I have a CFC I can use, but the whole idea for me was to take up less laundry room space so I hate to drag out my pump and cfc and spread out, so I think I’ll use my old immersion chiller. I put the heat exchanger dish (optional, of course) onto the false bottom and it seems like that was not...

No pictures, but right after brewing, I made venison shanks in a tomato based sauce with fresh herbs, slow cooked until it was falling apart, and served it with polenta, old vine zinfandel and a romaine salad.

Well, I learned some things today! I made a German pilsner with a step mash on a Brewzilla 35L. Some things were super easy and intuitive. Some things were not. Overall, it was a good experience for my aging body. Sparging has me shaking my head though- you can't fly (continuous sparge)...

Sorry I missed it! Saturday afternoons are impossible for me it seems. I hope you all had a good evening.

That should have been resolved with the fix- is it still occurring?

The photo issues should be all solved now. Thanks for the heads up!

Right, unless the water was high in Mg to begin with, like mine. I found out the hard way that 26 ppm IS discernible and almost always negative in my beers. But now I only use MgSO4 when the calcium level is too high and I need more sulfate. I can usually use gypsum to get the sulfate, but...

I really try to eat low-carb, I really do. But.................this overnight focaccia is soooo killer that I had to share this recipe. https://cloudykitchen.com/blog/no-knead-focaccia/#tasty-recipes-9587-jump-target I added more rosemary, garlic powder (quite a bit), and it was soooooo great...

I have used MgSo4 twice in the last 25 years. You don't 'need' it ever, but in small amounts it can give a bit of a 'sour' ish finish that can enhance the dryness of an IPA. Ideally, any magnesium in the brewing water would be under 20 ppm.

Oh, one other thing! At what temperature are you checking the mash pH? Make sure to cool your wort to room temperature or thereabout before checking! You don't want to ruin your probe.

Could be- if you have a substance that you can know the pH, and calibrate the meter with the calibration liquids to 4 and 7, and check the pH of milk (or whatever) that will help to know for sure.

I've put in a support ticket for this photo issue. I'll keep you posted!

I believe he said his mash pH was "about 6.4" which likely isn't accurate, but also not at all suitable for salt additions to lower it that much.

No, it's not commonly done to put pure O2 into a starter. Although I guess you could. One reason a stir plate works so well is because not only is there possible o2 uptake, you're degassing the c02 out as well (and CO2 is toxic to yeast so degassing helps with yeast health)

Why don't you brew with the distilled water if you don't know the makeup of your brewing water? That would be a great clean slate.

Of course they do. But they are primarily for flavor (think salt and pepper, like seasonings to enhance the beer) and not pH control. If you look at your spreadsheet there, adding 10 grams of CaSO4 will change the makeup of the ions of the water far more than the pH. If you want to reduce...

Can you try taking a pH reading of lemon juice? And see if it's 2.2 or so? I know that's lower than a mash pH but I can't think of anything off the top of my end that would have a certain pH. Maybe milk? milk should be around 6.5.

With distilled water, it's almost impossible to believe your mash pH was over 5.8 or so, depending on your grainbill. I use RO water (about the same mineral and bicarbonate as distilled) and without any additions at all my very light colored lager would be about 5.8. With some crystal malt, it...

Can you check the pH of a known substance in the same area of wort? 4.4- 7.0 is usually about the calibration liquids.

It'd be really hard to get a mash pH of 6.4- unless you're using lye or something in your water. How are you checking the mash pH?