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Archive for the ‘Beer’ Category

Alkalinity Reduction Test

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Are you tired of baby pictures? This should hit the spot then.

The water in Bancroft tastes fine, though it has a ton of temporary hardness (the kind that drops out when water is boiled). Since beer is 95% water, the hardness does affect it. My beers in Nebraska have been held back by this water hardness, I believe.

This experiment tested a way to reduce the temporary hardness, without boiling (which is expensive for ~10 gallons). I used slaked or pickling lime (Calcium Hydroxide) in the water to precipitate Calcium Carbonate, which eliminates temporary hardness as Calcium Bicarbonate (CaCO3) at the bottom of the vessel.

The white stuff at the bottom is the temporary hardness precipitated out, after settling out over night.

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Brewing with the Big Boys

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Thanks to Jeremy of Gottberg Brew Pup in Columbus, Nebraska, I helped brew a large batch of beer. Though it was small on the brew pup scale (more than 8 Barrels =248 Gallons = 939 Liters), it was much larger than the 5 Gal batches I do.

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Gottberg Brew Pub

Friday, October 1st, 2010

On Tuesday Phil and I drove to Columbus, NE to check out the Gottberg Brewery. Phil got to know the pub’s brew master at our beer festival this summer and he was invited for a personalized tour and tasting of course (pint size tastings!). I tagged along and endured much nerdy brew talk, but it was worth it (did I mention the pint size tastings?) and a lot of fun. We had supper there at the pub with Jeremy and his wife Sara. Such a fun couple.

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