Water profile - London Pride

[Ben034]

Looking for some advice on a water profile for London Pride. I have cultured up some yeast from a bottle of Bengal Lancer for the first time and thought the Graham Wheeler clone would be a good use for it.

My plan for the water so far:

Ca- 138
Cl - 85
SO4 - 168
Alk - 35

This is based on additions to 18l water (11ml CRS and 2g gypsum). I have the option to dilute with Ashbeck water instead if anyone thinks anything is too high?

Thanks!

 

[dan125]

I think bitters do well with a high mineral content. Murphy's suggest up to 400ppm sulphate (you have to scroll right to the bottom of the page to see the style chart) - https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/resources/technical-articles/water-water-everywhere/
I've never gone that high but usually aim for around 160ppm calcium, 250ppm sulphate with half as much chloride

 

[stz]

I find calcium always wants to be at least 150ppm, slightly higher not a problem as a rule for various related process reasons. To do this I use calcium chloride and sulphate with the ratio more important than the actual amounts. While widely differing amounts but the same ratios are not the same the intent can roughly be thought of as the same. Murphys guidelines of up to 400ppm sulphate in bitters is very old school to me and of course they lump pale ale/ipa into the bitters category. I've always felt that a traditional IPA using English hops can be made more interesting with high mineral levels, but to do so with an aggressive American IPA is ... well not to my taste, quite old fashioned now, bit much. For something like a fullers pride clone I'd probably take a stab at 1:1 or maybe 1.5:1 sulphate to chloride, don't know if I'd go as far as 2:1 because in my head it is quite malt forward. That said, if I brewed it often I might find it was way more interesting with higher sulphate levels, but could achieve similar results by bringing up the hops a little, looking at the yeast and so on.

 

[Ben034]

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll up the calcium a bit with calcium chloride and see how it goes.

Pleased with the fullers yeast from the bottle which has taken off in just a couple of days on the stir plate. Hopefully should get something along the right lines.