This came up recently in a discussion of extract brewing and water treatment. No one seemed to have the answer offhand so I emailed Briess and asked the question. They were kind enough to reply with the following information:
“We do not regularly test our products for these salts, but we do
occasionally test the water used in our mash. Sulfate is around 63mg/L
and Chloride around 28 mg/L. Since we produce 16 Plato wort (Gravity
1.064), you can calculate that for every 1 Plato increase (Gravity .004)
from extract you use you will be adding approximately SO4=4mg/L and
Cl=1.8mg/L to your brew. The water that we use is of moderate hardness,
but since we make high gravity brews, the hardness will be lower if you
brew a beer below 1.064 using distilled water.”
I thought this was good information and wanted to share.
Yes I was somewhat surprised that they replied. I did tell them it was for a conversation that was going on at the AHA forum.
The level of the flavor anions favors hoppy brews but the levels are so modest as to not really affect the outcome significantly. You can easily add chloride and convert to a malty flavor profile without raising the chloride level to high. And thats at 1.064, bring it down to a 1.050 and you are in a very nice place. The moderate hardness isn’t necessarily good for a pils style. I’d definitely use distilled water for something along those lines, and probably make the OG in the mid to high 40’s.