I went to brew the latest version of my house IPA yesterday and took another look at the Brun’ Water because I wanted to see the difference (if any) between brewing with distilled and RO water. I have always used RO water, but wondered how much salt was getting past the RO system from my water softener, and softening the taste of my IPA.
ANYWAY, I was looking at Brun’ Water and noticed that on the Water Adjustment page for the Desired Water Profile, I had selected Pale Ale. I wondered to myself if this was the appropriate profile so I switched it to Amber Bitter (my IPA is 8.1 SRM). Immediately the cells for Gypsum and Epsom salts turned red. My target was just under 300 ppm for Sulfate, and it was sitting at 298.6.
So my questions are:
For an American IPA with 136.7 calculated IBU’s, what is the correct Desired Water Profile?
Given the fairly large change in profile, what beer style does Amber Bitter represent if not an IPA?
I use the Pale Ale profile for IPAs. It has the higher sulfate levels I prefer in IPA as I don’t like the sweeter ones.
I assume the Amber Bitter profile would be better for something like a West Coast Amber, which has a much higher level of crystal malts but is hoppy too.
The Amber Bitter profile is not really intended to represent a ‘style’. Its intended to provide a modest level of ions for a beer with a little more color. The Bitter profile does have a bit more focus on sulfate and its drying effects, but its nowhere near the level of the Pale Ale profile. I’ve brewed a pale ale with levels similar to the Bitter profiles and that is fine and drinkable beer, but it doesn’t have the pop of the higher Pale Ale sulfate level.