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Absolutely. The tread has taken on a life of its own. I might get Chippy to rename it “Everything you wanted to know about brewing in 150 easy to read pages”. We’re not there yet but we’ve made a good start 😉

Yes, I’m aware it measures conductivity and I don’t know how helpful it might be but if we throw enough tools into the mix something might be helpful. TDS for example might be used to indicate “when it’s done” even if it can’t say how much alkalinity you’ve got. Think of it like a hydrometer...

Lower pH in the mash (5.0) favours beta-amylase so the wort should be more fermentable because of the greater proportion of simple sugars. If you’re souring in the kettle, the mash is already done and the pH is now about fermentation rather than fermentability. This is science though so how...

I’m not sure about the precipitation (maybe?). TDS could be a plan, I’ll build that into my trials and see what we can learn from it.

You’re looking to achieve a mash pH of around 5.4 because this is the sweet spot for the enzymes to do their magic and produce a good quality fermentable wort. Mash pH is not the same as your water pH which has little impact on the mash pH. If you use distilled water (no alkalinity) you are...

Yeah we’re dealing with chemistry so the outcomes should be predictable - until some bright spark tells me why it isn’t so at this point I’m making no assumptions.

The challenge though is how much is dissolved over what time and are any other variable like temperature highly relevant. As peebee said, how do you know when it’s done and what you’ve got.

😂 My mind *might* be focussed on the pain au chocolate I’ve got in the oven.

I’m hoping a few trials will inform some of this and reduce the faffing for others. I’ll start with three blends of water; zero alkalinity, a low alkalinity and a moderate level of alkalinity. To each I’ll add a measured amount of calcium carbonate and use a consistent CO2 pressure (in the...

It shouldn’t be much faffing about, put some water in a bottle, pressurise it with CO2, add a bit of calcium carbonate, give it a shake and walk away until you need it. I doubt the sodium would be dangerous unless perhaps you’re on a low sodium diet. Large additions though might start to...

I have high alkalinity water so I use a RO machine to bring my alkalinity down but I’m a curious person so I’ve just bought some precipitate of chalk to do some experiments. I’ll run some tests, take some measurements, and report back. 😉

OK that’s not an option then - unless you have a neighbour with high alkalinity tap water who doesn’t mind you popping round every so often with a Jerry can! Other options: Mash using base malt and light coloured grains, add your dark grains at the end of the mash. Dark grains add acidity but...

For darker beers you could do with some alkalinity. For most people an easy source of alkalinity is tap water. Is there any reason you can’t use your tap water? If you can use tap water you could do with knowing the alkalinity of your tap water and then blend tap water and well water to get...

I believe precipitate of chalk is primarily calcium carbonate and is barely soluble in water. The acidic water may help a little but I don’t know if that would be enough. The reason you boil water and then cool it is to precipitate out (remove) calcium carbonate. If I’m right, I doubt you...

You’ve been there a while, you must be in need of reinforcements by now 😉

All good Stu apart from one detail I think. Both a lower mash temperature and a lower pH favour beta-amylase which produces more shorter chain sugars and consequently a more fermentable wort.

Went out for a pub lunch and was drinking Speckled Hen. Back home I’m drinking my cask bitter to start.

It’s done. I’ll be off now for a pub lunch, see you later 🍻

I’m getting another brew in this morning. Can you tell what it is yet?

Something darker next, my brown ale. The flavours I’m getting from this beer at the moment are a bit toasty and suggest Bramling Cross hops with slightly spicy berry notes. I actually used First Gold so we’ll see if the flavour profile changes over time, although…. The beer is crystal clear...