What of M.I.A gave the finger to 100 million people and . . . everybody yawned!
What if the government bailed out the auto industry and then Republicans blamed the Democrats when ACTUALLY - the Republicans were the ones that started the auto bail out. So now we have Obama taking credit AND the blame for the bail out.
I was called a liberal on Facebook by a friend - I suppose I could be that but seriously, if Republicans actually had their act together I might lean more there way but WOW - bumbling buffoons.
Look at Norway! They LOVE their government, a government that actually works together for a common good. Not this constant tug-o-war. Norway has high taxes but those taxes go towards good. Like mass transit where many cities no longer have cars above ground.
Then I'm concerned about this whole electromagnetic pulse thing. If some third world country wanted to really crush the world they would take out satellites and kill the internet. No internet America comes to a scream halt as all banks would fail.
If I was President I would make AMERICA in to a 3rd world country to save us! If 3rd world countries were elevated into 1st world countries . . THEN . . they would not be against us! WE would be in control.
Simple!! Yes - you may say it - I am brilliant!
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My final findings on the Columbus water when it comes to brewing is boring unless you are a brewer.
Bottom line - if you brew in Columbus you are totally screwed. I've showed the brewing salts report to many well known brewers across America and to a man they pretty much say -"WOW - that totally sucks to be a brewer in Columbus Wisconsin", followed with "is there ANY WAY you can get a different water source? "
Sadly . . no.
They took out calcium and replaced it with sodium. The exact opposite of what is needed for brewing and there is basically no way to fix it unless you have different water.
You can add minerals but with every one you add you also increase sodium, that horrible taste in the water. (BTW - I'm not anti Columbus Water and Light, it was not their idea . . .but who's bright idea was it anyway).
So - what can a brewer do?
First of all stop trying to create the perfect water. The goal is to get a PH of 5.2ish but that number is like using one number for your cholesterol. We know there is much more to cholesterol then just one number and mash PH is the same.
Adding minerals to lower your PH will effect other minerals. So if you are a brewer in Columbus you now know our water has almost zero good minerals and a lot of bad minerals. What we have to do is dilute and after that . . .it's simple.
Remember, we don't want to recreate someone else's water, we want to make good beer with OUR water.
We have
Total Alkalinity 248
Sodium 106ppm (above 70 makes beer sweeter)
sulfate 4ppm (50 is the minimum for any beer, sulfate accentuates hop bitterness)
chloride 4ppm (accentuates flavor and fullness 0-250 is needed)
calcium 19ppm (50 is the minimum and it is needed in EVERY aspect of brewing)
magnesium11 ppm (a yeast nutrient, we're ok on this one)
So for an All Grain Brewer (I'll get to Mini Mashers in a bit) what has to be done is to dilute with RO Water of Distilled Water to get rid of the sodium and then add back the good stuff. Oh I forgot - let your brew water sit overnight to get rid of the chlorine, Columbus has 0.29ppm chlorine, Sun Prairie has 0.22ppm which is not a lot different then Columbus but still get rid of it. It's corrosive to stainless steel.
If you dilute 1:1 with RO or DI the sodium goes to 53 and is more in range, you REALLY want to have the least amount of sodium as you can get so the more you dilute the better. Once you dilute then you can easely add back what you need in two easy steps.
Base Line average after dilution.
Add 1 tsp of calcium chloride to each 5 gallons of water treated. Add 2% sauermalz malt. OK - I had to look up sauermalz. Sauermalz is an acid malt and used in small quantities gives very very little taste but will lower the mash pH which leads to a better working mash, intensified fermentation, lighter color, improved flavor stability, and a "well-rounded" beer flavor.
Deviate from the baseline as follows:
For beers that use roasted malt (Stout, porter): Skip the sauermalz.
For Light Ale add 1 tsp gypsum as well as 1 tsp calcium chloride and sauermalz (will NOT add sour taste at low levels).
For very minerally beers (IPAs) Double the calcium chloride and the gypsum.
Follow the above and you will not brew a dumper - HOWEVER - brewing is an art and once you see the difference then you can start to tweak the formula. It's easy
For mini mashers that use extract it's different. Extract has it's own minerals from wherever the extract was created. However I feel you can still tweak for a better beer. Sun Prairie I would not worry that much.
What I will be doing is this.
When I want to brew a Pale Ale, IPA or any lighter brew I will use 100% Distilled water or RO water. No Columbus water will touch this beer. RO might be better as it does have some minerals in it. I'll have to add some Calcium Chloride to increase the Calcium though and I might experiment on a tiny amount of sauermalz. I don't think Cannery carry's that!
Otherwise I'll experiment with amounts of water. I don't want all of that sodium in my brew. The extract will have all the good minerals in it already in the boil but not the mash - thus Calcium Chloride.
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OK - on to chores - headlight, the search for Calcium Chloride and photos of the inside of the Auditorium this afternoon.
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HEY - notice DIRECT TV now has Pandora!! Awesome!!!
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