Three Steps to Brewing Success (And: Water Modification)

[Clinton Ebadi]

The three steps to a successful brew:

 1. Finish making a starter
 2. Push the bung into the starter jug
 3. Watch the bung fall into the jug

So uhhhhh yeah. Steve you need a new packet of yeast (I'll pay for it
since I screwed up there). I was planning to go to the brew store, but
realistically can't today (60 miles for the river eno trek + 45
roundtrip for the brew store + gas is $4/gal ... yeah).

The brewing salts look pretty easy. We mostly need baking soda and CaCO₃
(chalk) since all we are doing is raising the mash pH. We'll want to use
a mixture of mostly chalk with potentially a small bit of baking soda to
avoid raising either the Ca or Na content too much.

Luckily we have headroom for both (~70 ppm Ca, ~25 ppm Na). The Sulfate
to Chloride ratio is also really off, and so we'll want to try and get
that as close to 1:3 without raising the Na too much.

I've been reading more on how pH buffering works and I think the buffer
5.2 might work in our water. The reports online of it being no good in
soft water are still a cause for concern, but it looks like salts in
buffer 5.2 have a higher buffering capacity than the carbonates in water
thus fixing the pH. Some parts of the Internet even say you only need
half as much for soft water since it has very little buffering capacity
to be overcome. I may have failed chemistry so don't trust me.

With all of this in mind I feel this is the best approach for water
adjustment tomorrow:

 - Target a mash temp of 152F to compensate for some heat loss from
   keeping the tun open for an extended time
 - Mash in
   - check pH
 - Add *half* the recommended amount of buffer 5.2
   - check pH

If the pH is ok hooray! Otherwise,

 - Add 1/4 the amount of chalk theoretically needed to raise the pH
   - check pH

Repeat until the mash pH has been tamed.

Then we should add a bit of NaCl to the boil (keeping the Na levels
below 60ppm) to bump up the Chloride levels.

-- 
<unknown_lamer> baihu: terroristcat says hi
<unknown_lamer> she is biting me now
<baihu> JIHADTAG
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