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I haven't used oats at a high percentage, but Michael Lewis (brewing professor emeritus at UC Davis) wrote in his book on Stout that his experience with oats IS that they tend to produce an unpleasant astringency in beer when used at elevated percentage. I don't recall what percentage he used...

I don't feel you need to cut the chloride. It will be a good compliment in this case.

Randy's Pale Ale profile is essentially what is presented as the Pale Ale profile in Bru'n Water. That profile has been used successfully by thousands of brewers. It is does not produce a minerally character in beer. The combination of high sulfate with low chloride avoids minerally...

After a couple of months to mull over the taste of my Saison, I have additional comments about this yeast. An important factor is that this is a well attenuating yeast and it is well suited for creating a Saison in some respects. Interestingly in my saison, even with a FG of 0.998, drinkers...

I assume you have a report for your tap water and are using it in Bru'n Water. A mash pH of below 5.0 is too low. Generally, I've found that mashing with a pH around 5 usually increases the fermentability of a wort. But I have to admit that I've never mashed at a pH as low as 4.4. Maybe that...

Check this new resource from Hop Union. You can probably figure out a substitution for many hops now. http://hopunion.com/aroma-wheel/?aroma=Fruity

A recent revelation for me was that onion and garlic perceptions seem to be short-lived in the glass. I've had several Mosaic hopped beers that initially presented onion and garlic but those perceptions faded after a minute in the glass and left the fruity notes. Do try a glass with some...

Until the water clears. A helpful technique for increasing the speed of clarification is to add powdered chalk to the boil. It sounds counter-intuitive, but what happens is that you are adding nucleation sites that improve the flocculation of the micro-particles of chalk that are...

I see that you are using my information correctly. Yes, given the lower limit for calcium in the 12 to 20 ppm range, it does appear reasonable that you should be able to decarbonate that water to around 70 to 80 ppm bicarbonate. It will take at least 15 minutes of boiling to get the reaction...

Just finished a brew with Belle Saison yeast. Good performer. Started at 72F and let it go until the air-lock activity waned, then boosted the temperature to 78F and got a bit more activity. After another week, that activity waned but there was still a very low gas production. I finally...

I use 300 ppm sulfate in my pale ales and IPAs all the time. I'm also a fan of hoppy American Brown Ales. In my ABAs, I do not take the sulfate level to that high end that I enjoy in the APAs and IPAs. I keep sulfate much more modest at around 70 to 80 ppm. My ABAs do have a substantial...

Calcium hardness is the hardness due to the concentration of calcium in the water. It can consist of both temporary and permanent hardness components. Calcium hardness (as CaCO3) is equal to the calcium concentration (mg/L) times 2.5. In the case of the 152.8 ppm hardness in message #48, that...

Rain water that is hardened nicely and a bit of acid malt. Sounds good to me. I'm not sure why the RA is so low, but I didn't do any calculations. I agree with Palmer's observation that the RA should be around -50 for a pale ale. It could be as high as zero for some grists. A predicted...

When I have the time, the pre-conditioning does significantly improve the integrity of the grain husks. It enables me to crush the grain a little finer, produce a bit more flour and still obtain an adequate permeability through the mash bed. I suppose that probably increases the extraction a...

It's unlikely that the calcium, magnesium, and sodium are all zero. They are the main cations (positively charged ions) in water and there is no way that you could have those concentrations of anions (negatively charged ions) without the cations. That is a problem with EZ Water, it doesn't...

RO water is fine for extract brewing. All the mineral content of the extract producer's water will be in the extract and there is no need to add more unless the maltster's water was deficient in certain minerals. If using Cooper's extract, its fairly modest on all minerals. So its OK to add a...

Adding metabisulfite to your brewing water BEFORE ADDING ANY GRAINS is a relatively harmless practice if you limit your dosing to the prescribed amount. You have to perform this treatment before adding the grain since chlorine compounds react almost instantly with wort compounds to create those...

You don't mention what your water is like. The 5 gm of CaCl2 is a healthy dose, but not crazy high. If the tap water already has elevated ion concentrations, then it is possible that the dose was too high. But a more likely problem could be that the water has elevated alkalinity and the pH of...

I have a pair of 2352's in my system and I'm using K-type thermocouples with 6 ft cables. Their accuracy and precision is not very good. Its probably due to the long cables with the K thermocouples. I'll be moving to RTD's in the near future. I think the 2352's are fine.

Yes! Minerally. The sodium and chloride are fairly high, but they aren't the red flag. The iron content is far too high for brewing. At 1.6 ppm, it should be tasting plainly metallic since the typical taste threshold for iron is around 0.3 ppm. This doesn't look like a good choice to me...