Talk:Homebrewing beer

Brewing liquor
I have a co worker with extensive experience in the water treatment industry who assures me that campden tablets or any other kind of sulfite will *not* drive off chloramines, they can only be removed via filtering through activated charcoal. I'm not ready to disbelieve you, or him just yet, but a citation (preferably chemistry-based) would be nice. MalkavianX 20:17, 30 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Just had a baby... Will find a reference when I can... ;)

Merger with Homebrewing

 * Moved Merger comments to Talk:Homebrewing

Error in Full Mash section's rule of thumb re. temp & pH
The "Full Mash" section contains an error in the description of mash temp & pH for α-amylase vs. β-amylase. The paragraph says that β-amylase produces fermentable sugars and prefers higher temperature and higher (more alkaline) pH, and that α-amylase produces non-fermentable dextrins and prefers lower temp & pH; but then it goes on to say "the hotter and more alkaline the mash, the drier and more alcoholic the final beer; the cooler and more acidic the mash, the sweeter and thicker".

This is contradictory because "drier and more alcoholic" implies the wort had more fermentable sugars and less dextrins, which the preceeding text says is produced by α-amylase, which (it says) prefers cooler and more acidic conditions.

I suspect the mistake is that β-amylase is the main producer of fermentable sugars, not α-amylase, and β is denatured at a LOWER temp than α-amylase (65°C for β vs. 70+°C for α). Therefore a cooler and more alkaline mash should produce drier and more alcoholic beer, and usually the temperature is all that matters (both α and β tolerate pH 5.0-6.0).

Will some expert chime in and/or fix the text? It is clearly inconsistent, but I don't have enough personal experience to warrant changing the text myself. The information I provided above is based on John Palmer's "How to Brew" book (Ch. 14 "How Mashing Works"). The online version is at http://www.howtobrew.com. Here is a quote from Palmer:

A lower mash temperature, less than or equal to 150°F [65°C], yields a thinner bodied, drier beer. A higher mash temperature, greater than or equal to 156°F [69°C], yields a less fermentable, sweeter beer.

Thanks. Jimavera (talk) 23:27, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

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