Search results

I tasted a bottle of Black Sapphire last week. Its very malty and doesn't dry out very well. In my opinion, the hopping seems to provide a wine-like note, sort of like Nelson Sauvin. Its not a bad beer, but it could be better. Maybe a little more fermentability or sulfate to help dry the...

Excessive carbonate (aka: Alkalinity) is what truly tastes poorly in beer. Declerk's statement in his text actually refers to sodium bicarbonate, yet some take it to infer only the bicarbonate is the culprit. The thing is that when there are excess acids in the wort, they instantly convert...

Chalk is not reliable in providing the alkalinity needed for acidic mash grists like this. A brewer is FAR better off finding some slaked lime (aka: pickling lime or calcium hydroxide) and using that to add alkalinity. Bru'n Water software is a tool that can help calculate the lime addition...

Have you tried the freeware LibreOffice software? I found it to work well on a PC, but I haven't tried it on a Mac. Thanks for the welcome!

That looks about right and it certainly should provide more character to your beer than the relative clean water you are blessed with. I would caution about bringing the chloride level that high when you are adding a lot of sulfate. Those ions can start to have an antagonistic flavor effect...

It turns out that your pH observation is almost perfectly correct. With the very low alkalinity of RO water (typically under 20 ppm as CaCO3), it doesn't take much acid to cause the pH to drop like a rock. Even the Sparge Acidification Calculator in Bru'n Water confirms the result. Using an...