Been away a while, a.g no1 and no2 disaster

[urbantreemonkey]

Hi guys
I've been away from brewing for a while as my wife and i had our first child.
I managed a couple of brews while he was really young( he slept all day, not any more! ) but they both turned out bad and i got a bit fed up with spending so much time on them that i gave brewing a break but i really want to nail this so i'm hoping someone maybe able to shed some light on why they went the way they did.
The main problem is they look like pond water! really murky the first one i bottled 8 and kegged the rest and no2 was straight in a keg,
The bottles arent to bad(still not great) but the keg stuff is awfull. plus i think the keg brews have oxidised as they werent filled up( 15 litre brew in a full sized keg) to much air space?
Would i be right in thinking that my water treatement has something to do with this? the proteins not coagulating properly?there wasnt much sign of it in the bottom of the boiler just hops really. would proper water treatment sort this ( i just boiled the water before using thats all ) or would it be the grain i used, it can from a micro brewery ( to fine a crush? but having never seen crushed malt before i cant compare mine to anything)
I know this all a bit speculative but its seens like a age ago that i brewed and i'm finding it hard to recall.
any help would be much appreciated as i dont want to give up on this and go back to kits.

[prolix]

damn I hate it when I acidently delete a post....

anyway

water treatment - a campden tablet crushed is all you need to start with in the water before heating.

boil it must be rolling a simmer will give poor break irish moss and fast cooling do the rest.

a yeast like saf05 for a light coloured beer or saf04 for a darker one gives good results

choose a simple reciepe one with one grain and one hop to start with to get used to your system a stunner would be good.

read the all grain notes at the top in the links (this is where I deleted my post before by clicking on them grrrr....)

hope it all goes well,

post all your questions you never know which might seem unimportant but turn out to be the clinchers.

[urbantreemonkey]

The brew days apart from being long have both gone well( 2nd was a bit short but topped up after the boil) its just the end product thats crap.
Thats why im picking a idaes because im not sure what i did wrong to get pond water for beer! like i said the actual brew days went fine lots prior planning

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Unless you can remember exactly what you did it's going to be a bit hard to pin down what you did wrong (apart from only half-filling the keg).

[urbantreemonkey]

Okay i did a ttl and a deuchars ipa as per g.w's recipe, i trimmed the 19 litre batch down to 15-17 litres ( cant find my notes which doesnt help i know)and adjusted everthing for that( my boiler is a bit small)
I batch sparged ,again running the figures through the batch sparge calculator.Boiled for 90 minutes adding the hops at the right times and cooled in the boiler using a immersion chiller.Used so4 and fermented for 10 days......off the top of my head.
What other info would be of use as i just dont know what else to say.

[lancsSteve]

Questions:

Are you recirculating the run off so it's clear? If the grain bed isn't good that won't help - you want it to be well filtered when lautering.

Are you using Irish moss at end of boil?

Are you letting it all settle before rnning off into fermenter/ if it's not draining through hops t strain then that'll take a lot of break material in.

Tried finings?

One of my ales was a little cloudy - brewing darker beers or wheat bers conveninetly covers up such clarity issues

[simple one]

There are loads of JBK members around Cambridge, and craft brewers. Talk to them, get a break down of their process and water treatment.

I moved down from up north, I only got clear beer through locating local JBK members. They gave me the water breakdown. That cured my haze issues. We now swap ideas and sample each others beers..... which is a real chore!

[urbantreemonkey]

Thanks Lancssteve you have jogged my memory!
Yep i recircled the first few jugs of runnings from both batches.
Yeah i used irish moss 10mins from the end of boil.
And i definitely let it settle before i ran it off to the f.v
Just to add I dont know the mash p.h i didnt test it, will next time though
We maybe getting closer

[dave-o]

Was it boiling vigorously for the whole 90 minutes, or just simmering?

What temperature are you mashing at?

[jubby]

I would guess that you have a fairly high alkalinity level in your water and unless you lower it, you won't get good beer because your mash ph will be too far out (i know because i've been there ). Porters & stouts will be better as the grain is acidic and reduces mash ph, but they still won't be great if your alkalinity is anywhere near mine at 234mg/l, south Cambridge. We often have brewers meetings in Cambridge where about 6 or 7 of us bring tasters along, drink too much and talk bo**ocks all night. I will send you a pm when we next meet, but there is always a post in the events section for an open invitation.

The easiest way to lower your alkalinity if you are not sure what your levels are is to boil the water with some Gypsum (GW suggests about 430mg per litre), let it cool and then rack it off the sediment and use this for brewing. If you email Cambridge water, they will let you know what your alkalinity is, or bring a couple of litres over and i will test it. Once you have a figure, you can lower it with CRS (acid solution) instead of boiling.

If you lower your alkalinity, i am sure you will produce some good beer.

[Billy Hunt]

Just a thought, if you're having problems with your water how about buying bottled water, it's cheap enough to be cost effective.

Re: being short on the final volume, I need to boil 25 litres of wort to achieve a final volume of 19 litres after a 90 min boil. It's like a sauna in my kitchen on brew days.

[urbantreemonkey]

Thanks for all the replies everyone
I wish i could find my notes but i do remember losing 8-10c on my mash ( 90mins) which i know isnt good, would that be the cause? the boil was very vigorous had to have it outside, made a right mess of the kitchen last time!
I did boil all my water before hand but never added anything to it.
jubby i live in stapleford and will get on to cambridge water for the alkalinity thanks for the invite to the meet up i think tequilla invited me to one before but couldnt make it.