Red ale

Tuesday…
Now to put this out there… Back in the years without equipment to “verify” whats, what other than… thumbs and taste…
I’d have to believe, that someone found out about boiling water to “lighten” waters effect on brews… and they didn’t do that the night before… I think they boiled it, added it to the grist until… “the rule of thumb” equation took effect… then added some more as they went…
It would be great to see actually how we got to where we are with brewing…
Sneezles61
EDIT: I’ve been diluting my water… This one, a 50/50 then I can work out the PPM’s and get the RA to be in the water profile… It just takes a whole bunch of math to get me here…

Red Ale is in the fermenter!! It fought me along the way… I over powered it tho!.. Really, not that bad…
Seems my pH meter is wonky… Last week, a nerdy guy who knows alot of this stuff came over… brought me a TDS meter… We checked it against distilled water… it said zero… as it should… right? Pulled out the pH meter, didn’t calibrate it… It read 8.2!! He said, even not being calibrated it shouldn’t be that far off…
Well, today, calibrated it… checked… still off… So now looking for the replacement probe end… gggrrr… He claims even the cheap ones are very good to use…
To check your meter… calibrate it… then test on distilled water it should read 7…
I should have blow off tube activity very soon… I did dump on the previous Ale yeast cake… which I kegged today also! Whew…
Sneezles61

IMPORTANT STUFF… For those that use a pH meter, go to Milwaukee instruments… they have all you need to know about using, cleaning and caring for your meter…
I wish I had the notion to find this from the get go… geez…
Sneezles61

Yeah i need a new pH meter mine crapped out awhile ago. Once you know your water pH its easy to just trust the software. Very helpful for sours though although im kind of over my sour kick for now

Ease up there tiger. Have you bought one? My milwaukee crapped out on me last brew day. It’s less than a year old. My old one lasted 3-4 years before I replaced the probe and it never worked well again…so I bought this one…ph55 same model…it’s been hard to calibrate since day 1. I should’ve sent it back so my fault but thought it was working ok…

Then last brew day water read 7.2 out of the tap so I said…ok don’t need to calibrate it…it’s fine… my mash read 7.2…huh…checked it against some 4.0 solution…7.2…tried to calibrate it and it would never read the second solution…kept failing…

I’m looking for a new meter now too… I’m considering another milwaukee but a little higher end one with the probe on a wire kinda thing. Maybe if you pay more they last longer/work better?

Let’s take the meter discussion to a more relevant thread?

I’ve used mine so much… I’ll stick with it…
Nothing lasts forever… but with some nurturing, somethings that are accurate… really last…
Please, go to their web site and read… If I had only known…
Sneezles61

its like -10 here this am… I checked on my red ale, down to 1.023… Its fermenting so fast I worry… So about half its gravity over night! I’ll go turn the freez-mentor down to mid 55’s…
I will “top crop” this one… I don’t think its advantageous to get done quick…
Any of you been through this?
sneezles61

pH is always changing… My well water has more going on during the summer with storms and such… Winter its predictable…
Sneezles61

I never noticed mine changed when using my meter kind of why i stopped using it

Mine changes a little but never enough to really have much impact on my adjustments. Typically no more than about .2-.3 points during wetter seasons.

Last couple of years have been fairly dry here so didn’t notice much change except one month when it rained for about 2 weeks.

Perhaps my well has concrete poured around it… So my pH raises… indicating more alkalinity to correct…
But then, I haven’t taken care of my meter correctly… I’ve got the stuff to verify the probe is still good… A good place for me to start…
Some peeps run for something to do… I enjoy tinkering on stuff I don’t understand… :sunglasses:
Sneezles61
EDIT: Dunked the meter in white vinegar… right down to 2.3… Good!
cleaned the tip in a swish of distilled water… Then Dunk it in Window washing stuff with ammonia… Right up to 10.5 … Good!
According to the website, its still good! If its slow or doesn’t come close to those 2 pH’s levels, time to replace the tip…
I have more testing solutions coming now… I promise to take better care of my toys…
EDIT… again…
Gravity at 1.009!! I don’t know what to think… I’ll see what it tastes like before I comment… It just seems too fast…

I kegged the Red Ale… Brewed Tuesday! 5 days…
Well, the sample was good… Sealed the keg with 50 psi’s through the liquid post… yeah, I shook it too!! Its sitting out the brewery door… “chillin”
Sneezles61

1 Like

Dayumm, Ricochet Rabbit , what’s the hurry? Out of beer? You’ll be carbed tonight!

1 Like

I wasn’t in a rush… I put the Red Ale on the yeast cake from the previous… Its in the keezer now… I’ll sample after some breakfast…
Sneezles61

Its a good brew! I’ll be anxious to see it fully carbed…
Sneezles61

Time to brew this one again… The gal that procured the recipe from Ireland asked if I could brew it…
I’ll bring ABV down a bit, but now the mash capping part…. Since the X-tra dark crystal wont bring much sugar to the mash-tun, I’m thinking of steeping in the BK… just to get the color then pull the bag… Curious if you’ve done this…?
Sneezles61

1 Like

I’ve not done steeping since the old partial mash days…… I’m sure it will still accomplish what you wanted.

The local brewery here does a red ale with S-04 for the English character it imparts. Might try that soon.

1 Like

This is the article I think they were referring to above; it wasn’t BYO it was Brülosophy.

Back when I mashed in a small tun and needed the space I would put the steep sack in the kettle and dump the first runnings on then the second runnings then after a total of 15 minutes or so Id pull the bag and turn on the heat. Works fine your not going for sugar conversion. By the way you can do it with flaked grain as well

Hah! A gal from Briess brought “cold steeping” to us!
So the way it is explained, heat releases tannins, (astringent harsh flavors) and with cold steeping, you pour the extracted wort into the BK in the last few minutes… even at flame knock out…
does this mean, Briess knows about the grainy-ness? (:
I’ll give this a try… seems Schells dark lager was done like this… they added cold steeped black patent wort just before they fermented… was a very tasty brew… but I don’t see it any more…
Sneezles61

1 Like