Brewing Water

Brewing Processes
1

I have previously just used R/O and thrown in some CaCl. The more recipes I read (especially some pale ale styles) people are really jacking up the CA, CL, and Sulfate…either through salts or perhaps their existing water profile.

I also have been told that water is what brings a recipe from good to great, but I am beginning to think it has more to do than that.

What do you use for brewing? Also please add if you treat w/ salts.
  • R/O, “Drinking” bottled water
  • Spring Water
  • Filtered Tap
  • Distilled
  • Other, please explain
0 voters
2

i use RO and adjust (mostly with gypsum, CaCl, epsom, pickling lime or lactic) according to Bru’n Water to the profile and pH I want to reach

3

RO with Brunwater. I use lactic to drop, baking soda to raise, and gypsum, CaCl2, and sometimes epsom to hit the right flavor profile for a beer.

4

Exactly this, sans epsom.

Where and why are you guys using epsom (Mg)? Styles, flavors you are after?

5

Lots of sulfate with no calcium. The amount of magnesium added is fairly small. Martin’s Pale Ale profile wouldn’t be possible without it.

6

Also in lagers, where it’s sometimes beneficial to keep Ca content fairly low (sub 50ppm), it’s a way of getting sulfate content without excess Ca. I never exceed the Brunwater recommendation of Mg.

7

All of the above but specifically I use distilled, gypsum, CaCl, Epsom, table salt, Baking Soda and Acid Malt to hit my numbers.

8

Tap water adjusted with Bru’n water. Normally just need some gypsum, CaCl, and lactic acid to get me where I need to be. I use baking soda in dark beers to raise the pH near 5.6.

9

For 90% of the beers I make, I use my unfiltered well water.  For the other 10%, I either use distilled or cut my well water with distilled.  All depends on the beer color and style.

10

RO with salts adjusted with Bru’n Water. My local water is surface water that tastes terrible and often has high levels of calcium and organic matter. Even clearing out the chloromine still leaves an unpleasant water.

11

RO plus Bru’NWater, I have gypsum, CaCl, table salt, epsom, baking soda, pickling lime and acid as necessary to hit my profiles. Usually not more than 4 of the above in any recipe : the simpler the better

12

I didn’t know keeping the Ca low in a lager was a good thing. The Helles I have chilling right now has only 42ppm. What is the reasoning behind the low Ca being desirable?

13

I don’t know if it’s desirable as much as unnecessary.  According to Martin. Ca is mainly useful for yeast flocculation.  Since you will be cold conditioning a lager, you’ll be dropping the yeast by temp, making Ca much less necessary.

14

Thanks. That has been my thought process. I got the impression from other comments that there was something to gain by reducing the Ca.

What do we gain by using some Mg (a la Martin’s Pale Ale profile)?

15

AFAIK, Mg promotes yeast health, especially if you intend to repitch.

16

IIRC Martin also posted that sub 50ppm Ca lagers sometimes have a softer character as well.

17

That’s what I was looking for. Good to know, thank you. Do you know if that was his experience or from some other tasting panel?

18

Don’t remember. I’ll try to find a thread where he mentioned it and post here.

19

I found an old thread where Martin made this comment about Ca content :

"In ale brewing, there doesn’t seem to be too much detriment to brewing with high calcium content. One aspect that may be either good or bad, is that yeast flocculate and settle much faster with high calcium content. For example, Burton beers were always praised for their clarity. But a negative would be if your ale yeast flocs too quickly and your beer doesn’t attenuate and you have to somehow rouse the yeast to get it to finish its job!

In lager brewing, there definitely is a negative to high calcium. It can interfere with the yeast metabolism and can cause premature flocculation (as above).

In general, calcium doesn’t really affect flavor. Its the other ions (Cl, SO4, HCO3) that affect flavor. 50 ppm Ca seems to be a minimum value for ales since you may have problems getting the beer to clear quickly at levels lower than that. Lagers don’t have to clear quickly since they are ‘lagered’ and that slow process does the work. Of course, this whole clearing issue is easy to fix…either fine, filter, or centrifuge the beer to remove the yeast.

AHA members will get to read more about this calcium in brewing water in the March/April 2015 issue of Zymurgy. It helps put to rest the myth that brewing water should always have at least 50 ppm calcium."

There are several other comments in this area to be searched.

20

Great, thanks man. Nice sleuthing! I don’t make a lot of lagers but it appears I have been keeping the Ca low when I do. I have to remember to keep it that way.