Ditches stout water test

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tubthumper

Ditches stout water test

Post by tubthumper » Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:23 pm

Will be brewing ditches stout tonight with ashbecks water from tesco . this is to see what difference the exploding or non exploding head has to what the water is.
My Thames water is very very hard and I didnt get a spewing yeast head . so I will post pics as I go

the recipie is a s follows
2x 500g muntons medium spray malt
1 x 1.7Kg Can of Coopers stout kit
yeast from kit
4x 5 Ltr bottles of Ashbeck mountain spring water from Tesco (93p each)
½ cup of Billingtons Natural Demerara sugar

photos of all to follow

kay-jay

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by kay-jay » Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:31 pm

hi tubthumper,

i'm pretty sure it is the water that does or doesn't result in an erupting ferment. you state your thames valley very hard water with no eruption.....ditch's water i think was described as very very soft and he has major eruption, overflow, and floods! my own water is borderline betwen hard and soft (so half way between ditch and yourself) and i got the most vigorous ferment i,ve seen but still nowhere near an eruption or overflow, was about 4 inches short of the lid on a 32litre f.v. (these results also seem to fall between you and ditch)

reckon it just has to be the water....let us know how you get on with the bottled water!

KJ :D

EoinMag

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by EoinMag » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:53 pm

I reckon the fish tank heater that Ditch uses will play a role also.

Scroogemonster

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by Scroogemonster » Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:13 pm

reckon it just has to be the water....
My water is unfeasibly soft (alkalinity as caCO3 = 36mg/L). My Ditch's stout had a very vigorous but not a "volcanic" fermentation like Ditch gets.
I'm not so sure that water is the main factor. I think he's just lucky!!!
Kevin :?

tubthumper

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by tubthumper » Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:52 pm

thats what I am trying to find out. It may be the minerals in his spring water , have just got it to bed pics to follow as soon as I get them up on photbucket.
Forgot to put the sugar in so will have to wait for next brew, I am also keen to see if the taste improves .

This is going to be my benchmark as it can be coppied exactly everytime , not like with tap water that can variy at different times of the day let alone year
Last edited by tubthumper on Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

tubthumper

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by tubthumper » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:00 am

The Ingrediants
Image

adding the malt to pan
Image

heating and disolving malt
Image

added to fermenter good airation head prior to pitching yeast
Image

All sealed up
Image


now its under airlock untill tommorow when I will check the state of play and if bubling away will take out bung and put the fv in a bin liner and see if it spews
the fv next to it is orange wurzels and its got a thermometer stuck to side and its been at 20c for past weeks so I figure the ditches will be at same temp tommorow so no need to check anything

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Ditch
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Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by Ditch » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:22 am

EoinMag wrote:I reckon the fish tank heater that Ditch uses will play a role also.

Interesting point. I can't honestly remember at which point I got my hands on the heaters. I'm pretty sure I did some brews without them. But, maybe that was in summer, when the temp's would be up anyway?

Got a couple more on tonight, thank god. Usual procedure. Regular as clock work. They'll blow and spew down the outsides of the FV's.

Still a bit of a Stewards Enquiry though, isn't it? Mine are so consistent. Shame no one's ever kept a record of other who've had a good blow. Did they use heaters? What's their water like?

tubthumper

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by tubthumper » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:28 am

Ill send you a bottle or 2 when its done so you can judge it ditch

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Ditch
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Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by Ditch » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:55 am

Appreciate the gesture, mate. But, I have to ask if I'd even be the best person to judge? I don't really drink bottled beer, for one thing. I've certainly never sampled Coopers, let along done as " Ditch's ", from a bottle.

Thus, even if ye went to the ludicrous expense and trouble of sending a bottle out here ~ and it survived the postal systems ~ what would we have? A Keg Emptier's rather jaundiced view of a single sample. Nothing to even compare it to.

No. My advice is to guzzle it yeself. If it's what You like? What else matters? Image

shazza

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by shazza » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:29 am

I reckon it's the chlorine that inhibits the "surge".I draw my brewing and winemaking water from my neighbours' wells and,even though the two wells are at different depths (30 and 80 metres) and are of completely different character(the deeper water percolates through a layer of limestone or similar) both samples produce a similar "surge" effect.During the winter snows I was unable to safely get water from my sources of choice and had to use my Avoca mains water.Result:no surge,just yer usual frothy upheaval.Beer was still fine but took about 7 days to ferment out instead of usual 4-5....Conclusion:chlorine + flouride +any other agent "X" does not a healthy beer make.....Has anyone tried rainwater(fresh,before Ditch tells me it's all rainwater)?

jason123

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by jason123 » Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:08 am

I'm pretty sure I remember some fish keeping mates saying they could get a complete breakdown of the tap water constituents from the water company on request. It might show up something, or just confirm your suspicions.

kay-jay

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by kay-jay » Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:35 am

hi,

another thing ditch does which may have a bearing is the 'open' fermenter. when my stout fermented vigourously but fell shy of the lid (32litre fv) my lid was snapped shut with airlock in place......so perhaps oxygen is feeding the reaction as well. would be interesting to find out if any others with an 'eruption' used the open or sealed method!

as for tubthumpers offer to ditch of a beer or 2. and ditch's reply of not being a bottled beer drinker......how about an unprimed sample in a bottle??? wouldn't this be the same as ditch's unprimed keg beer?

KJ :D

Scroogemonster

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by Scroogemonster » Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:12 am

kay-jay wrote:how about an unprimed sample in a bottle??? wouldn't this be the same as ditch's unprimed keg beer?
Without any priming you simply have air sitting above the beer (the remaining yeast would take ages to carbonate it even by a small amount.) By the time it reached the master it would have been well sloshed around in the bottle and thoroughly oxidised. It would probably taste rank #-o
Kev

EoinMag

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by EoinMag » Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:21 am

I have done a cooopers stout before with dark liquid malt and a chocolate addition and it did ooze out the side of the fermenter. I treat my water with campden to remove chlorine and it was summer so my spare room was a bit warmer than I wanted, but the coopers yeast is good for that anyway so I wasn't too worried.

tubthumper

Re: Ditches stout water test

Post by tubthumper » Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:36 pm

I wouldnt trust an open fermenter in my house with 2 little kids and wife spaing everything with antibac spray.

the fermenter is bubling away now 1 pop per 8 seconds so not to violent took the top of to have a look and the dirty brown stuff is starting to rise will skim it off when it gets higher up still loads of room to grow

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