20 years, and only 2 more days to AG#1

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Fore

Fore

Landlord.
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Looks very likely. 20 years brewing kits, and this Saturday might see AG#1.

I did receive my first piece of AG equipment in June 2014, so it's not like it's snuck up on me. More like.... FINALLY!

Mill, HLT, mash tun, boiler, cooler, ingredients, everything here, working & ready. I think I'm over engineering AG#1, which is sure to help in some ways, but I'm not expecting things to turn out perfect. Still, I'm about as ready to go as any AG#1er could ever be I think. Just the water which I'm still not really sure about.

Just recently bought a Lindr PYGMY 20 instant beer cooler, a bit like a maxi cooler but ready to go in 4 minutes. Took me 2 years after buying Cornies to get around to cooling. Still, I'm happy with my decision, even if it took 2 years to reach. Never really wanted a fridge.

So here goes. Worst that could happen is the boiler blowing out I think. Wish me well....
 
Call me daft for even messing with my water this first time, but with alkalinity about 250 ppm as CaCo3, Brun Water tells me, if I'm brewing a pale beer, which I am at 7 EBC, I need about 0.4 ml/l of phosphoric acid (75%). I'm bound to have doubts about this the first time; I don't want to poison myself. Does this volume of acid addition seem within ball park?
 
I use Brupaks CRS rather than phosphoric acid so don't know the answer to your Q but if your worried about overdoing it with acid just boil your water for 30 mins then rack it off the precipatate. This will soften your water and you cant over do it. Think you need to add some minerals back too it though
 
Yes, got the minerals planned also. Just thought there would be more risk with the acid than the others. I just thought 13ml of acid seemed quite a lot, even if it is in 32l of water.

I've been thinking a bit further, and as I plan batch sparge, I think I need only acidify my first mash liquor. This will cut significantly the total acid I use as I'll need treat only about 11 l, so about 4.5 ml of 75% acid in total.

Just wanted to be sure I'm not doing something silly. You see how I'm over-engineering? :roll:
 
It's definately possible to add too much acid. I'm pretty sure I did that with the first brew I tried to alter the alkalinity on. It was a mild and I now realize I don't need to change the water on milds with London water. I added acid and now it tastes chemically
 
I'm batch sparging right now. My pH strips go from 5.2 to 6.8 and the mash was certainly at the low end of that range. It looked like 5.2, maybe 5.3. I wonder how you know if it dipped below 5.2 if the range only goes to 5.2. I guess it would get even yellower but would not be accurate in it's measurement, not that it would just "stop" changing colour at 5.2. If so, then it was about 5.2. Next time I'll aim 2 pH points higher with my acid addition and see where I fall.

So far so good. First batch sparge volume was spot on. Temperatures have been the most difficult so far. Lesson learnt... much easier to overshoot and reduce, than it is to try and increase.
 

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