Water Treatment

[periolus]

Hi!

I have been playing around with Beer Alchemy brewing software and have been setting up my water profile. It allows you to work out how much of various salts to add to closely match the profile of the original water used to brew.

Now then - I am aiming to get my Bristol Water to mimic Burton-on-Trent water I seem to have managed this except for that my sulfate level is 128 mg/l to low. If I adjust this by adding Gypsum, then I just get much higher calcium levels than I should.

FIrst question: How critical is sulphate level compared to calcium? I know sulphate has something to do with complimenting the flavour of hops - but not what calcium does in brewing.

Second: What can I add to just raise the sulphate levels but leave sodium and calcium alone?

Blimey, doesn't AG get complicated!

 

[Aleman]

Blimey, doesn't AG get complicated!

Only if you believe that the brewers in say Burton on Trent brew with the water that has the profile that is published I've seen 4 wildly differing profiles for BUrton on treant which shows that it depends on which strata the water is drawn from. . . . .The museum brewery for example uses (or did) RO water and a small army of chemists to add minerals back in . . . as do most modern beer factories.

Water chemistry is extremely simple

1) Reduce chlorine (Add 1 Campden tablet per 17UK gallons)
2) Reduce alkalinity to below 50 preferably 30 for pale ales up to 100 for dark beers.
3) boost calcium to a minimum of 60ppm but 150ppm is safer

And that is it. Your choice when boosting calcium is do I want a drier hoppy beer (Gypsum) or a rounded malty beer (calcium chloride). If you want to take it further than this then you also need to consider the acids used to reduce alkalinity so rather than using CRS using sulphuric or hydrochloric instead as not only is it the total level of sulphate and chloride ions that is important but the ratio between them . . . CRS adds a fixed ratio of sulphate to chloride, which depending on the water make-up you start with may or may not give you the ratio you desire.

Unless you are consistantly brewing good beer with minimal water treatment, there is little benefit of going any further until you are

 

[periolus]

Great - cheers for that. One question though, what is CRS?

I completely forgot that campden tablets reduce chlorine - that is good to remember. Well, I will keep researching and mentally preparing for the day I open my AG floodgates. ETA: 124 days! A little way to go I know, but I start building on March 1st with luck. It all depends on whether or not I get made redundant on March 31st. Bit of a tricky one at the mo, but I'm working on it.

On we go! :

 

[Good Ed]

P, CRS is Carbonate Reducing Solution, there has been several recent posts on the subject, enter CRS in Search and you can read till your heart's content. Aleman is right that it is simple when you understand the process, and for us novices a Salifert kit, CRS, Gypsum and Calcium Chloride will do the job.

Good luck :