It will be interesting to see the color.
Have I asked this before?, but, FWH, do you find/feel you get an added benefit? Just so some on the peeps that don’t know, First wort hopping. Usually added to the kettle BEFORE the boil begins… I would suspect it would be at approximately the same for brew in a bag? Sneezles61
Well since my BIAB process involves a sparge, I drop the FWH in right after pulling the bag. I usually start the burner then too but with FWH I don’t because I want the hops to have longer contact with the wort before the boil, at least 20 minutes. Usually takes me 10 minutes or so to sparge over the hanging grain bag and another 8-10 to get to a boil once the burner is fired up.
I feel like I get a little more bitterness form the FWH but mostly fuller smoother flavor. So I’ll use one or a blend of my flavor/aroma hops for the FWH. I almost always use magnum to bitter my IPAs because it’s 14+ AA clean bittering hops.
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I agree on both points @dannyboy58. I use magnum for bittering and often use FWH (all IPA/PA and some German lagers) and notice a smoother bitterness.
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I FWH only because it’s easy. I hang a muslin bag on a string in the kettle while running in the wort. My brew stand has a little hook built in to attach the other end of the string.
Honestly don’t find much difference.
I’ll post up a pic when it’s in the glass. What kind of water do you use for your extract DR? The reason I ask is on the Experimental Brewcast episode Denny just posted up Martin Brungard talks about how high pH can affect color. I think it’s mostly related to the mash but it made me wonder.
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I just used filtered tap water. I figure the extract had all of the work done so the water to boil and top up won’t make much difference. Our water supply is from either a mostly spring fed lake or lake Ontario. They don’t specify how much or if it varies so it’s hard to nail down. If I get a water analyses it could change the next day.
Yesterdays AG had 14 gallons of just strike water so buying distilled would be costly. The only alternative I can come up with is a RO system. For now the beer tastes good so I’ll stick with a carbon filter. Last time I checked the pH it was 5 something using old fashion strips.
All that said, I can’t imagine in an extract the water would change the color as much as the difference in the original and the clone. Again I liked the DR more than TH ale anyway.
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Well in their defense the TH ale was a bit dated and the DR fresh and dry hopped.
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I like my all centennial IPA better than 2H also. Mine has way better aroma. I’ve also noticed a lot of inconsistency in 2H recently. I mostly have 2H on tap at a local pub but the bottles and cans I’ve had were even less aromatic.
So you don’t adjust pH for your AG beers either?
I tried distilled a few times for my pils and cut my water 50/50 with it a few times. Recently I’ve just used lactic acid to get the pH and alkalinity in range for the pils. I’m happy with the results.
I’m the least scientific and biggest rule breaker in homebrewing. After all the fiddling around I found that without changing much with the local tap water my beers tasted good. I have had a bigger challenge with temp control due to the large batch size. Finally getting that done.
At our last home we had well water and I did have to battle with it. Tried the stuff called 5.2 that is supposed to get your pH to that number. Can’t figure how it works or should I say it didn’t really. It’s been 12 years so I can’t remember what I did to get it close but back then I was really winging it and have some ribbons from being so naive. I don’t enter comps anymore but that’s another story.
Sounds like you’re lucky enough to have decent water! Yea the 5.2 stuff is a scam imho.
Ok after lots of adventure in first all grain, first water customizing, and many adventures with kegs, regulators and beer line lengths… Here is my Dead ringer… I was worried when it came out of the secondary I could not really smell the hops. But I am not worried now… its a very hoppy brew, and really good! still may need a little longer to condition but its drinkable now
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That there is a good looking pint! Sometimes you have to just say… “yes, I’m satisfied”… remember its not how the mass perceive your brew, its how you like it! … No guide lines, no pigeon holes here… I’d be quaffing that brew with you… Sneezles61
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Looks great. Much closer to the color of Two Hearted ale than mine came out.Hoppy beers like that lose some of the hop nose and punch with age so don’t age it too long. I’m sure you will get volunteers to help drink it up.
Thanks, yes I am pouring today, just a pain without a good regulator.
What is wrong with your regulator? That pint sure looks carbed right.
My new taprite is regulating a pressure way higher than the gauge reads. I set it for 2 psi, bled the keg down and still had beer shooting out of my 10 ft line. I had a second regulator on a system I have built up for my son, so I swapped it over and it behaved like it should, requiring over 20 psi to pour the 10 ft line. Switched back to the 5 ft line and could pour at around 9 or 10. Unfortunately I had to reconnect to his beer as it is carbing at 20 psi.
So yes my beer seems well carbed but I have no idea what the actual pressure was going into the keg, I had it set to 10, but it could have been 50 for all I know. I have a message into the place I bought it 2 months ago. This was the first time it was out of the box.
Maybe I should keep it out of the keezer. Not sure if high humidity and condensation can be an issue. I may look for a hose and gauge to use to check the outputs once in s while.
Taprite used to be a good product. I would contact them. About being in the keezer, I have had my regs in my kegorators for years and they work fine.
You will eventually get it dialed in. It just takes some time and fiddling around with it.
