thomasthetaff
New Member
I've been home brewing beer using kits for a couple of years. Recently, I bought lots of other equipment and books to brew an all grain mash. As I'm sure you all know it looks to take a lot of time and I want to plan everything well beforehand!!
So, I've tried a couple of quick experiments using tinned syrup first.
I know according to much of the reading I've done if you are using beer kits the water shouldn't alter the taste too much but I've experienced the home brew tang in each of my many home brews, despite being very controlled over temperature, timings, measurements and so on. Also, I can't imagine the experts who have written these books have tried home brewing in every part of the UK with all types of water and treatments such as chloramine? I have a friend who brews in the same area as me experiencing the same home brew tang and he's brewing all grain mash.
I have tests two in mind:
1) Campden tablet
2) Gypsum tablet.
As I live in a soft water area I thought the latter might be appropriate.
Still, for reasons unknown to me I've started with the campden tablet. I added half a crushed campden tablet to a 23L fermenter vessel and filled with water. Then I used this water to boil the 3L of kettle water required and added c14L of the campden tablet treated cold water from the fermenter vessel and stirred thoroughly. I only wanted to have a total of 18L in the fermenter to increase the alcohol strength. Once the temperature fell to 20oC (which was around 10 hours later) I added the hops and yeast sachets. On reflection I'm not sure why I didn't add less boiling water, but there you go.
The following day, the fermentation process hadn't started. Any thoughts on why? Some of my thoughts so far:
· I read in another place on this forum you should wait for 24 hour before adding the yeast as it stuns the yeast?
· Does this mean the yeast will kick in at some point?
· Should I add more yeast?
· Can I add anything to reverse the substance stopping fermentation?
· What is this substance?
· Have I ruined the batch?
Thanks in advance.
Phil.
So, I've tried a couple of quick experiments using tinned syrup first.
I know according to much of the reading I've done if you are using beer kits the water shouldn't alter the taste too much but I've experienced the home brew tang in each of my many home brews, despite being very controlled over temperature, timings, measurements and so on. Also, I can't imagine the experts who have written these books have tried home brewing in every part of the UK with all types of water and treatments such as chloramine? I have a friend who brews in the same area as me experiencing the same home brew tang and he's brewing all grain mash.
I have tests two in mind:
1) Campden tablet
2) Gypsum tablet.
As I live in a soft water area I thought the latter might be appropriate.
Still, for reasons unknown to me I've started with the campden tablet. I added half a crushed campden tablet to a 23L fermenter vessel and filled with water. Then I used this water to boil the 3L of kettle water required and added c14L of the campden tablet treated cold water from the fermenter vessel and stirred thoroughly. I only wanted to have a total of 18L in the fermenter to increase the alcohol strength. Once the temperature fell to 20oC (which was around 10 hours later) I added the hops and yeast sachets. On reflection I'm not sure why I didn't add less boiling water, but there you go.
The following day, the fermentation process hadn't started. Any thoughts on why? Some of my thoughts so far:
· I read in another place on this forum you should wait for 24 hour before adding the yeast as it stuns the yeast?
· Does this mean the yeast will kick in at some point?
· Should I add more yeast?
· Can I add anything to reverse the substance stopping fermentation?
· What is this substance?
· Have I ruined the batch?
Thanks in advance.
Phil.
