Treating water for kits...quick answer please!

[Clint]

Hello all
I'm currently making up a kit beer..Simply Beer...Bitter plus 1kg DME as opposed to my normal AG brews ad I'm short on time.
I've done loads of kits but never treated the water...as I now do with AG..Campden and profile adjustment.
I'm cutting brew size to about 20 litres as I'm kegging it and will definitely treat enough water with Campden to remove chlorine but this has got me thinking of treating the water with my normal additions. The extract is already mashed but can I treat my water,pro rata as I would my sparge for AG. I usually sparge with around 23l,the volume I need to get to around 20l is 17l providing I used about 3l of boiling water to mix the extract to start.
Thanks

 

[Rodcx500z]

That i have no clue about

 

[MashBag]

I understood we treat water to effect the mash. Therfore.. kit = no mash = no need.

I treat mine because it got so hard in started beer rock in the bottles.

Perhaps a bit of DWB for fermentation?


A mate of mine once said.

Come now.... "Go in with a splash of CRS"

Or something like that.

 

[Clint]

I follow Strange Steve's calc and treat tge sparge too.
Well...I've done the first and treated the water as I would AG(pro-rata).
Next one I'll just treat with Campden.

 

[Rodcx500z]

What was the og Clint with the kit and 1kg of dme

 

[Clint]

I'm getting 1.041ish but had a mare mixing it in. I got the second one done quicker as I mixed the DME with cold water to start but didn't take a reading as I'd put the lid and blow off tube on and didn't want to mess about with it any more.

 

[soupdragon]

I'm getting 1.041ish but had a mare mixing it in. I got the second one done quicker as I mixed the DME with cold water to start but didn't take a reading as I'd put the lid and blow off tube on and didn't want to mess about with it any more.

How are you mixing the dme? I've found that putting the dme into the empty fermenter, adding off boiling water to it then swirling mixes it in very well

Cheers Tom

 

[Clint]

Thrash the life out of it!

 

[soupdragon]

Thrash the life out of it!

Sounds like hard work

Cheers Tom

 

[Bitter_Dave]

Alternative with DME is to cut a corner of the bag off (to avoid steam getting in the bag) and gradually pouring it into the boiled water/beer kit mix while stirring continuously. This avoids clumping. It takes a bit longer than adding boiling water to DME and swirling. However, you end up using less boiling water at the start, which gives you more scope to adjust the temp to the desired level when topping up. If you are too relaxed about the amount of boiling water you add at the start, or if you follow the instructions to the letter, you can end up with a wort that it warmer than desirable imo. Just my experience, obviously everyone does things differently.

 

[Wynne]

@Clint, when brewing with malt extract you don’t need to treat the water apart from removing chlorine or (if, used) chloramine with a Campden tablet. The brewer who mashed the grains when making the malt extract should have added the necessary minerals.

 

[MashBag]

How are you mixing the dme? I've found that putting the dme into the empty fermenter, adding off boiling water to it then swirling mixes it in very well

Cheers Tom

Absolutely. Weight it out. Close the bag. You need the bag to stay clump free.

Then hit it with plenty of hot water, dont shy and dribble it in, that would increase the problem.

Campden tablet has nothing to do with it. And if you don't normally use (to fix a known problem) I would not start now.

 

[Clint]

Hmmmm....there seems to be a conflict of opinion as to whether I should have treated the top up water for the first kit. It's mainly siding with "NO" though. So...have I potentially ruined it?

 

[MashBag]

No you haven't ruined it.

But did you really expect concensus on the Internet. Even AI is struggling with that

 

[Clint]

Both kits are bubbling along happily. The bitter is in the brew fridge and got two kit ale yeast. The pale is in the kitchen and got a "July 24" CML 5.
Next concern is dry hop...celeia or fuggle for the bitter and chinook for the pale?

 

[Clint]

No you haven't ruined it.

But did you really expect concensus on the Internet. Even AI is struggling with that

I get the most positive "answer" from AI!

 

[MashBag]

I get the most positive "answer" from AI!

Wow.

Show me! Can't remember the last time I saw anything definitive from AI. Normally it hedges its bets.

 

[Clint]

That's from "treating water for beer kits". If I ask "is it worth treating water for beer kits" I get the same but starting with "Yes,".
Screen shot is cut,the answer continues with all the typical brewing salts etc.