Water adjustments

[hoppyscotty]

I guess I'm quite lucky with my water living near Burton-On-Trent and getting Burton water. This often leads to very little or no water adjustments according to the usual calculators for alot of the beers I brew. However sometimes they come up with very small additions, like today - 0.6g of Calcium Chloride, 0.15g of Gypsum. I only had Gypsom so put some of that it, but it was tiny in 24 litres of water. I realise these numbers are arithmetically calculated so a number would be spitted out no matter how small if I was just a smidge outside of target profile for any of the paramters, but wondering if it is worth bothering with such small amounts?

Ta.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Yes those are very small additions - 0.6 grams per litre is more like what I added in my last brew
I shouldn’t think you’d notice any difference omitting those.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Worthwhile using half a Camden (crushed up) tho…

 

[hoppyscotty]

Is that for Chlorine? From my water report Chlorine is 0.28mg/l free chlorine and 0.42 mg/l total Chlorine. No idea if that is a little or alot.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Yep, half a Camden (sodium meta-bisulphate) to neutralise chlorine and more tenacious chloramine. It's worth putting it in just as insurance, because chlorine levels do sometimes go up and down a bit; and you only need a tiny amount of it to give you that dreaded TCP flavour...

 

[hoppyscotty]

just out of interest would this have the secondary benefit of making hop forward beers less susceptible to oxidation? If you wanted to use specifically for this purpose would you still add to the water or at a different part of the process? e.g. maybe in the fermenter?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I guess I'm quite lucky with my water living near Burton-On-Trent and getting Burton water.

It's worth noting that the "famous" Burton water for IPAs comes from wells in particular strata below Burton, not out of the taps. But Burton breweries have the best of both worlds - well water with >1000ppm (!) sulphate, and tapwater from the Peak District that has almost no minerals. It's no surprise that so many of the best indie lagers come from the Peak District and its fringes.

As for the small additions you mention - your tapwater will probably vary more than that, so there's a perfectly reasonable argument for saying don't sweat it. And you can be fancy and say that by not adjusting your water you are letting the terroir shine through!!!

On the other hand, if you are serious about consistency between brews, you want to keep a pretty tight rein on your water profile - which would include testing each and every batch of water and adjusting your additions accordingly. Even a cheap TDS meter would be a start.

But for the average homebrewer, I wouldn't sweat it.

Edit: For clarity, I mean I wouldn't sweat it given these particular circumstances, but would worry far more about water if the it was further away from the target.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Thanks. Not notices any off flavours or characteristics that might be attributable to **** water so will just crack on. The latest water report has shown things to have varied but a tally not by much so not going to bother adjusting my profile in Brewfather. Love your suggestion about letting the terroir shine through! Great bit of marketing!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

just out of interest would this have the secondary benefit of making hop forward beers less susceptible to oxidation? If you wanted to use specifically for this purpose would you still add to the water or at a different part of the process? e.g. maybe in the fermenter?

I have heard of using Camden (well, SMB to be precise) to scavenge oxygen - e.g. have a read of this: The LODO Effect: Evaluating the Low Oxygen Brewing Method | exBEERiment Results!. Not my cup of tea though TBH :-P

 

[hoppyscotty]

Just was thinking if adding the SMB had a dual benefit. have struggled maintaining hoppy beers freshness as I'm but a lowly home brewer so hard to 100% keep everything O2 free especially when bottling, so thought it might offer assistance in this regard. I've read adding Ascorbic acid in the mash (so vitamin C so makes your beer one of your five a day!!) has the same effect and a method alot of commercial brewers use too, so can't see any difference as far as the process goes.

 

[Hop_it]

Just was thinking if adding the SMB had a dual benefit. have struggled maintaining hoppy beers freshness as I'm but a lowly home brewer so hard to 100% keep everything O2 free especially when bottling, so thought it might offer assistance in this regard. I've read adding Ascorbic acid in the mash (so vitamin C so makes your beer one of your five a day!!) has the same effect and a method alot of commercial brewers use too, so can't see any difference as far as the process goes.

An interesting idea using vitamin C . . . . Do you have any idea how much to put in?

 

[hoppyscotty]

Sorry. Just something that I stumbled across when researching Campden tablets after they were mentioned above.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

An interesting idea using vitamin C . . . . Do you have any idea how much to put in?

See this post from @DocAnna or search the forum for messages containing 'ascorbic'