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

[Lee Brown]

Similar to the water I was originally told. Harder than Bruce Lee crosses with Bruce Banner

 

[Lee Brown]

If I add more Sulphate will I get a more bitter IPA or a more fragrant IPA? I am looking to get a fragrant tasting IPA with Centennial and Cascade. In the past I seem to get a hoppy beer, but never a fragrant, fruity one. So, if I go for a 3:1 ratio for Sulphate to CaCl is this going to be more balanced and potentially fragrant than say a 5:1 ratio?

 

[Argentum]

Just my opinion but I think all minerals likely contribute to hop bitterness as their levels rise. SO4 is supposed to accentuate dryness, not bitterness. And Cl is supposed to accentuate maltiness. Early hop additions contribute bitterness and late additions contribute fragrance. Fruity IPA's have little to no hops added during the boil, and likely no additions made earlier than 10-15 minutes of remaining boil. And fruity IPA's favor Cl over SO4 by 2:1 to perhaps 3:1.

 

[Lee Brown]

Really. I thought this would make it too malty for that style. I think I’ll err on the side of caution over S04 then. Thanks, Argentum.

 

[Argentum]

Trillium recently posted this:

https://www.trilliumbrewing.com/trillium-news/how-to-pale-ale

 

[Lee Brown]

Interesting that they stated to add 6g CaCl, without specifying the original water profile of chloride. No mention of sulphate too.

All food for thought.

 

[Argentum]

As I understand it, Boston, MA water is very soft.

 

[Argentum]

Interesting that they stated to add 6g CaCl, without specifying the original water profile of chloride. No mention of sulphate too.

All food for thought.

I've seen a few mentions that Trillium shoots for 150 ppm for both sulfate and chloride. No idea as to the accuracy of this. If it was me, I'd shoot for 150 ppm chloride and 75 ppm sulfate as a starter. Yeast is reported to be liquid Wyeast 1318 London III.

 

[Lee Brown]

Interesting. In my mind I thought it’d be US05. Might need to revise my yeast.

 

[Lee Brown]

https://beerandwinejournal.com/chloride-and-sulfate/

This is what I had in mind. I think NEIPAs tends to be higher in CaCl than S04. But I am happy to experiment

 

[Argentum]

West Coast American IPA's have way more sulfate than chloride, and also use hop additions throughout the boil. They also often use US-05 yeast. For one of those I would start at 150-200 ppm SO4 and 75-80 ppm Cl. And shoot for about 60-70 IBU's. But I'm not a fan of IPA's.

 

[Lee Brown]

The hop palate smashers are lovely, but then you reach saturation point and either nothing else tastes of anything or you yearn for a clean tasting Helles.

 

[POLESLAW]

Hi, I am new to 'all grain' brewing and I am about to do my first mash in tomorrow. (hopefully)

I bought the Salivert KH kit and ran a test today and my results were 12.1 KH

I am trying to understand this, as it isn't mentioned in step 2 to convert to PPM.

So now I have to convert the dKH to PPM?

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/AlkConversion.php

Comes out @ 216ppm using the calculator above, is this correct?

 

[strange-steve]

Yes that's correct, the conversion from dKH to ppm as CaCO3 is to multiply by 17.9.

That's a lot of alkalinity, definitely avoid using lactic acid as you'd be well over the taste threshold. Do you have CRS?

 

[POLESLAW]

Cheers Steve, thanks for confirming that.

I do have AMS/CRS and looking at the dosage sheet that came with it, I'll have to add 1.07ml per litre to drop 196 ppm for a target of 20 ppm.

 

[strange-steve]

Cheers Steve, thanks for confirming that.

I do have AMS/CRS and looking at the dosage sheet that came with it, I'll have to add 1.07ml per litre to drop 196 ppm for a target of 20 ppm.

I recommend you do a small scale test to make sure the acid strength is as stated. Take 2L of water, test the alkalinity, add 1ml of your AMS, give it a good stir, then test the alkalinity again. This'll tell you the alkalinity reduction at a known dosage of 0.5ml/L and you can scale from there.

 

[Lee Brown]

You are brave doing the water chem stuff at the same time as experimenting with your first AG mash. I wish I’d have the foresight and courage.

 

[POLESLAW]

I recommend you do a small scale test to make sure the acid strength is as stated. Take 2L of water, test the alkalinity, add 1ml of your AMS, give it a good stir, then test the alkalinity again. This'll tell you the alkalinity reduction at a known dosage of 0.5ml/L and you can scale from there.

Thanks for the advice, sounds good, I will do that while prepping tomorrow morning. :thumba:

You are brave doing the water chem stuff at the same time as experimenting with your first AG mash. I wish I’d have the foresight and courage.

Watched enough videos and read enough threads, time to get my feet wet! Pray for me! lol

 

[Lee Brown]

I’m praying to the homebrew Gods for you.

 

[Lee Brown]

Can anyone advise me on this? My last brew I used 75% Phosphoric acid. This was at the dosage I was originally told by Murphy's and far too high. To get to around 30ppm alkalinity I now know that I should have used 7Mls of the acid. However, as the readings we inflated, I used 16Mls. I drank a couple of the beers the other day, and although they tasted fine, I had the most acidic stomach that night. Could I have over acidified the beer and this caused my stomach issue? Or if it tasted fine, it should be ok and to look to something else?