Water Treatment.

[snail59]

Just how much influence will this have on my beer.

Found my local water report on the web.
Its classed as being very hard.
Put all the info into the water calculater.(well what I could decipher )
It comes up with a long list of stuff to add.
Will it make that much difference for a novice not to add these in there first brew??????.

 

[dennisking]

our water`s very hard, I just add some crs and gypsum and always get within the required ph range

 

[snail59]

our water`s very hard, I just add some crs and gypsum and always get within the required ph range

Oh god another factor . Now PH range is this the PH of the water or PH of the Mash. What PH am I aiming for???????.

So many things to know and so little brain to know them with :rofl:

 

[markp]

Hi Snail,
My advice would be to buy a Salifert alkalinity test kit and test the alkalinity of your water before each brew.
The test kit can be found easily on fleabay, it's cheap and only takes a minute or two to perform.
I say do it for each brew, because it can be pretty variable.....well mine is.

Getting the alkalinity right is the key to a good mash pH and the salifert test kit will allow you to determine the correct amount of CRS to add to your liquor.

If you get the test kit and then plug the numbers in to the HBF water calculator, it will then give you the recommended salt additions for the mash and the boil for the beer style you have chosen.

Personally, my regime is to get the alkalinity number from the Salifert test and then use the forum calulator to work our my gypsum additions......I don't add any other salts and have produced excellent beers.
That said I have only brewed pales and bitters up to now, and weather that advice holds true for other styles I really can not say.

HTH

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Alkalinity test
BB

 

[Aleman]

water treatment is something that will not make a difference to your beers until you have a sound brewing technique!
DO NOT worry about water treatment until you have got a good few batches under your belt, and your technique works and you are producing consistently good beer. . .its at this point that you start looking at these additional factors that can make your good beers shine . . . you will be compromising so many things with your first few batches that any improvement that you get from water treatment will be hidden.

My advice is to forget it

 

[snail59]

Thanks folks for the advice.

Aleman you have put my mind at rest. Im planning what looks like a simple recipe for my first brew to keep things as simple as possable. If water treatment is not that critical at this early stage all the better.