Slow dive into water
- Thread starter ChrisD123
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Galena
Landlord.
It WILL require adjustment unless you are making a style like Cech Pilsner
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You are missing the point, the OP wants to learn about brewing water. This is where Palmer and Brungard go to great lengths to get across the whys and wherefores for achieving the brewing water needed for a specific beer.
Nothing to be learned by putting figures into a program to come up with with amount of salts needed.
I do agree that AWS should be avoided the only thing the poster needs is lactic acid, which would be used rarely, chloride, gypsum, Epsom salts and maybe some table salt according to taste. And a pH meter.
Yes, your water for brewing is not that much different from mine which is RO water from the De-sal plant plus runoff.
To make things even easier don't put your none fermentables in the mash until mash out, that way you will be coming up with very similar water profiles for most of your brews.
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It just proves that no good deed goes unpunished.
peebee
Out of Control
@ChrisD123: Oops, I'm gaining criticism for not answering your original question right ... okay:
Yes, your water is a great base, if you mean you don't have to take anything from it, just add stuff to bump up the salts your beer may need.
Use a calculator like @hoppyscotty recommended in the second post of the thread, after your first. I use Bru'n Water, but that can get a bit involved to start with. Even the basic (no pH predictions, but free!) such as the one linked by this forum (Water Chemistry - Basic) or the one by Graham Wheeler (Graham Wheeler's Water Calculator - Jim's Beer Kit). The lack of pH prediction can be a disadvantage for the next ...
Adding acid (like AMS or lactic acid) can be unintuitive for water with very little in it but depending on the grain you're using (such as all Lager malt) you can end up with the pH too high (over 5.7ish, it's more likely the additions of crystal and roast malts will see the mash pH under 5.2): Unlikely, but a pH testing (meters, papers, etc.) is a good idea. You shouldn't be far out using recommendations from water calculators, but if you are tempted to make a pH correction after you've mixed the grain, there is always the risk of tearing all your hair out. Instead, just remember it for next time. Calcium additions (and you will need some ... 100mg/L is probably the minimum but some say 50) will cause reactions that lower the pH, so have them added, as well as the grain, before pH testing.
Chlorine (they won't use Chloramine up there) should always be a concern, but I doubt they use anything near to noticeable up your way.
You may need to increase pH, not lower it (I do, my water Alkalinity is 7-8mg/L as CaCO3). Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) will do ... don't make the mistake of using chalk; that is a very advanced addition (I certainly avoid using it).
And don't forget, if you see mention of "Hardness", ignore it. That medieval technique of dealing with "chemistry" (fire, earth, air and water) still has its place in preventing boilers caking up, etc. But no place at all in brewing beer ("Hardness" can be used to help brew beer but you must understand fully what it stands for ... and most importantly, never, never attempt to mix up "Hardness" methodology with "Alkalinity/ions" way of doing things, as that's why people think water chemistry is so complicated).
Yes, your water is a great base, if you mean you don't have to take anything from it, just add stuff to bump up the salts your beer may need.
Use a calculator like @hoppyscotty recommended in the second post of the thread, after your first. I use Bru'n Water, but that can get a bit involved to start with. Even the basic (no pH predictions, but free!) such as the one linked by this forum (Water Chemistry - Basic) or the one by Graham Wheeler (Graham Wheeler's Water Calculator - Jim's Beer Kit). The lack of pH prediction can be a disadvantage for the next ...
Adding acid (like AMS or lactic acid) can be unintuitive for water with very little in it but depending on the grain you're using (such as all Lager malt) you can end up with the pH too high (over 5.7ish, it's more likely the additions of crystal and roast malts will see the mash pH under 5.2): Unlikely, but a pH testing (meters, papers, etc.) is a good idea. You shouldn't be far out using recommendations from water calculators, but if you are tempted to make a pH correction after you've mixed the grain, there is always the risk of tearing all your hair out. Instead, just remember it for next time. Calcium additions (and you will need some ... 100mg/L is probably the minimum but some say 50) will cause reactions that lower the pH, so have them added, as well as the grain, before pH testing.
Chlorine (they won't use Chloramine up there) should always be a concern, but I doubt they use anything near to noticeable up your way.
You may need to increase pH, not lower it (I do, my water Alkalinity is 7-8mg/L as CaCO3). Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) will do ... don't make the mistake of using chalk; that is a very advanced addition (I certainly avoid using it).
And don't forget, if you see mention of "Hardness", ignore it. That medieval technique of dealing with "chemistry" (fire, earth, air and water) still has its place in preventing boilers caking up, etc. But no place at all in brewing beer ("Hardness" can be used to help brew beer but you must understand fully what it stands for ... and most importantly, never, never attempt to mix up "Hardness" methodology with "Alkalinity/ions" way of doing things, as that's why people think water chemistry is so complicated).
Last edited:
peebee
Out of Control
Okay. I think I've corrected that in my last post. Brungard's outpourings have been integrated in my head for eons. I'm watching the latest Palmer video you posted ... I don't think there's much wrong with his chats; he's a pleasant enough chap, it's just homebrewers who misquote him, misinterpret him, hold him up as some sort of messiah, and turn him into what I perceive as a monster! (His book though is an over-complicated pile of poo as far as I'm concerned though, definitely not suitable reading for homebrewers).
You're doing it again! Inventing what you think I've written and commenting on that.
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Am I the only one that was expecting a slow motion video of a kingfisher (bird, not lager) diving into a river for a small fish ?
