Jim's Beer Kit

Would be great if you could show us a picture of this setup Martin. Well, I don't have a place that can host a pic. So I can't show you. But I'll attempt to describe a bit better. My tun has a threaded elbow fitting drilled into the side wall of my tun near the bottom of the tun. Its sealed through...

Flow through granular media is governed by physics. With the addition of compressible media, increasing the flow beyond it's limit is a lesson in futility, as pointed out above. I found that limiting the pumping rate to the flow rate that the bed can handle, is the best way to avoid stuck mashes. I ...

Liquids in the liquor, salts in the grain. Some salts aren’t fully dissolvable so they’ll be left behind in the HLT The only salt commonly used in brewing that doesn't dissolve well, is chalk. All the rest of them easily dissolve...however you will have to stir the water. If you dump them into the ...

Mash pH increases throughout the mashing duration. Through a large number of mashing trials and a review of my previous brewing results, I now know that pH increases by about 0.2 and 0.4 units in the period between the 15 minute and 45 minute pH measurements. Therefore, don't rely on the 15 minute r...

Have you changed your mashing thickness? If you've moved to a thinner mash, that does affect mashing pH and I can report that current versions of Bru'n Water do not predict pH very well when the mash thickness is thinner than about 4 liter/kg. There is testing and recalibration currently being condu...

Coal is a strong contributor of sulfate in groundwater and the Yorkshire area is riddled with mines and coal. The admission of high sulfate is accurate. Sulfate doesn't make beer bitter, but it does dry the beer's finish. That would be very welcome in a huge malty beer like Old Peculiar.

As already mentioned, water pH is a poor predictor for mashing pH response. It is water alkalinity that drives mashing pH. In a grist with little crystal or roast content, it will need to have a surplus of H+ protons in it to consume the buffering that is a natural part of the pale grist. In fact, i...

Adding either of those salts to your water is fine, but be sure to limit the resulting magnesium content if you're going to use Epsom. Since most mashes need a bit of acid to help bring the mash pH down, its more beneficial to add those salts to the water prior to mashing. They will help depress the...

Yeast most definitely don't require calcium in the water to ferment well. Malt supplies all the calcium the yeast need for their metabolism. However, there are reasons to add calcium salts to water. For ales, having more than 50 ppm calcium is helpful for getting the beer to clarify reasonably quick...

I recently brewed an Alt with 34/70 and fermented at around 60F, hoping to add a bit of esters to the brew. But the result was virtually as clean as this yeast produces at 50F. It seems to be a very tolerant lager yeast.

There is nothing wrong with keeping your water treatment uncomplicated. The problem is that its difficult to understand and alter your brewing liquor if you don't know or understand what's in it. Add to that, the fact that some brewer's water quality varies. Now its hair-pulling time! For those with...

Pre-boiling your tap water, letting it settle, and decanting the clear water off, is a decent beginner's water treatment. That can get you part of the way to where you might need to be. But to get to even better results, you will need to learn to use an acid to further tune your water for the batch ...

It doesn't appear that you are doing anything about your water's alkalinity and managing the pH of your wort. High wort pH that arises from using alkaline mashing and sparging water will result in higher beer pH and that can dull the beer flavor and impart harsh flavors. I invite you to review the W...

I wouldn't use the London profile in Bru'n Water to brew a Porter. It is more representative of water from the Thames. I'll add a bit more history to water resources in London since I performed an extensive research project on the subject. Please be aware that this discussion is on the location of o...

My heating elements often had iron staining on their end cap. I solved it by coating that area with Silicone rubber to isolate it from the water or wort. I've had no problems since. I do find that its not a permanent fix since I do have to recoat every year or two. You don't need special heat-resist...