I pulled my municipality’s water report and was pleasantly surprised. It nearly matches that of Westmalle from the table in BLAM. It is slightly basic with a pH range of 7.3-8 and the mineral contents are all favorable.
I’ve used a few excel based spreadsheets and given that my first few all grain brews will mostly likely be darker Belgian styles, it does not seem as though I will need to do much modification to the water.
My question then is this: what is the most basic way to reduce the mash pH the last several tenths to get it in the 5.2-5.5 range? As an engineer I’d like to minimize additions and keep things as simple possible yet I have the desire to give my beer the best chance right out of the gate. Using the previously stated excel based programs I’m getting 5.8 for my dark strong recipe and around 5.7 for my Dubbel recipe.
A direct acid addition (lactic or phosphorus) or acid malt would probably do the trick. I probably wouldn’t mess around with changing the mineral profile if it’s already in a good place.
Welcome to the forum, Derek. You are jumping into water right off the bat, so you probably have more brewing experience than your post count would lead one to think. So, I am going to state the obvious - remember to use Campden tablets if your water supply is chlorinated and consider a carbon filter, if the water has been treated with chloramine.
But like I said above, you probably knew that…best of luck!
Also good to point out that, while we may know the mineral content of a brewery’s water supply, we may not know what the brewery is doing to their water.
The above advice is all good: treat for chlorine or chloromine, and use an acid like lactic or phosphoric to reduce pH.
Water pH means little in brewing. Alkalinity needs attention, and IIRC most Belgian water profiles have a lot of HCO3. Acid will be your friend to take care of that. Mash pH is very important. Mash pH from a speadsheet is a prediction, and as an Engineer I like the verification, or not, from the pH meter measurement. If off then I adjust with acid to decrease pH, or Baking Soda/Pickling lime to increase the pH.
The city water profiles that one can find on the net should be taken with a grain of salt (pun). Brewers drop alkalinity using acid or slaked lime treatment. Brewers use gypsum or CaCl2 to adjust water (I have seen bags of those stacked high in many breweries). Some also use RO or Nano filtration to strip most of the minerals out, and blend some untreated water back to get to a profile they want.
What am I saying? If you are paying attention to water chemistry, ask what the brewer using a certain water would do. Read Martin Brungard’s articles in Zymurgy, and those will give good guidance. Download Bru’nwater and look at the treated profiles in the pulldown.
There is a lot to learn, but the beer you make will benefit from your increased knowledge.
Also - The Bru’n Water website and spreadsheet have some of the best information on water management and how to approach this on the knowledge page! If you want to go a bit deeper, read the “Water” book by Palmer and Kaminski.
To be totally honest, I only have 3 brews under my belt and I am planning my first foray into all grain brewing. With that said, I am also an engineer and part of that training is a thorough research period into all the important topics of a subject. I’m an EE by trade but brewing is no different. My colleges motto was “Knowledge and Thoroughness”.
I previously filtered my water for my extract brews and have taken note of Campden tablets so I can research their use.
If I’m not mistaken, my levels of bicarbonate were given in a general range from 100-190 ppm.
As it stands right now I am just looking to get the foundation of good process down as I transition to all grain. I don’t necessarily want to be the brewing water master, but I definitely appreciate people chiming in with more experience and letting me know even a few little things I can do to be conscious of it starting out.
Even with my relative lack of experience I can spot a helpful program from 100 miles away. Bru’n water is one of those.
Beer aside for a second Denny: seeing as your a retired audio engineer, you and I could probably shoot the breeze about good music all day given the chance! I’m the music lover/historian and guitar sound junkie of my circle of humans…
Oh, isn’t that the truth! At least John Palmer added a bit more mirth to it. Think of how tough it would have been to read if only AJ and I wrote it!! Sahara.
Michael’s a great guy. I was really glad to see Peter there too. He was hurting pretty bad though from that case of the kneesles.
[QUOTE]Just realized you’re the guy Neil and I poked fun during the NHC sorting. Sorry about that! Neil is a great guy!
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Yeah, Neil and I judged together at Dixie Cup a couple years ago and hit it off pretty well. He had some of both of those scotch ale variants at last year’s NHC. All that being said, my original point was that if you thought the book was dry, you really missed out on his presentation. John got a little ambitious with the number of slides and I was starting to wonder if there was going to be a mutiny (because Barleywine).
I’m pretty sure I saw both Michael and Peter at it last year, so they were well-informed. Peter’s an old Dixie Cup pro, though. I met him back in the mid-90s there. Palmer was not phased by it, but Randy Mosher was not pleased.
