. When I started bewing, I was in a city that had good tap water to brew with. Recently, I moved to a city that doesn't have good tap water for brewing. Point? consider finding local knowledge of water.

Duluth does have good water, but I’m on a well with hard water 20 miles out of town. I had originally hooked up with the local club, but life got busy with the kids. Duluth is definitely home to some great micro breweries!

 

[mashpaddled]

I started brewing in 2009 and while there were people talking water chemistry back then it was mostly an obscure topic. The prevailing view was that if your water tasted good you should brew with it, if you made an IPA you add a predetermined amount of gypsum and eliminate chlorine/chloramine. Now water is far more mainstream subject and there are great tools out there to figure out appropriate water chemistry.

I would venture a guess based on what you've said that you have a problem with tannin extraction during the sparge. Your water ph is probably too high which will cause that problem. Darker grains tend to lower the ph which would be why you don't have the problem with dark beers but you do with lighter beers.

 

[Wables]

I started brewing in 2009 and while there were people talking water chemistry back then it was mostly an obscure topic. The prevailing view was that if your water tasted good you should brew with it, if you made an IPA you add a predetermined amount of gypsum and eliminate chlorine/chloramine. Now water is far more mainstream subject and there are great tools out there to figure out appropriate water chemistry.

I would venture a guess based on what you've said that you have a problem with tannin extraction during the sparge. Your water ph is probably too high which will cause that problem. Darker grains tend to lower the ph which would be why you don't have the problem with dark beers but you do with lighter beers.

My thoughts exactly. The sad part is I had the answers the whole time in Palmer’s book.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I brewed my first batch in July 1993. I usually still learn several things new with every batch. I brew a number of investigative batches (say split yeasts, different dry hop method, hop samplers, etc.) and every answer I get tends to add two more questions. Brewing beer can be as easy as you want or complex as you want. For me the continual improvement and continual learning are part of the attraction to the hobby!

As far as water chemistry goes, I ventured into that are about 2 years ago. While I am much more comfortable with adjustments now and I understand a lot more on the topic than I ever did before, there is still a lot I don't know.

I really like some of the info in "How to Brew" (though I think Palmer focus too much on Residual Alkalinity and using Calcium to adjust pH). The chapter on water in the book "Simple Homebrewing" (Beechum/Conn) is what I wish I had when I started. I have read a lot on water chemistry, and sometimes it just takes reading the same thing in 10 different ways for it to sink in for me. There is a TON of great info on the Bru'n Water page (General 5 | Bru'n Water). Just skimming that page make me think I need to cycle back to that taking a closer look.

One thing I have learned along the way is not not try to micro-manage your ppm levels. You don't need to target Sulfate levels to decimal precision, or even single digit precision. While I might be able to tell the difference between Sulfate levels of 20 vs 100 vs 300, there is no way I could tell 60 vs 80. In my case I am starting with tap water that will have some variance between every brew day.

BTW, some of the heavy hitters in the water chemistry area often hang out on the Brew Science forum (Brew Science). There is good info in the threads over there.

 

[cactusgarrett]

There's no reason to stop learning. I feel like brewing is similar to the growth of the tech industry: there are more breakthroughs and scientific understandings more in the past 5-10 years than in the history of homebrewing, and that it could very well continue the logarithmic trend. For example, look at all the research into hops in the past 3 years alone.

 

[Transamguy77]

Welcome back from Pa!

 

[Wables]

Just a quick update - I got a pH meter and did a test mash with 1.33 quarts of untreated water and 1# of 2-row. My mash pH was 5.61 20 minutes into the mash, and cooled to 72 degrees. I racked my house ale into the secondary last night and it was so smooth I drank the whole test vial. There was no astringent or tannin taste. This is the same recipe that I normally have problems with. I should have my Ward report in a few days. Maybe I’m right on the edge for alkalinity or something.

Edit- One thing different is the brand of 2-row. I used to buy it at Lake Superior Brewing before they closed. That was one thing that caused me to stop brewing. My LHB store started carrying 50# sacks of a different brand, and that’s what I used this time.