Well I have done 3 Biab brews, our first all grain brews. Have had some troubles not related to Biab. The first was a bad thermometer. The second was not tracking my fermentation temps well (it is summer here). And I think the last is water related.
I am on the first and the second problems but need to work on the water issue. Have a few questions that I think are related. Will first give some background on brew #1. It was intended to be an Ordinary Bitter. I used Maris Otter with some Honey Malt, Victory, and Biscuit. A mix of hops primarily Fuggle with some Goldings. We add a teaspoon of Gypsum at the boil just because that is what we did with extract brews. We add a teaspoon of Irish Moss at 15 min. Yeast was Wyeast 1098. I brewed a bit extra and split the batch between 2 fermenters and split the yeast so I consider that I under pitched. Fermentation looked OK maybe on the light side as I would expect for under pitching. The final gravity was high and I guess it was from the high mash temp (the bad thermometer). To the small batch I added a Mint tea bag like a dry hop addition at the end of the ferment.
The results are very hard to drink. The minted brew had a sour smell when bottled but a hint of mint taste. The regular batch was very bitter. I thought that I had messed up the bittering hops. After several weeks in the bottles they will not carb up past a quick fizz and a few bubbles. The color seems darker then expected. The taste is awful. Hard to explain but from doing some searching on the web and my recollection it is someplace between the sucking tea bag taste and the wet cardboard taste. I can not see both batches being oxidized so am leaning on the tannin taste. The Mint is also gone.
I called the City and have water reports coming. I was told it will be very hard to nail down the water as it depends on the time of year and even time of day what the water will be like. We have several wells and they get mixed in the storage tanks. Some wells are shut down in the winter. The time of day will influence the mixing of the water so I may get a mix or may get water from one well as it is pumped up to the tanks. I will wait to see what differences there are before getting to excited about the possible difference in water from one day to the next. I did take a PH test with an old aquarium test kit and the PH was way high off the chart. I added a drop of lemon juice to check the test solution and it did change to acid. Based on some other research I guess the PH to be at 8 or just a bit higher. The water is also treated with chlorine gas.
The last observation on all 3 brews are they seem to be cloudy. One is a wheat so it is hard to tell for sure. The second brew (an IPA) tasted great when bottled, the wheat tasted OK. They should be carbed in a week or 2.
With out having the water results I have only one question at this time. Do you think the Ordinary Bitter crashed because of the PH?
Also we have noticed that the extract IPAs have lost bitterness and hop taste with age. Could this be from the water effecting the hop bitterness and taste over time in the bottle?
Sorry for the long post but tried to give as much info as I thought you needed. Will post the water reports when I get them.
I am on the first and the second problems but need to work on the water issue. Have a few questions that I think are related. Will first give some background on brew #1. It was intended to be an Ordinary Bitter. I used Maris Otter with some Honey Malt, Victory, and Biscuit. A mix of hops primarily Fuggle with some Goldings. We add a teaspoon of Gypsum at the boil just because that is what we did with extract brews. We add a teaspoon of Irish Moss at 15 min. Yeast was Wyeast 1098. I brewed a bit extra and split the batch between 2 fermenters and split the yeast so I consider that I under pitched. Fermentation looked OK maybe on the light side as I would expect for under pitching. The final gravity was high and I guess it was from the high mash temp (the bad thermometer). To the small batch I added a Mint tea bag like a dry hop addition at the end of the ferment.
The results are very hard to drink. The minted brew had a sour smell when bottled but a hint of mint taste. The regular batch was very bitter. I thought that I had messed up the bittering hops. After several weeks in the bottles they will not carb up past a quick fizz and a few bubbles. The color seems darker then expected. The taste is awful. Hard to explain but from doing some searching on the web and my recollection it is someplace between the sucking tea bag taste and the wet cardboard taste. I can not see both batches being oxidized so am leaning on the tannin taste. The Mint is also gone.
I called the City and have water reports coming. I was told it will be very hard to nail down the water as it depends on the time of year and even time of day what the water will be like. We have several wells and they get mixed in the storage tanks. Some wells are shut down in the winter. The time of day will influence the mixing of the water so I may get a mix or may get water from one well as it is pumped up to the tanks. I will wait to see what differences there are before getting to excited about the possible difference in water from one day to the next. I did take a PH test with an old aquarium test kit and the PH was way high off the chart. I added a drop of lemon juice to check the test solution and it did change to acid. Based on some other research I guess the PH to be at 8 or just a bit higher. The water is also treated with chlorine gas.
The last observation on all 3 brews are they seem to be cloudy. One is a wheat so it is hard to tell for sure. The second brew (an IPA) tasted great when bottled, the wheat tasted OK. They should be carbed in a week or 2.
With out having the water results I have only one question at this time. Do you think the Ordinary Bitter crashed because of the PH?
Also we have noticed that the extract IPAs have lost bitterness and hop taste with age. Could this be from the water effecting the hop bitterness and taste over time in the bottle?
Sorry for the long post but tried to give as much info as I thought you needed. Will post the water reports when I get them.