pH 7.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 56
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.09
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.9 / 0.6
Sodium, Na 4
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 11.4
Magnesium, Mg 2
Total Hardness, CaCO3 36
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 2
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 22
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 18
Total Phosphorus, P 0.01
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
I plan on brewing an all-grain IPA recipe that claims to finish as a 6.6 % abv and a SRM 7 - golden / amber. It calls for 8.5 ounces of hops and I’ll be using the new Omega Cosmic Punch (so a NE IPA). I was using reverse osmosis water for my previous brews, but I’m thinking of using my own water untreated (as profiled above). I heat 3.5 gallons of strike water separate from 3.5 gallons of sparge water for batch sparging. Calculators are a little overwhelming for my first time using water additives. Thanks for your suggestions.
Unnecessary details if you’re interested:
I have 2 10 gallon kettles, but what I’ve done so far (since I have used reverse osmosis water and have not added any water additives) is poured straight from a culligan’s water cooler jug into the kettle for my strike water and the same for my sparge water. I plan on batch sparging.
Ultimately, I’d love to get 3-3.5 gallons from first runnings and the same volume from my second runnings. I get my batch sparge up to temp and pour in an amount approximately equal to my first runnings when batch sparging. I will leave a little sparge water behind in the kettle if it’s more than my first runnings.
Martin Brungard would be the guy to comment on this. Hopefully he will chime in. BTW, your water is pretty neutral. I normally shoot for at least 40 ppm of Calcium and close to 200 ppm of Sulfate in my IPA to enhance the bitterness. I am considering backing the Sulfate down a but the beer tastes good as it is and is not harsh. But as I said, Martin is the expert on this.
I plugged in my profile into the bru-N-water software and I read it to add phosphoric acid to the sparge, but I didn’t get more involved with the other features.
I second the idea of using Bru’N water spreadsheet. If you have your water profile entered then you can add your grain bill and water volumes. Martin put in a long list of water profiles to use by typing in quantities of salts (start with gypsum and calcium chloride) and acid (if necessary to lower pH- which you’ll likely need) to hit the targets within the water profile you chose (a la trial and error). I have used his “pale ale” profile with great success.
I’m willing to bet that there are tutorials out here (on the web) to step you through. If you were indeed using untreated RO water for past brews, then you should notice an immediate change for the better. Good luck!
I have to be missing a key step using BruNwater. I put my numbers into the water profile, got through the sparge acidification, put in my grains (although not all grains are listed on the grain bill input like flaked oats, flaked wheats, brewers corn syrup, honey malt, etc.) but now I’m stuck. I didn’t get a calculated mash ph on the grain bill input sheet (unless I selected existing water which gave me 5.72ph. And, when I select a water profile (Burton) on the water adjustment sheet - it gives me the PPM numbers, but how do I know how much gypsum and calcium chloride to add. The cells are highlighted blue indicating I need to input. What numbers do I input? I watched videos on YouTube, but I’m still stuck. This is why I came to the forums for an easier solution, because I’m too much a novice to understand how to use this software.
On the Water Adjustment tab you enter your additions in the light blue fields in grams/gallon. The total grams will show up in the yellow cell on the right of that row. The effect on ppm will show up in the light yellow cells between those two and in the Mashing Water Profile row and the green cells in the Overall Finished Water Profile row.
Thanks. I think I’ve figured it out a bit. I put in guess numbers in the water additions light blue cells in the bottom table to try to match the actual finish water adjustment to the target final water adjustment in the two yellow rows in the table above. If anyone has a helpful tutorial - I clearly need it.
It sounds like you are on the right track. The mineral additions are just guesswork. Do pay attention to the water additions on row 17 on the water adjustment sheet. I think you mentioned batch sparging with 3.5 gallons. You can put those values in for mash and sparge on the sheet.
As mentioned, your base water is pretty low in minerals sit it is very much like using RO water. A lot off styles benefit from around 50 ppm calcium. Gypsum helps accentuate a bitterness and calcium chloride provides a fullness. NEIPA’s are known for less bitterness than west coast and a little fullness. I like a 150/150 profile of gypsum / calcium chloride. For a west coast ipa, I use maybe 200 / 50 gypsum to ca chloride.
To get to a target profile, adjust the minerals in the blue column like you mention, and the sheet should reflect how many grams of minerals are needed in each of your batch steps. I adjust acid last as the minerals will impact ph levels while I am tinkering with them. I target around 5.3.
I forgot to add… you can add oats, flaked wheat, or honey malt in the grain additions as “base malt”. The color of the malts or grains will have an impact on the pH.
I did add those grains as base malts like you said, but still not getting a PH. I want to use the adjusted water obviously, but for some reason the yellow room temp mash PH cell on the Grain Bill input sheet still shows an error “REF”.
Any special way to add the additives other than dropping it into the full water volume and stirring? For the batch sparge, add the additions THEN add the phosphoric acid it suggests last? Should this be done before or after heating to desired water temp? My sulfate additions are off by 15 ppm - is that not close enough (216 target 231 actual)? The others are nearly spot on or off by a single digits.
Do you have reported ph value on the “water adjustments” sheet? I’m away from my computer, but it should be above the section on mineral additions on that tab. To my knowledge, that value is also the same value on that grain bill sheet. I think they are linked. Something might be missing around pH earlier in the order of the sheets. Did you starting water include a pH when you put in items from your water report?
I should have said I add my acids to the spreadsheet after my minerals because the minerals make that total pH calculation change slightly - so once I get close enough to target values (and I personally think your numbers were “close enough”), then entering the acid addition is usually the last thing I put in the sheet.
I add my minerals and acid at the same time prior to heating my strike water. I use the brew in a bag method so all of my water is used as strike water for the mash. When a batch sparged, I split the additions only because I measured and heated my additions separately. If you have all 7 gallons together, you can add all the additions at once. I don’t think temp makes a difference to when you add them, just generally before the mash starts.
Very helpful. Thanks for your time! I put it my PH in at the water report sheet as 7.0, but it notes that that cell value is not used anywhere else in the workbook. The Green ‘estimated mash PH’ cell on my water adjustments sheet is also shown as “REF”, so I guess I missed something somewhere.
I didn’t have to do any acid guessing. I let the sparge acidification sheet do most of the work for that. I did put in my starting water PH at 7.0 and my target water PH at 5.4 (as that is what a few different sources suggested).