# What Water Profile For Ringwood?



## Wolfy (9/4/11)

I'm looking to brew the BYOBRA 'Ringwood Fortyniner' recipe and plan to use BrewLabs 'Sussex 1' yeast - which calls for a medium mineral wort.
Could someone please point me in the direction of the most appropriate 'Ringwood' Water Profile?
UK forums were no help. 

Thanks in advance for any/all help.
Wolfy


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## Bribie G (9/4/11)

I'd go more Yorkshire, a good whack of Calcium Chloride and a wee tad of Magnesium Sulphate just in case, use an all purpose yeast nutrient to supply the necessary zinc, boron, molybdenum, arsenic, cyanide etc and you should be good. 

When using Ringwood or 1469, even with town water I generally go two flat tsp CaCl2 and half a tsp epsom salts.

Edit: Bournemouth Water describe the supply as moderately hard:

The majority of our water supply would be classified as "moderately hard" (on a scale of 1 to 10 this would be 7). This relates to a Total Hardness level of 270 mg/l as Calcium Carbonate
(CaCO3). 

I'd go for a fair bit of calcium as chloride and go for a malty profile. Maybe even toss in 2 heaped. The brewery website doesn't rave on about "our own pure water bores" so you can bet they just draw from the mains.


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## Wolfy (13/4/11)

For future refence here is Brewlabs reply to my question:

Typical Liquor Analysis Required per Product
Bitter Mild Stout Lager
Calcium 170 100 100 50
Bicarbonate 25-50 50-100 100-200 <25
Chloride 200 300 300 10
Sulphate 400 150 100 10


Brewing liquor calculations 
For example:
The analysis of a brewing water indicates that there are 260 degrees of alkalinity. For bitter beers the target is around 50 mg/l, so we need to reduce alkalinity by 210 mg/l, for this water type.

If the intention is to brew 5 barrels, then this equates to 5 x 164 L = 820 l
Thus 820 x 210 = 172,200 = reduction required for brewing liquor.
Reduction stated by manufacturer of sulphuric acid, at a concentration of 25% is as follows:
57 mls reduces alkalinity by 101 mg per 164 litres (1 barrel)
This equates to 57 ml reducing 101 x 164 = 16564 degrees of alkalinity
Thus, 1L will reduce 290,596 mg of alkalinity.
For a 820 litre (5 brl) brew with this water you will need to reduce 820 x 210 = 172,200
Thus 172,200 (required reduction) 290,596 (reduction /L) = 0.593 litre or 593 ml of 25% sulphuric acid required.
This should neutralise the hardness of the water and help keep the mash pH at the correct level.

Regarding the other important ions for the production of ales, the standard range for them is as follows:
The water has lower levels of these critical ions than we require so you will add both sulphate and chloride. We will use the calcium salts of these to also raise the calcium level, which is important for correct mash pH and successful yeast flocculation.

As an example: an analysis report indicates - to produce a good liquor for the production of bitter ales, the Sulphate level needs to be raised by 200 mg/l to 400 mg/l. The Chloride needs to be raised by about 114 mg/l to 200 mg/l and the Calcium level by at least 25 mg/l. Brewing liquor treatments can be purchased from Murphy and Sons / AB Vickers.

Calcium Sulphate when dissolved in the mash will provide; calcium 40 mg/l and sulphate 96mg/l for every 28 grams to 164 litres of water.
Calcium Chloride when dissolved in the mash will provide; calcium 47mg/l and chloride 84 mg/l for every 28 grams to 164 litres of water. 
The calcium level needs to be in the excess so it doesn't matter if you have more calcium than the minimum 170 mg/.l 

The calculations go as follows:
For a good general purpose brewing liquor for producing bitter ales:
The sulphate level in the water needs to be raised by 200 mg/l, thus (200/96) x 28 = 58g Calcium Sulphate per 164 litres; this will also provide (40 x
(58/28) = 83 mg/ l of calcium.
The chloride level in the water needs to be raised by 114mg/l, thus 114/84 = 38g Calcium Chloride per 164 litres; this will also provide (47
x 38/28) = 64 mg/l of calcium.
So the final brewing liquor would contain: 
Sulphate = 200 + 200 = 300 mg /l
Chloride = 86 + 114 = 200 mg /l
Calcium = 183 + 64 + 83 = 330 mg /l

The salts MUST be added to the dry grain and NOT the hot liquor tank, as they are difficult to dissolve. All three of these key brewing ions should be at acceptable levels once the water has been treated and thus should provide a good brewing liquor, especially for light bitters. If other products are going to be produced, say milds, stouts or lagers, then the amounts and ratios of the calcium sulphate and calcium chloride can be changed to match the style.

When you are actually brewing check the pH in the incoming water, the treated water, the mash liquor, then the first worts, worts pre and post boil (cooled) and then the final fermented product. You can then compare them to the standard pH values in the table below and they should be within the normal ranges. 

Part of brewing process Normal pH range
Raw liquor 6.8 - 8.0
Treated liquor 6.5 - 7.0
Mash 5.2 - 5.5
1st runnings 4.8 - 5.2
Last runnings 5.4 - 5.6
Wort pre boil 5.1 - 5.4
Wort post boil 4.9 - 5.3
Final product 3.9 - 4.2


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## srcossens (14/4/11)

Hi Wolfy,

I don't know if you found this through Jim's, but if you wanted the Ringwood area water report, you can go to the Bournemouth water website (which Bribie mentioned), where if you put in a postcode for the area you can get the report. Try BH24 1JF as the postcode, which is the hunters lodge you'll see on google maps. With the report, you'll be able to see most of the individual salts needed. The total hardness as CaCo3 I found is a bit difficult to use. I used to live not too far away (but far enough) and the figure for total hardness was 288, but the alkalinity as CaCo3 I measured at 255.

Again though, this level is probably a bit misleading when brewing the beer as a lot of the breweries in the UK use CRS (carbonate reducing solution) and DLS (dry liqour salts) to adjust their water profile. The CRS reduces the CaCo3, but at the same time increases the sulphates slightly and other stuff I think. The DLS is a mix of salts, but I'm not sure in what portions. Also, if they use steam jacketed boilers, they would also re-use that steam vapour for the brew the next time which also changes their alkalinity/hardness as some hardness is boiled out.

With the Ringwood Fortyniner, you are aiming for a beer which GW states as 22EBC. I would do what Bribie said and add calcium chloride and epsom salts, leaning more towards the calcium chloride, but at the same time I would add a touch of chalk in there as Melbourne's water is lacking this. I wouldn't add the chalk to the levels in the water report, but just enough to balance the other salts and the colour.

I know I did see this beer many times and I must have tried it at the pubs and festivals, but I'm having trouble remembering. BTW, did you enter the recipe in to a program as I get a much different EBC to what GW says?


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## Wolfy (14/4/11)

Working with the generic Brewlab suggestions above, which is probably more sensible than finding individual specific profiles for each brewery, as you said most would adjust their water now days.

For 23L batches and Melbourne water as a basis:
Mild: 12g Calcium Chloride, 6g Gypsum, 2g Chalk, 1g of Sodium Bicarbonate, 1g Epsom Salt
Bitter: 10g Calcium Chloride, 12g Gypsum, 1g Chalk, 2g Epsom Salt

That leaves the Calcium count a bit higher than suggested, but all the other ions match well.

BeerSmith suggests that GW's Ringwood Fortyniner will be 14.5 SRM compared to 22 EBC in the book.
I added in a 'percentage of coloured malts' bit to Palmers Spreadsheet and recently found the Ez Water Calculator has the same, so in theory that should help estimate the pH.


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## manticle (14/4/11)

Won't calcium carbonate work against the other salts in terms of pH?


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## Wolfy (14/4/11)

As does the Epsom Salt also I believe.
I also edited my copy of Palmer's Spreadsheet to include a 'kettle additions' section, but 1-2g compared to 20g it might easier just to be lazy and add it all to the grain.


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## manticle (14/4/11)

Not just in terms of alkaline versus acid but also the buffering effect (carbonates I mean) that slows or prevents the pH from being dropped by those salts such as cal chloride and cal sulphate.

I'm not critiquing - I don't know enough about water chemistry to do that. I am curious though and trying to work my head around something that is confusing - mainly due to a lot of various contradictory information out there.

My adjustments are mainly only ever to increase calcium and push malt/hops.


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## manticle (14/4/11)

The other thing I'm confused about is that unless I've misread Brewlab's response, they recommend reducing the carbonate level with sulphuric acid until water hardness/alkalinity is at ~50ppm.

Adding bicarbonates would work against this.

I hope I haven't misread.


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## Wolfy (14/4/11)

From what I can tell - reading the JBK UK forums - much of the drinking water in the UK is harder than ours and needs treatment to remove salts before brewing rather than add them, which is most likely where any suggestion to reduce carbonates has come from.

My approach was going to be very KISS (so any critique is welcome):
Find an appropriate water profile (BrewLab's generic ones seem a fair starting point).
Match the Bicarbonate, Chloride and Sulphate levels while keeping the Chloride to Sulfate Ratio to where I want it for the type of beer.
Check the actual mash pH and adjust with lactic acid if required.

Both spreadsheets suggest that adding 1-2g of Chalk or Epsom Salt changes the pH by about 0.01 so rather than over think and over complicate things, it was all going to go in together.

In the past I've used salts (as you suggested) to bump the calcium and adjust the malt/hop balance, however Brewlab yeast info sheet specifies that some yeast likes 'high mineral worts' and others 'medium mineral worts', so figured I'd have to put a little more effort in this time.


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## manticle (14/4/11)

The amount of research you put into most things beer related leads me to being interested in your processes and thoughts.

So many different idea on how to adjust water.

Keep us posted.


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## Wolfy (15/4/11)

LOL, but then it all goes out the window on brew-day when things naturally evolve into a magical art rather than precise science.


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