Home brew? Homebrew? Winemaking

7 days, could have racked it sooner but I didn't have time until Sunday

Has anyone tried brewing a NEIPA with the Grainfather? It's the style I want to nail the most but reading that water make-up is even more crucial than usual and my mind is being boggled by all the science and opinion on how to turn hard city water into something soft enough to brew with. I don't really want to have to buy plastic containers of mineral water every time I make a batch

The GF app has a beta water correction system in it.

If you email your local water supplier and ask for a water report they will send you a couple of pages of details.

You'll only need a few results from it (just certain mineral concentrations) .

The problem is getting the CaCO3 reading as they sometimes give hardness in a different format.

Have a look on the Brewer's Friend website, they may have a report on there for your supplier / area.

Then it's just adding chemicals to the mash and sparge water.

Thanks. I actually downloaded the full report from my supplier today. There's no mention of CaCO3 on there so I guess they're using different units. I'll email them to ask.

Can be listed as Ca(HCO3)2 but you can convert it to Carbonate via calculation.

After a bit of live chat with a dude who was really helpful I got the GH, KH and pH figures for my local water.

It’s a lot to get your head round. I like to have an understanding of as much of any process that I’m trying to master as possible but I think I’m just going to get a decent filter and hope for the best for the first brew.

I'm the same when it comes to water chemistry. I decided I was more interested in developing my own recipes than cloning or brewing something from a book. I do look at recipes for inspiration or to get an idea what ratios of grain etc . I just filter my water and go with it.
I am interested in consistency when rebrewing a recipe unless it's a seasonal one where you can't always guarantee the ingredients are always the same.
My beers are my 'version' of (insert style) and I'm pleased with the results!

Must admit that Reverse Osmosis seems the best way to get the chemistry sorted. Gives a neutral start point to then go forward.

Don't forget that stouts and porters work better with hard water than soft.

True but isn't it weird that some breweries like Brewdog and Shepherd Neame use water treatments and their beers have a certain tang to them .

I thought most breweries Burtonised their water, at least for their lighter beers?

Each style of beer has it's own mineral content. Burton water is great for 'English' beer but if you are brewing a Guinness Clone you want Dublin water.

Big breweries base their beers on their water. I'm trying to copy them so I'll have to adjust the water that comes from my tap.

It's only a few grams of various salts to change the mineral content of 23L of water. Maybe a little bit of acid to lower the alkaline content.

But as you get in to how it effects the grain in the mash... I'm too much engineer / science nerd to ignore it. I probably should stop reading the books about it.

Sure, but most big breweries will still adjust their water chemistry to suit the beer (unless it's ideal I guess - do Marston's fiddle with theirs?); e.g. Fuller's adjust the mineral content of their water.

Don't know. Do Fullers do clones?

I'd guess Big Brewers stick with their water and own it. Maybe adjust the grain rather than water just for cost and ease. Surely when you brew on that kind of scale you can afford to?

I just want to brew 'all-the-things' and less than 5g of CaCl2, MgSO4, CaSO4 and Latic Acid is good enough for me.

But, at the end of the day, I'm brewing for myself. I like my beer and that's how I roll.

If I was trying to sell it I'd be fucked. 🤣

I think Burton water is so superior for brewing pale ales etc. that brewers elsewhere were forced to use Burton salts to adjust their brewing liquor, unless they were lucky enough to have a similar mineral profile (I vaguely recall the Urquell spring is very soft?).

Oh yes, fully agree. Hence the term 'Burtonisation'. Excellent water for pales and English IPA's.

But now that we are looking at various modern styles across the world they don't necessarily use a 'Burton' water profile.

Ah, gotcha; I knew dark beers could stand harder water, but what do modern hazy IPAs like?

Brewfather suggests this.

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Of course this means you need to know what your own tap water profile is to alter it to this one.

The saying is 'Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer' and I'm starting to believe in that more and more.

I can't fully control what the yeasty beasties do but I can try to give them the best environment to work their budding magic.

I guess if you really wanted to know you could get a home testing kit, send a post filtration sample off to a lab and get a figure to base your future brewing on. There’d be fluctuations but it’d do for the home NEIPA enthusiast

Yep.

Murphy and Son seem to be the goto. That's where I got my water report from via a member of Leeds Brewing Club.

They even give suggestions for profiles for different beers based on your sample.

Finally getting around to racking the second batch of plum wine. Tastes surprisingly good despite sitting on the sediment for weeks. Seems like fermentation didn't complete, still quite sweet, not unpleasant though. Might end up mixing it with the first batch which fermented furiously and is quite dry.

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Anyone used vanilla extract or beans and have any idea how much to put in a 25L batch?

It's a stout with Coffee in the mash and secondary so I think I will need a decent amount but don't want to completely overpower it with vanilla.

I'm thinking 45ml or so in about 18L