Last night I kegged my second attempt at the surly furious pro kit. I tried it last spring and had next to no hop aroma or flavor. Tasted like a pale ale.
When I opened my fermenter last night I had plenty of aroma, but after transfering to the keg and tasting, it tasted nothing like furious and for that matter had very little hop aroma for all the hops that went into the dry hop. Is it possible my water is playing a role in this?
pH 7.9
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 231
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.38
Cations / Anions, me/L 4.3 / 4.3
ppm
Sodium, Na 5
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 53
Magnesium, Mg 17
Total Hardness, CaCO3 203
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 10
Chloride, Cl 15
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 197
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 161
Total Phosphorus, P 0.88
Total Iron, Fe 0.21
I did a 40% ratio of RO water with my water for the mash.I also added 1.5 grams/gal Gypsum, .5 grams/gal Epsom, .4 grams/gal calcium chloride.
Any help would be appreciated. I have 10 gallons of a a Surly abrassive clone that I will be dry hoping this weekend and am getting concerned I may have the same issues.
[quote=“Silentknyght”]On the surface, that appears to be a lot of salt additions to your water for a Surly Furious. Do you check your mash pH?
Can you step us through your entire process, from brewing to kegging? Were there any other issues you might suspect, besides your water?[/quote]
I brought roughly 12 gallons of water to 166 degrees. 7 gallons tap/5 gallons RO I then added my chemicals (chemicals were based on another board members recommendations who had a similar water profile). I then added water to the grist. It was a batch sparge. I did my first runnings and then added around 6.5 gallons. I followed the same process when heating the water for the second runnings (added chemicals to the water as it was heating).
After second runnings, I started boil and proceeded.
I did down load the “Brewn-water” app but have not quit figured it out yet.
I took a guess at a 7.75-gallon mash, at 40% RO and 60% your water profile, with an 8-gallon sparge (I don’t do 10-gallon batches). I ran the rest of the receipe through Bru’n’Water. Your pH may have been in the 5.3 range, which is fine. However, you could have added only 0.5 g/gal of gypsum & CaCl2, each, and had a pH of 5.5, which is still fine. I mention the this as Bru’n’water also reports your sulfate concentration as very high, nearly 300ppm.
I haven’t brewed any beers with sulfate concentrations that high, though, so I can’t tell you what to expect.
What about your dry hop procedure? If you could explain how you did it, in detail, perhaps?
I used two 1 gallon paint strainer bags and added half the hops to each. I then dropped them into the 14 gallon fermenter. I had a heat wrap place around the fermenter and set the temp for 70 degees. I let it dry hop for 11 days. Before racking to keg and bottles, I squeezed the hop bags to get as much liquid out of the hops as possible before racking.
[quote=“Roddy”]I used two 1 gallon paint strainer bags and added half the hops to each. I then dropped them into the 14 gallon fermenter. I had a heat wrap place around the fermenter and set the temp for 70 degees. I let it dry hop for 11 days. Before racking to keg and bottles, I squeezed the hop bags to get as much liquid out of the hops as possible before racking.
Thanks for the help.[/quote]
Try using loose pellets next time; no bags. Swirl gently to ensure that all hops are completely submerged. At the 7 day mark (i.e., halfway), swirl again to encourage dropping to the bottom of the keg. At the two week mark, or when done, insert your autosiphon/racking cane into your strainer bag, when racking to keg, to then strain out the hop debris.
I just kegged 10 gallons of furious (two separate 5gal batches), and it has some powerful aroma. I used the method described above.
[quote=“Silentknyght”][quote=“Roddy”]I used two 1 gallon paint strainer bags and added half the hops to each. I then dropped them into the 14 gallon fermenter. I had a heat wrap place around the fermenter and set the temp for 70 degees. I let it dry hop for 11 days. Before racking to keg and bottles, I squeezed the hop bags to get as much liquid out of the hops as possible before racking.
Thanks for the help.[/quote]
Try using loose pellets next time; no bags. Swirl gently to ensure that all hops are completely submerged. At the 7 day mark (i.e., halfway), swirl again to encourage dropping to the bottom of the keg. At the two week mark, or when done, insert your autosiphon/racking cane into your strainer bag, when racking to keg, to then strain out the hop debris.
I just kegged 10 gallons of furious (two separate 5gal batches), and it has some powerful aroma. I used the method described above.[/quote]
I have always used strainer bags in the past and have not noticed any issues. I did notice that both bags were floating on racking day. In the past, I have always dry hoped in the keg, I didn’t do that this time as I wanted to bottle 5 gallons. The fermenter had plenty of aroma. In fact, the buddy that was helping me bottle asked if he could take the hop bag and put it in his car as an air freshener!
