Brewer's Notes

Houston We Have a Pale Ale, Part Deux... the water

Matthew Chrispen

20 Aug 2013 — 3 min read

So it has been several weeks since I brewed the first APA, and took fairly careful notes of mash pH, mash efficiency, etc. I was very happy with the results in the glass, but...

I bought an RO system, specifically to address a terrible water report. Terrible in that sodium and bicarbonates were ridiculously high, and calcium and magnesium were virtually non-present. I wanted to judge the impact on FLAVOR, as well as brew processes with a new, carefully adjusted water profile built on reverse osmosis liquor.

I used the Bru'n Water spreadsheet to target a balanced yellow profile, figured phosphoric addition for all brewing water, then salt additions for the mash. Those are indicated in the recipe. I should note that I did NOT treat the sparge water with salts - so the amounts maybe a bit low.

I learned some things - however these maybe coincidental as this is a single set of results:

Pre-treated liquor only with a few ml of phosphoric
Mash pH was hit nearly immediately at dough in, and dropped, but recovered to stabilize around 5.3
Wort was sweet very quickly - showing enzyme conversion occurred and was very efficient (I did not do an iodine test, will do so in the future)
My RIMS mash stuck quickly... this is an issue of tightening up my mill. Got it freed with extra liquor and a bit of cursing and a couple of handfuls of rice hulls
Hot break formation in the kettle was awesome - at least 10X over what I have seen in the past on filtered tap water
The boil was "different" - the size of the bubbles and fine-ness of the foam and scum was very different
Cold break was also very impressive. I "whirlpool" my hop stands through a paint strainer - it plugged up with break material in a few minutes.

I did make some minor additions to the grist recipe:

Dropped the Acid Malt and replaced it with base 2-row
Swapped in C90 for the C120 from the previous brew... for color reasons

Adjusted Recipe:

Houston We Have a Pale Ale Part Deux (11 Gallon Batch)

Brewer's Tasting Notes:
A tropical fruit bomb with a dominant peachy aroma and a sweet malty backbone. While the bitterness is high (78 IBU), it is approachable. Note: This batch used RO water and salts but remained slightly cloudy, likely due to dry-hop or yeast flocculation issues in this specific iteration.

Vital Stats

Stat	Value
Batch Size	11.00 Gal
Boil Time	60 Min
OG	1.061
FG	1.017
IBU	78 (Rager)
ABV	5.8%
Color	8.8 SRM (Deep Gold)
Efficiency	73.5%

The Grain Bill

23 lbs — Brewers 2-Row Malt (Briess)
1 lb — Crystal 90L
12 oz — Biscuit Malt (Belgian)

Water Chemistry

Base: RO Water
Mash Additions:
- 5.8g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
- 3.5g Calcium Chloride
- 2.3g Epsom Salt (MgSO4)

The Hop Schedule

First Wort (60 min): 0.50 oz Summit [17.0%]
Boil (45 min): 0.75 oz Apollo [18.0%]
Boil (30 min):
- 1.00 oz Bravo [15.5%]
- 1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.6%]
- 1.00 oz Summit [17.0%]
Dry Hop (7 Days): 2.00 oz Apollo [18.0%]

Yeast & Additions

Yeast: 2 pkgs Lallemand BRY-97 (American West Coast Yeast)
Fining: 2 Whirlfloc Tablets (15 min)

Brewing Instructions

1. The Mash (Single Infusion)

Mash In: Add ~7.3 gallons (29.3 qt) of water at 167.3°F. Target a mash temperature of 152.0°F.
Rest: Hold at 152°F for 60 minutes.
Mash Out: Add ~4 gallons (16.4 qt) of water at 202.8°F to raise grain bed to 168.0°F. Hold for 10 min.
Sparge: Fly or Batch sparge to collect ~12.1 gallons of wort.

2. The Boil (60 Minutes)

First Wort Hop: Add the 0.5 oz Summit as you run off the sweet wort from the mash tun into the kettle.
45 Minutes: Add 0.75 oz Apollo.
30 Minutes: Add the trio of flavor hops (Bravo, Columbus, Summit).
- Note: This large addition at 30 minutes contributes significantly to the high 78 IBU.
15 Minutes: Add Whirlfloc tablets.
Flameout: Chill wort immediately to pitch temperature.

3. Fermentation