1 oz Tettnanger 4.5AA @ 60
1 oz Tettnanger 4.5AA @ 10
Single Infusion Mash @ 153F for 60min.
Wyeast 1056 or equivalent.
Assume Distilled or Deionized water and a target mash pH of 5.4, make a water profile to influence the resulting beer and describe how you believe it will affect the resulting beer. Any acid needed would be phosphoric. Once everyone has their predictions in place each person will brew the beer and send a sample to everyone else who participates…
Replace the numbers and the prediction with your own:
Prediction - Expect smooth and subdued hop flavor with a certain fullness in the mouthfeel.
Just kidding about the actual brewing. Still looking for the experiment where two beers are brewed, one with 100ppm of chloride and one with 100ppm of sulfate, both with the corresponding calcium amounts to see if tasters can distinguish them.
Assuming 4.7 gallons of strike water (distilled), 3.7 gallons of sparge water (distilled), pre-boil volume of 7.4 gallons, post-boil volume of 6 gallons, and 5.5 gallons into fermentor (which is my actual system):
Added to strike water only: 2.8 grams gypsum, 2.8 grams calcium chloride, .35 grams canning salt, 7 ml of 10% phosphoric acid
Overall finished water profile, taking into account boil-off volume of 1.4 gallons:
That’s probably how I would brew the first iteration. Sulfate and chloride levels could be adjusted on later batches if necessary (maybe experiment with dosing glasses of the first batch with various amounts of gypsum and/or calcium chloride to see what changes; something I have never tried but keep meaning to).
He brings up a good point. Some of the minerals are easily adjusted post brew to see how they affect a beer. I know I have added gypsum to beers when I felt they fell flat. While it isn’t 100% the same as brewing two batches with different water, it’s close enough. Some argue that two batches aren’t reliable enough as it is.
I guess stating the intent of your profile would be another way of putting it. Building water on purpose should be filled with intent, one would think.
63 ppm is what results from hitting the sulfate and chloride targets when starting from distilled water and also gets the mash pH reasonably close to the desired target without requiring a large phosphoric acid addition; it doesn’t seem too high or low to me to require any further adjustment - enough to precipitate oxalate in the mash and to aid in yeast flocculation
Sulfate
I tend to keep sulfate on the low side unless brewing something hoppy in which case I will boost to 150-200 ppm; I have not personally experimented with sulfate levels higher than that, though I see 300 ppm mentioned a lot and will give it a shot sometime
Chloride
I also tend to keep it on the low to medium end; this is probably me being influenced by Gordon Strong’s Brewing Better Beer; playing around with higher chloride levels is something I could experiment with more
Sodium
for years I have been brewing with no added sodium but recently tried dosing a glass of beer with table salt, and I felt like a small addition was nice; I have no idea whether 5 ppm provides a noticeable difference from 0 ppm, but it seems like a good starting point (rather go too light than too heavy)
Magnesium
I currently do not add; as I posted in another thread this morning, Palmer indicates in Waterthat 12 Plato wort already contains approximately 100 ppm; I don’t know that another 5 or 10 ppm addition would make a difference; I could fully be wrong about this
Bicarbonate
I don’t see the point of adding any alkalinity here; I already need a bit of phosphoric acid to hit the target mash pH of 5.4
Phosphoric Acid
added only to hit your target mash pH of 5.4; Bru’n Water predicts 5.47 without the acid addition, and I personally wouldn’t be opposed to skipping it
Prediction: the hops would be noticeable without standing out too much, and the finish would be round without being too dry or malty.
Maybe it would be a better beer with a softer finish?
I was mildly surprised to see that Matt B’s Pivo clone recipe in BYO showed only a CaCl2 addition to RO water. I’d have assumed a little or more sulfate too, but the results are hard to argue with. Gonna brew it to the letter soon.
I know you said you were kidding about the actual brewing, but if you did I think the best test would include an un-adjusted distilled water profile (adding only H2PO4 to keep mash pH in the same range) as a control. It’s hard to say what the added salts did unless you compare them to something without the addition.
It seems there’s 4 beers that would somehow need tested probably in separate tests:
Water would need to be treated to like 100ppm.
1.) Just CaCl2
2.) Just CaSO4
3.) Both CaCl2 and CaSO4 (50ppm split?)
4.) Neither
I don’t currently have the resources to do the test.
I just made the OP to try and get folks to think about a water profile they would like to apply to this recipe and what their intended effect was. Apparently not much interest or not many folks actually sit down and do this type of thing.
I like the thought process behind this thread. I did not post my ideas because I don’t brew many beers with 100% German Pilsner malt and American Ale yeast, sorry just not there yet with my brewing. I am still watching though
It is an interesting thought experiment, but it’s not typically how I go about recipe design. I generally start with an idea, then build my recipe (and water salts are part of the recipe) based on my goal. That doesn’t look like a recipe I’d typically design, so I didn’t have a lot of thought on what I’d do with the water profile.
