How about, is it necessary to remove chlorine from municipal tap water for brewing?
I used to boil my water to let it cool before I brewed with it, or treated it with hydrogen peroxide. Then I asked a pro brewer here in town what he does to remove chlorine. He says they don’t. A second pro brewer in town said the same. So I started not doing anything, and I can’t say I noticed any difference in my beer.
I think it depends on the individual case. I’ve certainly tasted beers where chlorine wasn’t removed and there were obvious chlorophenols. Also, some water systems spike chlorine levels at certain timesof the year. Because it’s so easy to drop in some campden, I’d recommend being safe.
Municipal chlorination can vary with seasons and other factors as well. Personally I never had a problem with chlorophenol… until I did. IF your local water system chlorinates, you are rolling the dice with every batch. It’s just so easy to add 1/2 Campden tablet to your water with every batch and then never have to worry if this might be the batch that goes medicinal (yuck!). If your local water system does NOT chlorinate… that would be extremely unusual, at least in the USA (I’m not sure where ya’ll reside).
But we digress.
I’m on board with the other thread about pressure fermentation – that’s something that really really NEEDS to be tested! And not by me… because I don’t believe in it, nor am I really set up for it.
We also need to test more lager yeasts at warm vs. cold besides just the Brulosophy team having tested W-34/70 that one time or whatever. What about S-189, Diamond, S-23, and the other dozens of liquid options?!?! My experience is that I am enjoying warm fermented lagers. But everybody’s so friggin afraid of trying it with anything other than maybe W-34/70.
I’ll try to think of some more experimentation topics later.
-with some effort on perhaps identfying if the “lager yeast” is actually pastorianus, if its frohberg, saaz or other, a hybrid or etc.
-a variety of analysis on it.
definitely a topic that could use a fresh and perhaps unbiased look
i feel like im going against the grain with it but i have not had good results with warm fermented lagers mostly.
A topic of relevance to me is the current state of US barley and hop acreage. It’s reported that both have decreased about 20% from 2023. This seems like a significant adjustment. If this is correct, does this mean that many of the smaller growers are doing something else?
How will this affect homebrewers? Or small craft breweries? How about small maltsters?
This might not be the most exciting topic, but you guys can make anything interesting.
Personal struggle for me here, but I’m struggling with how to best keep my supplies fresh now that key homebrew shops near me have closed up and moved online. I don’t know if this makes for an interesting show, but I would see it as a best practices for keeping your home brewery supplied and fresh. Probably crosses into a lot of subsections (yeast harvesting, dry vs. liquid yeast, etc), but I thought I would throw it out there.
The two of you know what works and doesn’t, so no offense if you don’t think it would be beneficial.
That said, I second this topic. You’ve all heard me whine about all the LHBS stores in Iowa having closed (excluding Dubuque) before. My LHBS is in an Omaha, NE suburb which means my woodworking shop looks like a Brewing Supply store most of the year.
I’ve always used liquid yeasts and the new prices for these yeasts, along with not having a close supplier is probably my biggest PITA. I haven’t ventured into the world of dry yeast yet.
Information on storing bulk supplies is always interesting.
I’d like to see if y’all can tell a difference in taste, aroma, and/or appearance in potassium metabisulfate added to finished beer at packaging. Check over a period of time such as two weeks, one month, three months, and/or six months (or similar) against a control with no Kmeta added at packaging.
Note:
To scrub the oxygen from 5 gallons/19 liters of beer, it’s recommended to add 10 ppm SMB, which amounted to only 0.3 grams [in 5 gal] (1 gram SMB = 175 ppm/gallon)
Brulosophy did something similar comparing 10 ppm and 100 ppm but I’d like to hear your thoughts. What happens at 33 ppm and 50 ppm? Can a difference be detected and if so is the difference good or bad in your or your tasters opinion(s).
Kmeta dosing at packaging:
Range 10.00, 33.33, 50.00, 100.00 ppm
5 gal 0.30, 1.00, 1.50, 3.00 grams respectively
3.5 gal 0.21, 0.70, 1.05, 2.10 grams respectively
1.5 gal 0.09, 0.30, 0.45, 0.90 grams respectively
12 oz 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.06 grams respectively
Edit: I got the 10 and 100 ppm numbers above (.3 and 3 grams respectively) from Brulosophy but I now am beginning to question their math.
I’d like to see more experimental results covered, especially given the name of the podcast. It seems the focus is on what Denny calls “homebrew science” which (to this scientist) is not science if its a data point or two. Brulosophy does much the same (in my opinion) in terms of provide single data points but with what I consider very weak experimental design and questionable use of statistical testing. More rigorous experiments mean more confidence in your conclusions. All of this said, I do know how difficult it is to run more rigorous experiments- so feel to carry on as usual!
