4 Dog Pub Ale - Thursday, March 16, 2017 - First Time Using Sa;ts
IF THIS BEER CLEARS, THEN I WILL KNOW THAT MY PH IS IN CHECK
This is my first try using water salts in a simple and very light ale. I am doing this to get it to clear as in adjusting my PH using salts and 100% RO water. Here goes nothing. I am also doing this to make better beer. The last few years my beer seems to be off because of not adjusting the PH in my mash.
21 lbs. Bohemian Pils malt
1 lb. TWF
7.5 g Magnum - 11.8 % AA @ 60 min.
50 g Hallertauer - 2.5 % AA @ 60 min.
30 g Hallertauer - 4.3% AA @ 60 min.
Nottingham
Mash - 2.4 g gypsum, 3.6 g cal chloride, 2.4 g epsom, 3.3 ml lactic acid
Sparge - 3.6 g gypsum, 5.4 g cal chloride, 3.6 g epsom, no lactic acid
ca - 51
mg - 8
S04 - 75
ci - 57
Estimated PH - 5.31
Water Profile - yellow balanced
O.G. - 1.048 - 88%
F.G. - 1.010
% - 5
SRM - 3
BU - 19.8
BREW NOTES
The first thing I noticed today is the smell, or lack of. Very clean, hardly any smell to the wort, the boil, not much of anything. The recipe is simple with no crystal or roasted grains. In the past I could always smell a kind of deep, dank smell but not today. This was a very active fermentation from day 1 to around day 5. It then stopped and the krausen fell in just a couple of days. Again, this never happened with my previous brews. The krausen never fell and stayed there for the duration of fermentation. I usually waited for over 2 weeks to see if it fell to keg it. I did take a sample and gravity reading on day 7. My final gravity usually got to 14 and that was it. This was 10? The odd time I got a lower one, but very rarely. If this is what my beer is like, at least for this year I am happy. It is starting to clear, but may not get bright for another week or so. It is kind of slow. This recipe needs some Munich malt to give it more flavour. I don't want to change my water profile because it works and I am new at it. Brewing a bitter on April 10, so we will see how that goes. Nothing more until the bulk grain buy in May. Bulk grain buy is June 3. We are gone to Oakland and San Fran. I have to buy from Canada Malting where the price is $1.40/lb. Bulk buy is .55/lb. Huge difference. Will have to get in on the fall grain buy I guess.
Kegged on March 30
The beer coming from my carboys was clearer than my previous beers were after using gelatin. What does that say? Brew on... Clearing now on day 7. This is a very bland beer. No malt or hops. I need to either add more hops @ 60 and 0, or change my water profile to get a more pronounced flavour. I don't plan on making Blonde Ales anytime soon, but this is a good start. Not the kind of beer I was looking for. As far as a technical point of view, this was a success. However, the taste is too bland with no hop taste or aroma plus very little malt taste. I am buying some specialty grains as well as double my hop bill in all future recipes. Now I need to buy more hops, but still better than tossing beer.
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