Maiden Brew Day in Provence
- Thread starter bonneti
- Start date
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Good luck :
marlon
Senior Member
Yeah, good luck Bonneti...I tried adding lavender to a belgian lager I brewed a couple of weeks ago....
not my best light bulb moment - shall not be doing it again.. :-?
not my best light bulb moment - shall not be doing it again.. :-?
LarryF
Brew Numpty
Hope it's all going well bonneti.
Hi Guys, thanks for the messages of encouragement.
It was a long day, starting with grinding the malt through to washing up.
I'm a little worried that the Mash pH was off, the water here in Provence is hard, around 260 total Ca + Mg (I've just found out exactly), I did boil the brew water for a good ten minutes, though with only using Maris Otter malt I dont think the pH was going to be low enough to avoid extracting the tannin - I'm a little annoyed at the Home Brew shop that I bought the kit from - they said I had everything I needed - though I didnt have any pH strips nor any roasted malt to help...anyhow I think I got a good conversion SG was around 1.04 for a Best Bitter type, the yeast looks happy I'm just worried about that there maybe some astringent off flavour.
We'll see how it tastes in couple of weeks....any advice what I can do to recover this batch?
It was a long day, starting with grinding the malt through to washing up.
I'm a little worried that the Mash pH was off, the water here in Provence is hard, around 260 total Ca + Mg (I've just found out exactly), I did boil the brew water for a good ten minutes, though with only using Maris Otter malt I dont think the pH was going to be low enough to avoid extracting the tannin - I'm a little annoyed at the Home Brew shop that I bought the kit from - they said I had everything I needed - though I didnt have any pH strips nor any roasted malt to help...anyhow I think I got a good conversion SG was around 1.04 for a Best Bitter type, the yeast looks happy I'm just worried about that there maybe some astringent off flavour.
We'll see how it tastes in couple of weeks....any advice what I can do to recover this batch?
Water treatment isn't something most people get into right from the start so I wouldn't be too hard on the shop you bought it from. It's more like fine tuning.
Just give it a go and see what you end up with. Don't assume your beer will be a disaster as it might still be decent. The pH will move in the right direction assuming it's not miles out.
For the next brew you can always try a darker or amber coloured beer as the water will naturally lend itself better to that sort of beer if it's highly alkaline.
In terms of recovery there's not much you can do now but you might not need to do anything. It might taste fine.
Just give it a go and see what you end up with. Don't assume your beer will be a disaster as it might still be decent. The pH will move in the right direction assuming it's not miles out.
For the next brew you can always try a darker or amber coloured beer as the water will naturally lend itself better to that sort of beer if it's highly alkaline.
In terms of recovery there's not much you can do now but you might not need to do anything. It might taste fine.
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