Been playing around with Martins spreadsheet and wanted to run this by you and make sure i am doing this right.
My water:
CA 48
MG 2
NA 2
S04 6
CL 7
HC03 138
trying to build water for a Gratzer:
CA 45
MG 31
NA 32
S04 6145
CL 67
HC03 80
By adding to mash:
Epson salt 1.2 gm/gallon
NACL .2gm/gal
Lactic acid .8 ml/gal and .47 to sparge
Grain bill 8lb oak smoked wheat malt and 8oz saur malt
Am i making sense? should I leave my water alone? Should I take a water chemistry class at the community college?
The number one thing is to get the right mash pH. I don’t see a mash pH listed.
The general consensus here is not to chase the water that is traditionally used to make the beer style. I would almost never add magnesium because of the possibility of metallic off flavors. Chloride and sulfate levels can be important but sulfate doesn’t seem likely to be important in a sour beer unless it is to provide a little more sourness. I try to avoid salt - I don’t just mean NaCl - additions to avoid saltiness in sours.
One of the things I really like about Bru’n Water is that Martin has the “boiled” profile as well. The User custom slots are nice as well. Ive added a few of the modified Trappist profiles from BLAM into my version. Its such a handy spreadsheet.