Book review : Water

[Twostage]

Now this book is a challenge. You definitely need a grounding in chemistry or at least be able to remember things like atomic weights from school.

Lots of really useful info if you are interested in changing the profile of your brewing water. Made me realise I need to sort out the calibration of my little used pH meter. I'd read a comment from somewhere a while back where someone was saying if you are not measuring the pH of the mash then there is no point worrying about its temperature either (probably over the top comment). This book reinforces the importance of mash pH.

Toyed with the idea of a reverse osmosis kit whilst reading it but as I can buy something very close to de-mineralised water from Lidl for 8.5p per litre I can't really justify it.

I sort of skim read it to get the principles rather than worry about the equations too much. There's actually a chemistry primer at the back of the book which should really be the first chapter with the option to skip it if you don't need it, rather than stumbling into it at the end. Going to read the book again armed with the knowledge from the primer chapter.

Of course having now read yeast, hops and water from the brewing elements series I have no choice but to read malt. :razz:

 

[clibit]

You've put me off buying it! Chemistry at school was all Greek to me. I can't imagine how grim a whole book on water chemistry must be.

 

[Halfacrem]

I'm miles away from getting into water chemistry (more likely an area I'm never going to get into). Though I can appreciate it's a tempting rabbit hole for the avid brewer.

I've heard about, (without understanding) the importance of PH levels when mashing and was interested in finding this stuff on the HBC website

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ph-52-mash-stabiliser-1-lb-jar-p-1365.html

God knows how it works, but it seems like a first easy step into paying attention to the intracacies of brewing liquor!