Is their water profile known? All I’ve heard about them is that they use acid to get their water ph to 5.5 prior to mashing (don’t recall where I heard that). What else is known like sulfate or chloride levels?
You might find Chico water online. They do treat it with acid to pH=5.5 we got that information at Beer Camp, Gordon Strong wrote that up in Zymurgy and his book.
From Brewer’s Friend
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/
*Chico, CA *
Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2 Alkalinity pH
25 15 13 10 63 91 (HCO3) 8
Chico Water District
As to what they do for the different beers, and what the flavor ions levels are, well a company has to have some trade secrets. I posted a picture of the bags of water salts recently in a storeroom. They also add kettle salts.
This thread has the pics.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=17187.msg217371#msg217371
I believe Martin has done some work there so he might have some insights. IIRC, they take the local Chico water, strip it down to almost nothing, and rebuild it. Does that sound right, Jeff?
Nope, no work on that end. But I have seen the Chico report before. It is typically low in mineralization. I do know that they do mineralize the brewing water. Knowing what Chico water is like will not do you any good.
We were in CA for a meet up with friends in Oct, and Mrs. R said, hey we can make the Sierra Nevada Octoberfest if you want to do the driving. Of course I said yes.
We got there on Thursday, so we did a tour. I asked the guide what they do with the water, as the Water book was out out. She said that they have the course filter, remove chlorine/chloramine, and UV filter. I asked if they had a RO system, she yes, but it was not in use. My guess is they use that for beers like Summerfest if they need to, and the other beers are fine with the treated feed water adjusted with phosphoric acid to 5.5. Then add minerals for the beer being brewed, in the mash and kettle as needed.
The Octoberfest had great beer and food. We got to see Bonearama and Left Over Salmon play. The next day we drove to Santa Rose for a meet up with friends, who are more wine people. I did get to Russian River twice.
Wow, what a great trip !
Seriously. Nice trip Jeff.
I have not heard anything about the SN water treatment.
Dave
It was a really good trip! Add on three days at Paso Robles, which means Firestone Walker. A tour of the Hearst Castle. Driving up highway one all day through the Big Sur area. Some time in Cupertino visiting friends. It was a lot of fun.