You are correct: different beers developed in areas where the water chemistry included different ions.
Which is the point to adding salts to your base water for different styles!!
If they figured out 150 yrs ago different water ions makeup different water …and are best for brewing certain styles …then you might want to sit up and take notice.
Brewing salts are like seasoning in a soup or stew. If I want to make Steak and Ale Chili I use different seasonings than I do to make Chicken Noodle Soup. They’re both soups/stews but totally different, with totally different ingredients, so are seasoned totally different to meld with those ingredients.
Beer is no different. If you limit yourself to making all the beers you choose to brew with the same water then I would suggest you could make better beer if you would investigate for yourself. Your base may be great for certain styles but it isn’t going to be great for all styles.
I am not talking about using the whole spice cabinet. …but a bit of gypsum in an English Bitter or soft water for the Czech Pils can make a difference.
The above makes sense…never thought about this in terms of Chili vs Chicken Noodle, but that is an excellent analogy.
In 30 years of brewing, only filtered, untreated tap water has been used. I will expand my horizons. The beers all have been good, so if they actually improve…Gold Medal time!
Still waiting on the results of my 5 entries in the Bluebonnet. I’m sure the judges will note the water profile.
No doubt in my mind (a little brewing salts go a long way) - also, for example, one might have too acidic of an unadjusted pH to make a dark style without some adjustment; i.e., the dark style may do better with a bit of an upward pH adjustment. We tend to think only in terms of the pale styles and (almost) always needing some acid to achieve proper pH. Some have the perfect water for pales (unadjusted), but I think they are the lucky ones; my water needs adjustment, otherwise the flavors are not meeting my expectations. Dialing in with additions is part of my typical recipe formulation, based on experience with my process. I wish it were not needed, but for my water, the beers improve with some adjustment.
[emoji15] look at all those chemicals in your water! [emoji23]
I agree that you should use a water calculator to determine your brewhaus liquor additions. There are a number of calculators out there. It’s pretty easy to overdo it. We’re talkin a tsp (~4 grams) or less in most cases for a 6.5 gal batch (5 gal in the keg after boil kettle and fermenter loss).
For example I have an American Amber Ale upcoming. I start with distilled water and build from a blank slate:
To get there I use 1 tsp gypsum in the mash to get my 50 ppm Calcium co-factor for mash enzyme activity, help in protein coagulation (hot and cold break, for clarity), and as a benefit for yeast, among several other advantages.
Then .5 tsp CaCl, .25 tsp gypsum, and .175 tsp salt in the boil for flavor.
Nothing crazy. Many brewers use more. I could stand to increase Chloride and Sulfate (and therefore Calcium) but I am fairly conservative with water additions.
Excellent - you will find that the typical additions are very minimal. Your water looks pretty good. Here is my RO water report from Ward’s Lab a couple years back (TDS about 14 now); you can see why I have to add some things back, as my RO is pretty flatline:
pH
6.4
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 26
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.04
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.3 / 0.4
ppm
Sodium, Na 7
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 0.4
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 < 1
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S < 1
Chloride, Cl 1
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 21
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 17
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
“<” - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit
You are SO wrong. You know or hear of brewers making SOME great beer styles without messing with their water. That is true, but they probably either limit their brewing to similar styles or they make crappy examples of other styles. Water treatment is a REQUIREMENT if a brewer wants to make a wide range of great beers.
There are plenty of people that have water that isn’t well suited to brewing if it’s not treated. Making the assumption that anyone can make great beer without adjusting their water is rather uninformed.
I had a buddy in the Army — Dave Taylor. We were in a $#!+ hole bar in Korea ~’83. Another drunk buddy went up the the biggest dude in the place and picked a fight. Needless to say he got his butt kicked.
Dave decides he gonna be all chivalrous and goes out and tells the dude that’s his friend and he’s not going to allow him just to kick his butt and walk off. Problem is that dude was a black belt in karate. He kicked Dave twice in the head once in the gut before he finished his sentence. Bop, Bop, Bop.
Dave, doubled over, told the dude, “Thank You”. [emoji23]
I just had a long conversation with the head chemist, at the City Lab / Water Treatment Facility. It turns out that Fritz is also a home beer brewer. He said that the local water profile is actually quite forgiving for many beer styles. He also noted that some added hardness might be appropriate for a Robust Porter, or a Stout.
My neighbor / brewing friend says my beers are very, very good (“Light years ahead of other brewers”), without any treatment of the water supply. And Dave has sampled many home brew beers! He also worked in a Craft Brewery in Austin Texas, before moving to the North Texas area.
We will get the results of our 8 entries in the Bluebonnet Brewoff 2021 next month. Certainly if the water profile impacted the beer in a negative fashion, the BJCP judges will pick up on it, and make notes on the score sheet.
I will experiment a bit going forward, to see what if any improvement is noticed with treated water.
But since our beers taste pretty darn good as is, I’m not going to get bent out of shape over this.
edit: Do not interpret this as bragging about my beer. The point is great beer can be brewed by anyone, with local water, and you do not have to stress out over the actual chemical composition. After all…it’s beer.
That is a healthy way to look at brewing. I am a ranked BJCP judge and what I have found is that the winning beers are usually brewed on the edge of the style. There is little doubt that these beers are good, but one is usually enough. I personally do not want to brew beers where one is enough. Beer is about socializing with good friends. Granted, COVID has made this ritual challenging, but I have faith.
I love your post above, @TXFlyGuy. However, I could not help but chuckle at this part:
That there is funny. Just something about it. I mean, yeah, if the water is horrible, hopefully the judges can help with that. But if your water is even just kind of okay but not really “bad” or “negative”… the palate of even the best judges just isn’t that good. I just don’t believe it.
To expand a little, even if a judge picks up something in your beer that is related to your brewing water, they may not pick out the water as the cause (or the solution, which is a better way to think about it). For example of you submit a stout that was mashed at a pH of 5.2, you might see comments about harsh or acrid flavors. But not many judges would instantly jump at a low pH being the cause.
