Any reason to adjust my water for an extract brew? Normally an all-grain brewer. My water tastes fine but I do have high bicarbonates-275 ppm per Ward Labs.
If the beer tastes good then don’t worry about it. If it seems too minerally try brewing a batch with distilled water.
Extract should have minerals in it already so distilled or reverse osmosis will work fine. Also, something like ozarka spring water works really well- so if the bottled water does have minerals it’s ok to brew anyway. Pretty forgiving.
Basically I’m wondering if I can get away with using tap water in an extract american light lager. Ca is 75, low sulfates and chloride, high bicarbonates.
I am proud to use my well water as is. Its kinda cool to have the uniqueness of your own water. Obviously not so cool if your water is terrible. And I can see that it could be fun to try to replicate famous water for a certain style or clone. I think I would just go for it and see what you end up with.
From the description, the alkalinity is the primary problem since the other ions are at reasonable levels. Neutralizing the alkalinity will be a requirement or the wort pH in the kettle may be too high. High pH may create the opportunity for the hops to be harsh and unpleasant. On top of that, most beer styles benefit from a modestly acidic character. High alkalinity may keep the beer from dropping its pH into a desirable range.
So am I looking at a lactic acid addition? How would I calculate that addition? Did I miss an extract page in Bruunwater?
275 ppm is pushing it for lactic acid use. There would likely be flavor impacts. Phosphoric acid would be a safer bet.
There is a note to extract brewers and their water in the Instructions for Bru’n Water. That may help point you in the right direction.
I’m learning this whole forum, and I’m not sure if I posted in the right place, but my question somewhat pertains to water, but the volume amount of the boil.
I’m brewing an American IPA, extract. In the past, I’ve boiled either 2 or 3 gallons, added all my grains, syrup, and hops to that volume amount (2 or 3 gallons). I’m thinking this time around of boiling all 5 gallons, and adding my respective ingredients to 5 gallons, rather than the 2 or 3.
Will this affect my flavor? I’ve noticed a lot of extract recipes calls to boil 2, 3, or even less water, rather than 5. Thanks.
always feel free to start a new post if you have a question. It will be more likely to get seen and fully answered but I will try.
The main reason to boil 2 or 3 gallons for extract is that you don’t really NEED to boil it all so why waste energy? however there are some benefits to boiling the full volume. You should have no problem with straight extract and specialty grains so long as you pay attention to the pH OR pull the grains before the water temp exceeds 170*f. Hop utilization, the amount of bitterness you get from a given amount of hops, will be different depending on the gravity of the wort you are boiling them in. The level of darkening due to maillard reactions is also dependent on the amount of sugar and protein in the wort so a more concentrated boil will darken more.
I use distilled in my boil but just add boiled tap water to get the final volume. I’m not an expert and don’t know if it’s good or bad, but my beer tastes good to me and my friends.