The Night Before Brewday

The need to brew is strong! Both kegs are kicked and the fermentation chamber is empty. Brew day is upon us.


So I have finally kicked the keg for the Pale Death Ale and Casket Ale v1 keg, So I will be rebrewing the Casket Ale. This is all part of my Casket Series, where I brew a very simple beer and make slight tweaks so I can see what the results will be. Its a great way to experience what a certain, hop, malt or yeast characteristic's bring to a beer. I have brewed the Casket Ale before, its a very simple recipe and the beer came out decently, but the one criticism that I have received, and what I have felt myself, is the hops are just lacking a bit of punch. This is not from the lack of hops either, one of my early beers, which had almost 300g total in a 23L batch, was a bit meh.

Casket Ale v1.2, will be pretty much the same recipe, with some slight tweaks. I have reduced the grain so I can brew a 21L batch instead of a 23L batch and added a few more hops at the end of the boil, whirlpool/hop steep and dry hop. The biggest change I will be attempting with this beer, is adding brewing salts to the mash and boil. Now I wont get into the technical side of it, as I am still figuring it out myself.. What I have done, is sourced the water report for my area and used the EZwatercalculator to work out my water additions(see image at end of post). 
One of the biggest factors to hop bitterness/aroma is water. The harder the water, the better hop bitterness and aroma you will get. After checking my water report and looking up the optimal water chemistry for a hoppy beer. I found my water was severely lacking! My water it seems is very soft, which will be great for a pilsner but not for a hoppy pale ale or IPA. The only avenue I see it to experiment with brewing salts and record the results.

Its now Friday night, I have premeasured my mash and batch sparge water. I have also dosed each with one camden tablet to help dissipate the chlorine, which I also have an abundance of. Hops and brew salts(gypsum, calcium chloride and epsom salts) are measured out, equipment is cleaned and ready for brew day. All I have left now is to finish writing this post, clean out my large pot in the morning and to get my brew on.


I will post another blog entry about the actual brew day and will have some footage from the day for my Homebrew Wednesday. So you will be able to see the trials and tribulations of the day. 
As I have to warn you, this might go balls up, playing with water chemistry is risky. You can make the beer overly bitter and add off flavours with just the brewing salts. I have read up and done research on the matter, but I might be putting too much in or I might be putting too little in. What I will do, is share my results, be it good or bad.


Now, I need to go do some more readying and get some sleep as it is going to be a long day tomorrow. Wish me luck and have a beer on me.