Matt Chrispen | Accidentalis Brewery. Overly serious home brewer sharing long-form articles on beer, mead, and gear. Passionate about historical and modern techniques and systems. Documenting the ongoing journey to mastering craft from my garage.
Brewer's Notes
Well, I had hoped that the funny taste in the overpitch was just green character and from such a massive blow off. It is now clear that the overpitch batch is infected somehow. This yields an inconclusive result and requires a do-over. I hate to admit failure, especially to admit
Brewer's Notes
I recently had my water tested, and based on the report (because of excessive salinity and alkalinity) decided to convert my brewing liquor to Reverse Osmosis (R/O) water with mineral additions. I should share my process because I have learned a lot about this in a short time (but
Brewer's Notes
Boredom causes me to do some stupid things. Like, open up the week-old "control" conditioned bottles for the experiment. These have only been conditioning for a week now, so they are not really ready for consumption and need some aging. I didn't have high hopes at
Brewer's Notes
Pitching Rates Revisited I continue to struggle with whom I should believe relative to pitching rates of DRY yeast. Both Wyeast and White Labs products seem to accurately present the home brewer with a clearly known and validated yeast cell density – as well as accurate “born on” dates that allow
Brewer's Notes
So I jumped the gun. The fermentation had finished. Just conditioning sitting on the lees. I bottled after a cold crash to 40F to drop some of the yeast. Henceforth, these shall be called White (Batch A), Green (Batch B) and Blue (Batch C), well after this post. That is
Brewer's Notes
I have swapped over entirely to R/O (reverse osmosis) water, which requires me to add back in certain ions to achieve good tasting water and beer. The largest requirement is calcium, through the careful additions of calcium chloride (CaCl2) or powdered gypsum (CaSO4) to acidify the liquor and mash.
Brewer's Notes
As I have received a note telling me that I talk too much... and should let the data show speak for itself... I have moved the fermenters into a warmer room to condition for another week. It appears that all three have reached terminal gravity, although the under-pitch may have
Brewer's Notes
Finding consistent and credible information on yeast pitching rates is a bit like religious theology. Trying to find out how many yeast cells are in a pouch of yeast is like trying to find out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin! A lot of people
Brewer's Notes
Took another refractometer reading today and looks like the underpitch is catching up. I am also at the point where the refractomer is going to be fairly useless to determine accurate gravity readings... so will leave these alone now until next week. At that point I would expect terminal gravity,
Brewer's Notes
Well, color me very surprised. I am about 40-something hours into the experiment and at least 2 of the batches have reached my expected terminal gravity (plus or minus a gravity point). Here is how things stack up so far: Sunday: 1. Batch A | Half Pitch Rate: 1.065, showed
Brewer's Notes
Nothing like a Sunday afternoon, with football on the tube, brewing! Because this was to measure pitching rates, I intentionally pitched warm, and it will ferment at 72 to 73°F. The gravity and heat should help bring out a few extra flavors (good or off) to help amp up
Brewer's Notes
I am not a scientist, but have used test and measurement to good effect in my career. After reviewing my APAV2 notes, I underpitched by a significant factor. I intentionally pitched at the same rate as the previous brew to eliminate variables other than brewing liquor; however, it stalled and