Been reading about water. Some I understand, and the rest goes right over my head. I have used bottled Arrowhead water, and more recently a carbon filter from the tap. The beers I produce taste good to me, but wanted to tackle this whole water thing to see if I can improve my beer without of course having to sign up for intro to chem class. Below is my water report. It seems that it switches from two plants, Jenson and Meymouth. I think that some of the numbers are within appropriate range for brewing according to the Palmer book. Also, my understanding is that these ions don’t mean much on their own, rather it’s the mash pH that ultimatly matters correct? How do you test mash pH? Do you purchase a pH meter ($20 on amazon)? And or should I own something like a LaMotte test kit? If I owned a LaMotte kit and tested the water, how easily would I be able to alter the water profile (a dash of gypsum a pinch of calcium chloride)? Finally, can someone make heads or tails over this water report or is it just too vague? I was also looking up online classes on the topic. Anyone take one and find it helpful, like the one from craft beer & brewing - $10, or is it likely just an amalgamation of what’s already dispersed online on the subject?
Ca+2 Jensen plant: average 33 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 77 (ppm)
Mg+2 Jensen plant: average 12 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 26 (ppm)
Alkalinity Jensen plant: average 94 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 118 (ppm)
SO4 -2 Jensen plant: average 95 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 258 (ppm)
Na+1 Jensen plant: average 89 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 105 (ppm)
Cl-1 Jensen plant: average 93 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 103 (ppm)
Hardness Jensen plant: average 129 (ppm), Meymouth plant average 300 (ppm)
pH Jensen plant: average 8.3, Meymouth plant average 8.1
That’s typical southern Cal water. Pretty tough to brew with. You are better off diluting all or part of the water with RO.
While proper pH is an appropriate target, that only gets you so far with some styles. The relatively high mineralization of those water sources are not well-suited for brewing lighter and more delicate styles, so dilution needs to be in your toolbox.
You don’t really need to know everything about water to make adjustments to fit a style. Using one of the calculators makes it easier. Just plug in your grain bill, plug in your water report numbers, and choose a water style to build. By adding one ‘salt’ or another you can see the change taking place. You simply add a combination that matches the water profile. It seems more difficult than it is once you start seeing the results of adding a bit of this and a bit of that.
My only recommendation for a calculator is this: I had a bad experience using BeerSmith for acid additions so I do not recommend it for water calculations.
I do not own a home laboratory kit to test my water. Instead I use a blank slate (distilled water) and build from there.
can you give me an example? For instance, I use BIAB method, no sparge, and basic IPA grain bill is as follows:
12# american 2row
1# munich
.5# crystal 40
If I were to start from scratch with 7.8 gals of distilled strike water, what exactly would you add?
Is there a youtube video anyone recommends? That might be easier for the OP. It seems complicated to try to describe how to use Brunwater or similar tool.
First off I’m by no means an expert. If I were brewing that grain bill, I’d put your grain bill on the grain bill input tab which gives a 14.9 SRM.
Then I’d move to the water adjustment tab and select Amber balanced (or full or dry depending on your target). I’d also select distilled water. The Amber Balanced profile gives me a target of 50 ppm Cal, 10 ppm Mag, 15 ppm Sodium, 75 ppm Sulfate, 63 ppm Chloride, and 40 ppm Bicarbonate.
I split my mash and sparge 50/50 4 gal mash and 4 gal batch sparge.
Then I start plugging in numbers in the additions blue blocks. After guessing, maneuvering, plugging, and playing, I end up with 1.1 g Gypsum, 1.4 g Cal Chloride, 1.4 g Epsom Salt, and .8 g Baking Soda in the 4 gal mash liquor and 1.1 g Gypsum, 1.4 g Cal Chloride, 1.4 g Epsom Salt in the 4 gal Sparge liquor.
That gets me 50 ppm Calcium, 10 ppm Mag, 15 ppm Sodium, 77 ppm Sulfate (2 ppm high but as close as I could get which is pretty dayum close), 60 ppm Chloride (again 3 ppm low but close is good enough) and 40 ppm Bicarbonate. …and I see the pH is within range (green) so no acid adjustment required.
For your full boil (no sparge) just increase the mash to full vol and reduce sparge to zero. The spreadsheet will make the calculations for you. I hope this helps.
Thanks BrewBama. This helps. I’m going to cross my fingers and try it. This way I can learn as I play around with an actual water recipe. There should be a water recipe kit for number illiterate people like me. I learn by doing. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out. I’ve made the IPA many times with bottled and tap water and will be really interested to taste the difference with this adjusted water profile. Thanks again.
And, Denny, thank you. The youtube videos are really helpful and didn’t know they existed. I don’t know how to use exel and until watching the video didn’t even know about the tabs on the bottom of the screen :P. Big help. I’m on my way I think.
question about pH. I have figured out some of the brunwater software, using distilled water I manually input the ions in grams to try to get a close match to the recommended profile. Great! But, without sparging (BIAB with no sparge), how can I get my pH in line without throwing everything else off? In other words, my ion ppm numbers are just about perfect for additions, but my pH is at a 5.62 and I want closer to a 5.4.
my water recipe is as follows:
gyps. 3.1g
CaCl2 2g
epsom 3.9g
mag .8
bak. soda 1.8
If I add acid then my bicarbonate numbers go to -8, which then doesn’t match the profile indicating I need a bicarbonate number of 35ppm. And, if you say the bicarbonate number doesn’t matter, can I add the acid in the strike (BIAB) method no sparge.
Yeah, bicarbonate isn’t doing anything for flavor like other minerals do. It’s just something to overcome (or in some cases add) to get the pH right, so you can pretty much ignore it in the profile as long as the pH is right. You can just add the acid, and all the minerals, to the strike water, and you’re done.
(If you were sparging Bru’n Water would have you split the minerals. If you set the mash volume for your no sparge total and sparge volume to zero, all the amounts will be right in the mash adjustment.)
EDIT Wait, you said you’re starting with distilled water? Just don’t add any bicarbonate. Then see if you need acid. You can get sodium, if you want it for flavor in the profile, from canning salt.
Never used it but I think you can get it at pharmacies. You don’t have to use every salt listed; just play around till the ions are right. I get Mg from Epsom and Cl from CaCl2 and canning salt. You probably don’t want much Mg, so unless you want no sulfate at all, Epsom salt should do there.
