more desirable in water: Ca or Na?

Brewing Processes
1

When needing to bump up Chloride in maltier beers I normally use CaCl but to reach my desired chloride levels. This gets my Ca higher than desired for the given water profile. Does that matter? I have considered using NaCl after hitting my Ca levels but that would push my Na levels up to 25-30 ppm. I have never used NaCl before. Does using NaCl seem unnecessary?

It seems that with only Gypsum and CaCl, I can hit:
Ca - 62 ppm
Mg - 7
Na -14
SO4 - 55
Cl - 71

This is very close to the yellow malty profile that I am going for with some excess Ca…

I don’t fully understand water treatment (obviously) so I am possibly complicating matters more than necessary. I hope this makes sense. Excuse my lack of knowledge.

2

Not enough excess Ca to worry about IMO.

3

Thanks Denny. I kind of figured that but have wrapped my head around the nuances of water

4

+1.  No, you’re better to be high on Ca than Na.  I’d use CaCl to get your chloride.

EDIT - Though 25-30 ppm Na is not high.  I would just avoid specifically trying to pick up chloride content from NaCl.

5

For the proposed Na level, there would be no problem what so ever if you decided to use table salt to boost the Cl level. If anything, the overall sweetness perception of the beer could improve with the salt addition.

I add table salt to almost all my brewing water for flavor impacts. The Na level I use is typically at your proposed level or less, though. So I’m not pushing at all.

I suggest that you don’t need to worry about Na at levels of 50 ppm or less in almost any beer. Above that level, you should raise an eyebrow. However, Na can be an asset in roastier beers since I find that it improves and mellows the flavors. I wouldn’t go over 100 ppm Na, since the flavor is just starting to become apparent at that level. At 250 ppm Na, anyone would recognize a salty flavor.

6

Thank you Martin! It’s good to know that it is not harmful at this level and can be beneficial for certain things. I may experiment this go round. After looking at it, it is only 13 ppm more Na than my existing water has which is probably pretty minimal.

I should have noted that this proposed profile is for a helles lager.

I need to figure out how to make my roasty/dark beers smoother but that is another conversation…