So I’ve sampled some of the Mild ale I made for Miss Jiwaku, and my impression is that it’s not bad, but could use more… more of the maltiness, which is supposed to define the character of the beer. I was looking up some mash chemistry info to reply to a query by another homebrewer and realized that I hadn’t done any water treatment in making my Mild, but that adding Calcium Carbonate (CaCl) could help emphasize the maltiness of the brew.

I shall have to remember that next time. My use of Windsor yeast certainly helped (the wort stopped fermenting much higher than it would have if I’d used another ale yeast), but if adding CaCl will help more, I’m happy to do it.

This is something I ought to do for other non-hop-forward beers. I honestly haven’t done any water treatment yet, but I imagine this is part of what will make the difference for both my maltier beers (in terms of CaCl) and my hoppier ones (in terms of gypsum).

So… something to think about. Meanwhile, since I didn’t post it, I brewed up a couple of ales with a couple of my students for the upcoming movie night our department will be holding in June. The beers are (a) a Saison, reprising the hit from last semester, and (b) an ESB, since the hoppier APA wasn’t so popular last semester. I’m going to dry hop the ESB in the keg with some Kent Golding, and the Saison will go straight into the keg as is. Should be a fun movie night.

I didn’t take any pictures of the student brewday, which is a pity; the students who did come (there were three in all) promised to share pictures, but I guess I’ll have to pester them to do so…