Month: February 2013

Water Assessment ReportWater Assessment Report

February 13, 2013| admin| 0 Comments | 7:08 pm

Just sent a bottle of tap to Ward Laboratories in Kearney, Nebraska. The water report is as follows:

pH	7.5
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est ppm	170
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm	0.28
Cations/Anions, me/L	3.0 / 2.7
	ppm
Sodium, Na	10
Potassium, K	1
Calcium, Ca	35
Magnesium, Mg	10
Total Hardness, CaCO₃	129
Nitrate, NO₃-N	0.3 (Safe)
Sulfate, SO₄-S	12
Chloride, Cl	13
Carbonate, CO₃	< 1
Bicarbonate, HCO₃	97
Total Alkalinity, CaCO₃	80
Flouride, F	1.14
Total Iron, Fe	< 0.01

I’ve heard that the profile for Cleveland water differs in winter from summer. So, I may have to send off for another report later this year.

My next brew is going to be an Oktoberfest/Marzen. So, I will see what it takes to create a water profile that aligns with one from German regions based on this report. Found a pretty interesting article on Homebrew Water Treatment at The Mad Fermentationist.

Great site for Water Chemistry.

Conway CloneConway Clone

February 12, 2013| admin| 0 Comments | 7:04 pm

My last brew session was a Conway’s Irish Ale clone of the Great Lakes Brewery beer. I chose this one at my wife’s behest and the thought that my dad would enjoy this one as well.

The clone is not precise for a few reasons, the first being that I don’t have a whole lot of money to throw around right now and I had a backlog of ingredients on hand. As I pursued a clone recipe for Conway I learned that Great Lakes uses Harrington 2-row as the base for most of its brews. This is good to know, as I have a desire to try a few clones: for instance, my Christmas ale this year used a Nosferatu clone as the base–again, however, I didn’t know about the Harrington 2-row. I learned about the base characteristics of Great Lakes brews from a nice post on The Beerists blog site.

In looking around, the only places I’ve seen that carry Harrington are Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer.

Additionally, Great Lakes uses quite a bit of Cascade.

Regardless, here is the clone that I used:

11 lb Maris Otter
.75 lb Crystal 80
.10 lb Crystal 40
1 oz Northern Brewer (30 min)
1 oz Hallertauer (10 min)
.75 oz Fuggle (5 min)
WLP002 British Ale yeast

We’ll see how this compares, although I expect significant differences. In the future, I aim to try this again with a more precise version that uses Harrington 2-row, Cascade, and Wyeast London Ale 1028.