American Brown Water Profile

[scrumpy]

hey folks

brewing a american brown tomorrow and am after suggestions for an appropriate water profile.
I'm a little ashamed to admit I've been a 5.2 stabalizer brewer for the past 2 or so years.
I've purchased a ph meter and am keen to get my head around basic water chem, I'm brewing with melb water.

should i be adding sulphate to enhance the hop profile of the beer?? is carbonate required to lower the ph or is there sufficient dark malt in there to keep it in check??

was thinking something like

50ppm calcium
90ppm cloride
90ppm sulphate

80% pale malt
5 % Munich
4.9% pale crystal
4.5% biscuit
3% Brown
2% choc
o.g 1.052
ibu 38

any ideas??

 

[eamonnfoley]

I go with:

50ppm calcium
50ppm chloride
100-150ppm sulphate

I up the sulfates relative to chloride to push out the hops a little, and make the beer crisper. Also make sure you chuck a decent dose of late american hops in if you want an american brown.

You'll need to get your mash ph to about 5.5-5.6 (at room temp). Only best to start playing with water if you know how to measure & control PH. No shame in not becoming a water junky either. I suspect with Melbourne's soft water your PH may be too low with a dark beer. If you measure your PH and its far too low, I would consider adding some chalk (but only then).

I also think your recipe is a little high on biscuity malts. Biscuit and brown are similar and you may be overdoing it (7.5% total). But it could work out awesome, I've never tried it before.

 

[marksfish]

as i struggle with chemistry my salt additions for a hoppy brown ale are 4 gms cal. sulphate, 2 gms cal. chloride and 1 gm cal.carbonate all in the mash as i biab. if you are using 3v half in the mash and the rest in the boil kettle.

 

[mikk]

Brown water?! Sounds a bit suss, & not something i'd want to make beer from...