Beginners Guide to Water Treatment (plus links to more advanced water treatment in post #1)

[-Bezza-]

It's water treatment for homebrew, officer. Honest.

 

[Clint]

Toot-toot!

 

[matt76]

Thanks Steve for putting these guides together

I'm planning to re-brew my IPA with a few changes, including my first attempt at water treatment - any advice on my workings would be appreciated...

1. First and obvious question, do i just add the gypsum etc to my hot (but not boiling) mash and sparge water before i add the malt?

2. I've had a play in brewers Friend (see screenshot below). This is based on 16L Tesco Ashbeck - not actually right as i tend to mash with 6L and sparge with 8L, but if i've got the idea i can work it from there.....

So, I entered the details for my water and selected "Light colored and hoppy" as my target profile, which i assume is a good start for an IPA (???)
Playing with the numbers I worked out i need to add:
- 4g Gypsum to get the calcium and sulphate up
- 1g Calcium chloride to bring the sulphate:chloride ratio down from >9 to 3.4 - ok for an IPA?
- 2.5ml lactic acid - not sure if this is necessary or worthwhile but i noticed "HCO" (alkalinity???) was high and this brought it down and also brought overall pH down a tad from 5.6 to 5.4

Any comments?

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Justin Dean]

Anyone used this. I have learnt exe valley where water is soft use 10g per litre.

I wonder if you class ashbeck as soft?

https://murphyandson.co.uk/store/liquor-treatments/428-dwb-165-20-kg.html

 

[strange-steve]

1. First and obvious question, do i just add the gypsum etc to my hot (but not boiling) mash and sparge water before i add the malt?

Sorry for the delay I only saw this.

Gypsum dissolves best at around 40°c so this is the ideal temperature at which to add it, however it doesn't really matter when you add it. Just give it a good stir to dissolve it before you add the grain.

However acids should be added at room temperature, so do your alkalinity adjustments before you begin heating the water.

2. I've had a play in brewers Friend (see screenshot below). This is based on 16L Tesco Ashbeck - not actually right as i tend to mash with 6L and sparge with 8L, but if i've got the idea i can work it from there....

Any comments?

HCO3 is bicarbonate which is related to alkalinity. Are those adjustments based on Ashbeck? You shouldn't require a 0.17ml/L lactic acid addition (2.5ml in 14L) if using Ashbeck.

That profile in the screenshot looks pretty good for an IPA, although you could bump the gypsum up a little more if you wanted to.

 

[strange-steve]

Anyone used this. I have learnt exe valley where water is soft use 10g per litre.

I wonder if you class ashbeck as soft?

https://murphyandson.co.uk/store/liquor-treatments/428-dwb-165-20-kg.html

I've seen it before but never used it and don't really know much about it. It looks to be a blend of gypsum and calcium chloride, which is fine if it's at the ratio you want but doesn't really allow for customisation.

 

[Justin Dean]

Thanks mate. My friend in chelmsford and mid eseex craft beer assoc knows the owner of Exe Valley brewery and asked him because i am making Exe Valley Spring Beer right now. I am using ashbeck and gypsun at .49g per litre for the mash and a campdem tablet. Nothing but ashbeck in 17 litres of sparge.

Mash ph i just measured after 56 mins of mashing reads 5.7. Is that ok.? If not what should i do?

Mashing at the moment

 

[matt76]

Sorry for the delay I only saw this.

Gypsum dissolves best at around 40°c so this is the ideal temperature at which to add it, however it doesn't really matter when you add it. Just give it a good stir to dissolve it before you add the grain.

However acids should be added at room temperature, so do your alkalinity adjustments before you begin heating the water.



HCO3 is bicarbonate which is related to alkalinity. Are those adjustments based on Ashbeck? You shouldn't require a 0.17ml/L lactic acid addition (2.5ml in 14L) if using Ashbeck.

That profile in the screenshot looks pretty good for an IPA, although you could bump the gypsum up a little more if you wanted to.

Thanks @strange-steve much appreciated

I noticed in your Water Profiles By Style Thread that for an IPA or pale ale the levels of both calcium and sulphate are much higher. So should I just bump up the gypsum to hit those levels?

And yes it's based on Ashbeck, but I wonder if maybe I've got a bit muddled around the quantities or values for alkalinity???

 

[strange-steve]

Thanks mate. My friend in chelmsford and mid eseex craft beer assoc knows the owner of Exe Valley brewery and asked him because i am making Exe Valley Spring Beer right now. I am using ashbeck and gypsun at .49g per litre for the mash and a campdem tablet. Nothing but ashbeck in 17 litres of sparge.

Mash ph i just measured after 56 mins of mashing reads 5.7. Is that ok.? If not what should i do?

Mashing at the moment
View attachment 18907

5.7 is a tad high but I wouldn't worry about it now. Next time you brew something similar reduce the alkalinity a bit more.

 

[strange-steve]

I noticed in your Water Profiles By Style Thread that for an IPA or pale ale the levels of both calcium and sulphate are much higher. So should I just bump up the gypsum to hit those levels?

You could do, but it's up to you really. One option is to use the lower sulphate profile, then when the beer's ready try it with a little pinch of gypsum in the glass to see if you prefer it or not and then you'll know for next time.

And yes it's based on Ashbeck, but I wonder if maybe I've got a bit muddled around the quantities or values for alkalinity???

Ashbeck lists bicarbonate as 25 ppm iirc, which means alkalinity as CaCO3 of 20 ppm.

 

[Justin Dean]

Steve thank you for you help today. It is in the fermenter now. Fingers crossed.

 

[Justin Dean]

Fermenter is bubbling away beautifully .

 

[matt76]

Couple of questions for you @strange-steve :

I'm planning to brew a pale ale/IPA (using Tesco Ashbeck) with a stepped mash:
6L for 30mins @ 50degC
+ 3L more @ 100degC => 64degC

Then sparge with 7L @ 80degC

So when and to what water do i add my Gypsum and calcium chloride? Do i just chuck it in the mash tun at the start?

Also, re. screenshot below when i enter alkalinity as you mentioned above (I'd actually entered this before) my pH is still a tad high. Is it worth adding a little lactic acid?

Cheers,

Matt

 

[strange-steve]

So when and to what water do i add my Gypsum and calcium chloride? Do i just chuck it in the mash tun at the start?
Is it worth adding a little lactic acid?

Add the salts at any point before you add the grains, just give it a good stir to make sure they're dissolved.

You could add a little touch of lactic acid if you have it to bring the pH down a couple of tenths, but add this to the water before you heat it.

 

[strange-steve]

@matt76 off topic but why the 50° rest?

 

[matt76]

@matt76 off topic but why the 50° rest?

80% lager malt + 20% flaked oats

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/matt76s-brewdays.81971/#post-821056

 

[matt76]

Another question for you @strange-steve when you have time - it's about when and where to add everything for my process.....

I'm BIAB-ing ~12L batches so typically I would measure the grains out into the bag in the brew kettle and then add the hot water (usually 6L) to mash. But then when I sparge I just top up with another 10L at the right temperature to bring everything up to 80degC for 10 mins.

But I've no HLT - I just use 2 x 2L electric kettles to heat the water 4L at a time.....

1. Do I understand right that for some reason I can't add the dry gypsum, CaCl etc. to the dry grains, but instead I have to dissolve it in the water first?

2. And assuming that's the case, any reason I couldn't/shouldn't just disssolve all my additions (say 4g gypsum + 4g CaCl + 4g baking soda) in my first 2L of mash strike water (typically around 72degC) or do I need to spread it more?

3. Do I need separate water additions for the mash and sparge water, or can it just all go into the mash water?

Cheers,

Matt

 

[strange-steve]

1. You can add the salts to the grain, however it's generally not recommended because it can be more difficult to ensure proper distribution of minerals.

2. I can't see why that would be a problem. It might take a bit more time/stirring to dissolve the gypsum in a smaller volume of water, but it will dissolve.

3. This can be done but the thing is calcium causes a reduction in mash pH, and so putting all the salts in the mash could cause the pH to drop more than you want. This is actually another way of manipulating mash pH, but the problem is that it's very difficult to determine exactly what the effect will be. Another option, instead of adding salts to the sparge, wait till after and add them to the boil instead.

 

[matt76]

Ok, thanks @strange-steve , appreciate that

So maybe one way to proceed is as follows:

Divide the water additions evenly between my 16L total mash (6L) and sparge water (10L) - so 6/16 of my gypsum etc. goes in the mash water and 10/16 goes in the sparge water.

And furthermore for example, whatever gypsum etc. I'm adding to the mash, spread that between my 3 x 2L kettles-worth of water to make sure it dissolves and is more evenly distributed.

 

[strange-steve]

Yep, dividing proportionally between mash and sparge water is the usual way of doing it. I wouldn't be too anal about splitting though, you could just eyeball about 1/3 of the total salts in the mash and the rest in the sparge.