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Good question. It’s something I’ve been meaning to check.

Yes the pH is surprisingly low. I added 100ppm calcium in the first two brews and got 5.1, and 200ppm calcium in the barley wine and got 5.0. I’m going to do a 2 point calibration of the pH meter at 4.0 and 6.86 next brew instead of just the one at 4.0 and see if that makes any difference.

So far my mash pH has always been around 5.0 to 5.1, so not too far to the low side for the beers I’ve been making. I know the dark malts in a RIS are going to push that even lower. That’s not going to be acceptable for a RIS, as they certainly benefit from a higher pH. Anyway, I’m now...

I believe it’s difficult to dissolve Chalk, hence why so many people use baking soda. Maybe I should get some and see for myself. The KegLand pH meter is ok, gets the job done. It has to be calibrated every brew day otherwise the readings are quite erroneous.

I’ve done a few AG brews now and the mash pH has always been on the low side, but close enough to not adjust anything. I’m probably only a couple of brews away from a RIS, which is going to push the pH down even further, at a time I want it to be higher to suit the style. So, how do you...

This is the immersion chiller that came with my 65L BrewZilla. It is brand new and never used. Measures 28cm wide and is about 10m long. Due to its awkward size, prefer pickup in Newcastle. $50.

I got my MillMaster set up, and have started experimenting with different mill gaps and speeds. I've finished with it set at 1.1mm with the feeler gauge and about 120rpm on the drill. Though I think I might slow the drill down even more. Set at 1.1mm it has split almost all the husks in half...

I guess now that I’m set up, and all I have to spend going forward is on ingredients, it does become a cost saving venture. I’m doing a Barley Wine this week and for $80 of ingredients I’ll eventually end up with 25 big bottles of 13% or 14% beer. I was bringing a nice Barley Wine out of London...

I think of all the beer I could have bought with the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on gear. But I never got into brewing with any idea that it would save me money. My favourite beers come out of Belgium, and the main reason I decided to start brewing was to see if I could emulate some of those...

As a new brewer the most frustrating thing I find is people not reporting back how things turned out. So I transferred to a keg and that's been aging almost 3 months now. I had enough left in the fermenter for 2 bottles. I tried one bottle at one month and it was terrible. I had a glass and...

I've enjoyed a couple of bottles of my first AG beer now. It's a Russian River Pliny The Elder IIPA clone. The second bottle I drank along with another IIPA I like and that's the BentSpoke Sprocket. It occurred to me the big advantage home brewers have over the commercial guys. Firstly, we...

Sounds good Grok. I’ll tuck it away for possible future use.

I’ve seen you mention a couple of times that you precondition your grain. I wonder how many people do that? I can see it’s value, but it’s not something I’ll introduce until I see how the mill works with dry grain.

I’ve organised Steve to help me optimise the gap.

All good information. I'm not sure how much the MillMaster design has changed over the years, but the current model has geared, assymetric rollers so the peaks and valleys in each roller match up to provide a uniform gap. MillMaster also state that crush quality is independent of mill speed and...

I noticed that the German MattMill has knurled rollers, and the original MillMaster had knurled rollers before changing to fluted rollers. Just like your comment, everything I found suggested the fluted rollers were a good upgrade for the MillMaster. I bought the hopper to go with it so I’m...

Sorry dunc, I forgot it was you who gave me all that great info in your post. Based on that I was literally about to hit the buy button on the MaltZilla when I thought I should do a quick google check. That’s when I found the MillMaster. I really appreciate the effort you went to and feel like...

Yes my philosophy is to buy once, so I always look for quality that will last.

I think 1 will suffice.

Sounds good Phil. I think I’ve made my choice.