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Magnesium can be an asset in brewing well-bittered beers since Mg adds a bitter note. However, there isn't a great need to add much Mg when brewing other styles. In a NEIPA, I wouldn't add more than about 10 ppm to the brewing water. Malt provides ALL the Mg that the yeast needs for their...

The use of tap water for your brewing is dependent upon the quality and suitability of that water for brewing. There certainly are places that have lightly mineralized water sources that make it easy to ADD salts and/or acids to produce a good brew. But there are also places that have highly...

Sorry for the delay. That is a boatload of flaked wheat and it has no diastatic power. Fortunately, you are using a good charge of 2 row. I've not used that much flaked wheat. Why not use wheat malt for at least a portion of the wheat component?

Rehydration is semi-optional. In ale brewing, the pitching rate provided by the typical homebrew sachet is OK. But its definitely not when dealing with lager brewing. The low wort temperature definitely reduces the hydration of the yeast and ultimately, the start of and progression of...

Those raw grains can produce significant increase in mouthfeel that is often due to the beta glucan that they provide. However, beta glucan also increases the potential for haze or cloudiness in your finished beer. I like using a percent or two of flaked wheat in many of my beers as a way to...

Careful. That report does not provide any indication of the water's alkalinity or bicarbonate content. The 23 mg/l hardness value maximum from the report is not an indicator of alkalinity or bicarbonate. While hardness and alkalinity can be quoted in 'as CaCO3' terms, they are definitely not the...

A carbon filter is not really intended to 'filter' particulates. It is intended to adsorb contaminants and packing more carbon into that cartridge is a way to get more treatment capacity. While I won't knock anyone's decision to include carbon treatment for their rainwater, its probably not...

Another possibility: If your water source is Hard, your home may have an ion-exchange (salt recharged) water softener plumbed to the water heater. Water heaters are particularly impacted by hard water and using softened water helps extend their life. So, its possible that your hot water was...

The pH of RO water is meaningless to brewing. Don't worry about that parameter. What you do need to worry about is the total dissolved solids content of the RO water. Having less than around 25 ppm is a sign that the RO water is reasonably pure. A TDS meter is fairly inexpensive and worth having...

Preboiling can be effective when chlorine is the disinfectant, but is far less effective on chloramines. The effects on calcium carbonate precipitation is directly dependent on the temporary hardness level of that tap water. If the temp hardness is only modest, then the precipitation may be low...

Tank water should be fine for brewing since the brewing process ultimately sanitizes it. But if you wanted to drink raw tank water, you might want to filter it first. In the water treatment industry, we talk about '3 Log' removal of the microbes from the water to make it suitable for public...

Sulfate and chloride are very soluble in water and wort and are not typically precipitated or adsorbed in the mash. If you put them into the mash, they are very likely to make it through to the kettle.

Having at least 40 ppm Ca in the mash helps reduce oxalate levels and the resulting beerstone it produces. So that's a minimum you should target. However, reserving your calcium salts from the mash is NOT likely to avoid the calcium/phytin precipitation reaction that you're trying to avoid. That...

I wouldn't poo-poo acids like citric, tartaric, or lactic in brewing. They can all be used to add desirable flavor nuances to beer. But they can easily become excessive. With the popularity of those New England IPAs and their fruity nature, those acids could fit right in. The supporter's version...

That is correct. My recommendation is for 250 ppm sodium. Most tasters wouldn't perceive much improvement if they dose table salt (NaCl) at 250 ppm (mg/L).

Yes, citric acid can be suited to some brewing where its flavor notes may add to the overall beer perceptions. The information on potential alternative acids in the Water book was authored by me. Its parroted in the Water Knowledge page of the Bru'n Water website.

Gose is an interesting style when brewed properly. Sodium chloride is added to sweeten this lightly soured beer to provide balance. The salt is not added to make the beer 'salty'. The typical taster will detect sodium in water when present at about 250 ppm. I find that boosting the sodium...

Any of those acids can be used for brewing. However if your water has elevated alkalinity, then the acceptability of those acids varies. In essence, citric and lactic acid are more readily tasted in the finished beer when they are dosed at high rates. Phosphoric is the least tastable. In order...

This question regarding when to add salts during the brewing process, came up on the American Homebrewers Association forum a few days ago. You will find a detailed summary of reasons that you may or may not want to add salts to the kettle...

There isn't any code in that cell. It's a blank cell that you can edit and enter a name. The only thing I can guess is that you are naming the batch with a purely numeric name. The Data Manager is expecting an alpha name in that Name cell.