Zymurgy’s Two Hearted Ale recipe in 2011 called for carbon filtered water with 4g Gypsum added to it. What is the purpose of carbon filtered water? Isn’t that just Brita filtered water? If so, wouldn’t I need to know Bell’s water report to know if I need to add gypsum to it?
Carbon filters will remove chlorine (and sometimes chloramines) and any other organic materials. The underlying salts won’t be affected.
Yeah, “carbon filtered” isn’t really helpful. AFAIK like much of the midwest Michigan has terrible brewing water, so I’d bet they’re doing more than just carbon filtering it.
Brita is more than a carbon filter. It also contains an ion exchange resin which will change the salt composition of the water.
So what would you do? My water in Fort Worth has 89-142 Calcium, 99-123 bicarb, 16-33 Chlorine, sulfate 23-36, total alk 99-123. Do I add gypsum? Do I even bother carbon filtering? Do I buy spring water and add gypsum? I’m really not sure
You should do something to knock out the chlorine. Carbon filtering or campden. I wouldn’t add any gypsum with that water, as your calcium is already high. If your water happens to have single-digit magnesium, you might use epsom salt, but anything over like 25ppm of magnesium is pretty harsh. I don’t know if they make food-grade potassium sulfate, but that’d be a pretty neutral way to raise your sulfate without off-flavors from the ion it’s bound to.
You could treat your water with campden and then cut it 50/50 with distilled water. Then you’d have a little more leeway on the calcium side to bump up the sulfates.
Is that 16-33 chloride? Or chlorine? Try shooting for this water profile… http://seanterrill.com/2010/06/28/tha-cloning/
You could dilute with some RO/distilled and then add gypsum to get an appropriate sulfate level.
You should always filter your water if it contains chlorine. I personally would want more sulfates in an IPA. For more delicate beers, you have a lot of temporary hardness that you could precipitate by pre-boiling your water, but I don’t see a problem with just adding the gypsum for this one. It would add something like 75 ppm of sulfate and 30 ppm of calcium.
How do you go about filtering the water to remove chlorine? Someone mentioned Campden tablets? How does that work? Are there other ways to remove the chlorine?
carbon filter will remove chlorine and chloramine. however i have started using campden tablets very simple. i think if you really want to match the water profile i would start with ro water.
When you say carbon filter, do you mean a brita filter? Also, do you know the water profile of RO water? IS it basically without ions?
i think ro water is basically deionized but i am not sure.
i do not know if a brita filter is a carbon filter. i use a filter housing like you would see at an rv park. there was a thread not long ago discussing chloramine removal this way and as long as the flow rate is slow should work, however, campden tablets are very inexpensive and work great. the rate is a tablet per twenty gallons, so i throw 1/4 in to my 4-5 gallons of water as i am heating it up for the mash.
If I were to just buy distilled water, which basically has no ions in it, and add salts to it would that work as well? I have BeerSmith and it basically tells you how much salts to put in to get a desired water profile. I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know if it really works. When do you add the salts----when your heating up your mash water?, when you add the water to the crushed grains?
probably be close but i don’t think distilled is as “pure” as de ionized but should be close
Doesnt a water filter simply remove the solid material from water?
you guys know where you buy epsom salts and chalk? Is there food grade chalk?
Epsom salts at the grocery store or pharmacy. The chalk ( Calcium Carbonate ), I get from the LHBS or online.
If it is chlorine, you can fill you kettles the day before you brew and it will evaporate off. If you local water supply has Chloramine, then campden tablets ( 1 tablet is good for 20 gallons ) work well. I cut mine in half ( doing 5 gallon batches ) and I still have the original bottle I bought.
Chalk needs to be added to a acidic solution, otherwise it will just sink to the bottom. There is some absorprion when added to the mash, but it is still a very inefficient process. Personally, when using R/O or DI water I never add chalk. If I want a “little” bit of carbonate in my water, I blend with dechlorinated tap water (treated with a camden tablet) from 10-50% depending on the style of beer I am making. I can’t remember the last time I ever used chalk in a beer. My tap water is moderately hard. Potassium carbonate, if you can find it at your LHBS, is a little more absorbent if you are really wanting to add carbonate to your water. It is generally with the wine stuff. As for epsom salt, a little goes a long way. I generally shoot for roughly 20ppm of Mg in my brewing water (Martin or Kai’s spreadsheets can help with this). Generally, I use epsom salt to supplement the gypsum for the sulfate ion when I am pushing the upper limits of how much calcium I want in my beer. Too much epsom salt and you’ll get the dirty squirties 
Kai and Martin’s websites are both good resources for water adjustments. Making water adjustments is good if you are understand what your doing and why you are doing it. It is a tool, just like anything else in brewing. Less, is sometimes more. Especially with brewing salts.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Building_brewing_water_with_dissolved_chalk