# Belgian Water Profile



## Tony (13/1/07)

Hi all

I am brewing a Belgian Pale Ale tomorrow

roughly 30% pils, 65 % pale ale, 4% caramunich 1 and 1% carafa special 1

aiming for 1.050 @ 20 EBC, 24 IBU with styrian goldings and sazz at 45 min and a bit at flame out.

Will be brewing it with T-58

My question is......... what is a general prifile of belgian water.

Is it hard, soft, full of carbonates, sulphates, calcium ?

I have very soft water with bugger all of anything in it so its perfect to mess with.


Should i just brew it with the soft water.

I have gypsum, chalk and calciun cloride in the fridge at my disposal.

any recomendations people 

cheers


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## Stuster (13/1/07)

Tony, you could probably add a little calcium chloride. It varies, but from what I remember of Brew Like A Monk (don't have it to hand), most areas have fairly hard water. That doesn't mean that this is the water Belgian brewers would use if they had a choice about it. If you have very soft water though some calcium will probably be beneficial to the mash and the chlorides will tend to enhance a rounder maltiness. At least, that is my understanding of it. This may give you a bit more useful info.

BTW, the recipe looks nice to me. Probably an intro to Belgians with that yeast, but still a tasty drop. :super:


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## Ross (13/1/07)

Tony,

Your brewing programme should have water profiles??

From Beersmith:

Antwerp, Belgium 

Calcium: 90.0 ppm
Sulfate: 84.0 ppm 
Magnesium: 11.0 ppm
Chloride: 57.0 ppm 
Sodium: 37.0 ppm 
Bicarbonate: 76.0 ppm 
PH: 8.0 

Cheers Ross


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## Stuster (13/1/07)

Ross, from all I've read, water chemistry people now seem to be suggesting that there's no real point in trying to match the water profile of famous cities round the world. To save me writing more  this thread (especially posts 6 and 10) say it all IMO (as well as a little in the original thread I linked to).


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## Tony (14/1/07)

thanks for the replys

I have added a bit of gypsum and calciun cloride to calcify the mash

also i stufed up on the recipe....... there is about 3 kg of munich in htere too

I ended up using up the bags of grain i had lying around with 2 or 3 KG,s left in them so thats why there is about 4 different base malts

here is my recipe

Belgian Pale Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 52.00 Wort Size (L): 52.00
Total Grain (kg): 11.40
Anticipated OG: 1.051 Plato: 12.70
Anticipated EBC: 20.4
Anticipated IBU: 23.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.3 3.00 kg. JWM Export Pilsner Australia 1.037 3
26.3 3.00 kg. JWM Light Munich Australia 1.038 18
26.3 3.00 kg. TF Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt UK 1.037 5
17.5 2.00 kg. JWM Traditional Ale Malt Australia 1.038 7
2.6 0.30 kg. Weyermann Caramunich I Germany 1.036 100
0.9 0.10 kg. Weyermann Carafa Special I Germany 1.036 850

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
60.00 g. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.30 9.7 45 min.
60.00 g. Styrian Goldings Pellet 4.80 14.2 45 min.
30.00 g. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.30 0.0 0 min.
30.00 g. Styrian Goldings Pellet 4.80 0.0 0 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.10 Oz Irish Moss Fining 10 Min.(boil) 


Yeast
-----

DCL Yeast T-58 SafBrew Specialty Ale





Its mashing away nicly now 

Ooooooo i love brew days 

cheers


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## Tony (14/1/07)

I am actually considering using a blend of T-58 and S-33

not sure what either of these yeasts are like but they are both suposed to be king of belgian yeasts.

cheers


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## warrenlw63 (14/1/07)

Tony

When I made my Belgian Pale I just treated the water in a similar fashion to an English Pale Ale. I dumped a tablespoon of Gypsum to the mash and another one in the kettle.

BTW Beer is really tasting great with a huge Styrian Golding character. The Leuven Pale Ale Yeast attenuates like buggery.  

BTW Your recipe looks bang on the money. B) 

Warren -


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## Vlad the Pale Aler (14/1/07)

Copying the water profiles of other cities is indeed a bit of a useless excercise.
A good example is Dublin and Guiness. They (used to) cart the brewing liquor from the St. James Wells at the Grand Canal in County Kildare, not from the Liffey as is widely believed.
Other water used for cooling etc. comes from a well under the brewery.
Although today they probably have a more hi-tech approach.


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## Tony (14/1/07)

I wasnt so interested in coppying it........ i have tried this with a burton water profile in an IPA and it near gave you the runs if you had a second glass

I was more interested in a generic "is the water hard, soft, rich in sulphates, clorides, etc"

thats all.

I usually use the ...... just dump a couple of teaspoons of gypsum in the mash for a bitter...... type of measurements.

I got better efficiency than the last 2 brews i have done with the water in the hunter vally.

The first 2 were pale beers, the first i used no treatment and made a great beer, but only got 72% efficiency. THe second i used about 3% acidulated malt and got up around 74 to 75 % efficiency.

This beer is an amber (20 EBC) beer and with some gypsum and calcium cloride i got about 78 % efficiency. Its just finnished cooling, has cleared beautifully and smells fantastic.

Now to cool it in the fridge (town water is @ 30 deg c) and pitch the yeast later on when its down around the low 20's.

I am planing to brew it at 20 deg with the T-58. The BPA style is suposed to be much cleaner than other belgian styles. Is this a good temp for the yeast?

cheers


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## tangent (14/1/07)

> and it near gave you the runs if you had a second glass


remind me to stick to one glass at your place Tony 

i heard even though magnesium sulphate is technically a great additive, it's a diuretic and more likely to increase hangovers. I keep the additions to a minimum apart from some gypsum and a pinch of calcium chloride (and some dried yeast and a dash of cinnamon a-la Charlie Papazian)


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