should I be treating the water ?

[mm707]

Hi, I've been all grain brewing for about a year, I've just been using tap water but am now wondering if I should be treating it, would I notice any difference in the beer ?

Have you guys noticed an improvement in your beer by treating the water ?

Many thanks

 

[clibit]

I've dabbled with water treatment but I'm no scientist and I've reached no conclusions.

I've tried putting my local water details into online calculators like the one on this site and these indicated that gypsum was the main requirement for pale ales and calcium chloride for stouts/porters. The amounts of other additions were negligible, but I did add them a couple of times.

I generally add a teaspoon of gypsum to pale ales nowadays, half tsp in the mash and half tsp in the boil, for 10 litre brews. For stouts its different, I put a tsp of calcium chloride in the boil for 10 litres. I steep dark grains separately from the mash, as they can affect the PH of the mash and someone on a forum suggested a separate steep. I have never tested for PH though!

My beer is good but there's room for improvement, and I guess yeast/fermentation and water treatment are the main areas I haven't pushed at much yet. I think yeast experimentation and fermentation control are much more important and worthy of research etc. I can't see me digging any deeper into water treatment.What I do is simple, easy to remember, and corrects the main issues, I hope! I almost exclusively make pale ales and porters/stouts.

My tap water is great to drink. It's very soft, low in minerals, so I need to add rather than take away.

If you're interested, get your local water report, should be online, and stick the figures in the calculator on here. It's pretty easy actually.

This article gives a nice brief overview of water treatment...

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/

 

[MyQul]

The small amount of internet research I've done into water treatment leads me to think it's an extremely complicated area of (home) brewing. I'd recommend getting a good book on the subject if you want to investigate the area further

 

[mabrungard]

It does not need to be that complicated. However, water contains six ions that have a lot of influence on the taste and perceptions of beer. The first thing to do is to find out what is in YOUR water and compare that with recommended ranges for those ions. As long as your water is on the low side, it won't be too difficult to deal with.

The most important thing to understand is that we want the mash pH to be in a desirable range (5.2 to 5.6) and that you might need to add either an alkali or an acid to help the mash get into that range. Yes, there are calculators like Bru'n Water that help with figuring out how much and what to add, but the most important thing is understanding where your water is 'at' now and in what direction it should be adjusted in. If you take it upon yourself to experiment by trial and error, at least you will be working in the right direction. Before the availability of chemical analyses and fancy meters, brewers just experimented with what helped produce a better product. You can still do that today. Your advantage is that you can read the history and get an idea of the 'what and why' of water adjustments.

Finally, another easy thing that anyone using a municipal water supply should do is to make sure that chlorine compounds are removed from your brewing water prior to brewing. They create medicinal-tasting chlorophenols that are not desirable in beer. Adding a quarter tablet of Campden (metabisulfite) per 20L of water is all it typically takes to knock out the typical dose on chlorine compounds in tap water.

With just a little bit of effort, you can get water out of your way and let your beer shine through. Without treatment, your water may be standing in the way of great beer. Sure, you can make beer without water treatment, but in most cases it does take a little nudge from the brewer to get the water in line.