If we were chatting in a bar...

[Fore]

Here's what I find in wheat on their site. I exclude the obvious "darker" malts:
- Wheat malt - light wheat 5.5 EBC
- Malted Spelt 3-7 EBC
- Wheat flakes

From what I hear you saying, the light wheat malt would be perfectly acceptable.

 

[Joeyriles]

"If we were chatting in a bar..."

I'd likely drink too much IPA, attempt to buy the worst looking one of you a drink (and get told to **** off) where I'd likely retire to the local kebab house and fall asleep in the taxi.

 

[clibit]

Here's what I find in wheat on their site. I exclude the obvious "darker" malts:
- Wheat malt - light wheat 5.5 EBC
- Malted Spelt 3-7 EBC
- Wheat flakes

From what I hear you saying, the light wheat malt would be perfectly acceptable.

I use malted a wheat a lot. It works across all sorts of beers and is easy to use.

 

[Fore]

That's cracked then; thanks. Another question then before they kick us out --> adjusting hop weight for the difference in recipe AA.

I get the general gist. I'm just not sure how to balance the adjustment between bittering & flavour/aroma hops. Take this example to illustrate. Imagine my bittering hops match the recipe AA, but my flavour hops are 50% more AA. My thought process goes like this... best to reduce my bittering hops to reach the target EBU, because adjusting the flavour additions would have more impact on flavour.

Does that make sense?

 

[HebridesRob]

That's cracked then; thanks. Another question then before they kick us out --> adjusting hop weight for the difference in recipe AA.

I get the general gist. I'm just not sure how to balance the adjustment between bittering & flavour/aroma hops. Take this example to illustrate. Imagine my bittering hops match the recipe AA, but my flavour hops are 50% more AA. My thought process goes like this... best to reduce my bittering hops to reach the target EBU, because adjusting the flavour additions would have more impact on flavour.

Does that make sense?

(flaked wheat would work too)
It's what I would do. Kind of depends when you're dropping the flavouring hops in though. If they are late additions into the boil, they may not be adding that much bitterness. If you're fiddling about with this kind of thing you should probably source some brewing software. Takes a lot of the guesswork out.

 

[Fore]

I do use software, so it is clear to me what impact on the EBU my hop changes bring. It's more a question of choice of approach, to ensure I stick as close as possible to intended taste.

I can easily reach intended EBU, but should I achieve that by adjusting the bittering hops, or the flavour hops, or both by the same proportion? Does flavour increase and decrease in line with alpha acid levels? I doubt it. So I'm thinking only the bittering hops should be adjusted, to have the smallest flavour impact, but I'm only guessing.

 

[HebridesRob]

I do use software, so it is clear to me what impact on the EBU my hop changes bring. It's more a question of choice of approach, to ensure I stick as close as possible to intended taste.

I can easily reach intended EBU, but should I achieve that by adjusting the bittering hops, or the flavour hops, or both by the same proportion? Does flavour increase and decrease in line with alpha acid levels? I doubt it. So I'm thinking only the bittering hops should be adjusted, to have the smallest flavour impact, but I'm only guessing.

It's definitely the approach that I would take. I found this a while ago. I found it interesting...
http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/
and this,
http://beerlegends.com/chemistry-of-hops-and-alpha-acids
It isn't just the alpha acid content that is variable, there are other oils too that I suppose you should really take into account if you're after a specific goal. Then there's the age of the hops too, some varieties handle ageing better than others.

Really, it's all to much for me to bother with so I would just do what you suggested and reduce the bittering hops.

 

[Fore]

Yeh I'm going to do as you do Rob, adjust the bittering hops.

Interesting reads. I think the most interesting take I got from this is the fact that the hop oils boil at lower than 100 degrees. I always thought that if I add the hops at the end of the boil, I was sort of treating them tenderly. But the hop oils can boil off just as easily even then. It's quite a precise science.

For now I'm sticking to traditional approach, but as I move through different styles, no doubt I'll start to drift from the beaten track and try post-boil hop additions.

AG#3 tomorrow. Decided to hand crank the grain instead of using a hand drill. Much easier and quicker than I was expecting. Something satisfying about it as well. Will be hand cranking from now on.

 

[Fore]

Here's a strange one.

My bottle of Phosphoric Acid has 75% on the front. So when I calculate how much I need, I multiply by 1.33.

Yet today I looked closer at the bottle, and written on the back it says "Composition: Phosphoric acid >= 25%. Now that's thrown me completely; I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess technically 75% > 25%, but why mention 25%?

My only thought is that maybe they are legally obliged to mention if the acid exceeds 25%, like a sleeping pill box stating "warning, may cause drowsiness".

Anyone know for sure? I'm not miscalculating the % of acid am I?

 

[Fore]

I resurrect an old thread of mine for it's original purpose. The intent was it be sort of my own "snug", in that I can just ask random questions instead of starting a thread for every question. It threw a few people, who started discussions as if we were in a bar :grin:

Anyway, my random question which doesn't deserve a thread of it's own. And due to its nature, aimed at those with cornie kegs...

When you turn off your gas, do you see your tank side pressure reduce fairly quickly, as in a day or so? In my case I see it start to dip overnight. I checked for leaks and there is certainly nothing serious (actually I found nothing at all). Considering the full tank pressure in that part of the circuit, and the very small tubing holding it, I imagine you'd need only a very small loss to see a big drop in pressure in that part of the cicuit. So I guess not unexpected to see that part of the circuit fall off quickly. In fact, I've seen the same drop off since I started using cornies 4 years ago. But of course, when the gas is on, then that loss, however small, is constant.

So do you experience similar, or should I be looking harder for a leak?