Assistance with water profile analysis - what to add?

[seehuusen]

Hey guys,

As the title suggests, could someone knowledgeable let me know if I need to make any changes to the water I brew my beer with?

I understand that there are different profiles recommended for different styles of beer.
As I generally brew IPAs, that'd probably be a good starting point for this discussion, but feel free to add extra knowledge about other styles of beer too.
I'm a bit of a water-profile novice, so any help in this area would be greatly appreciated Are there certain salts/compounds that add to the mouth feel and flavour of the beer?

Here's my water profile:

I understand that the Ph needs to ideally be around the 5.2 mark, which can be achieved in different ways (most easilly by using the Ph Stabilizer, like this one: https://nationalhomebrew.com.au/beer/brewing-adjuncts-and-beer-enhancers/five-star-chemicals-52-ph-stabliser-440g). I'm more interested in finding out about the different parts that may affect the flavour of my beer.

Thanks very much in advance,
Martin

Edit - just clarified that I'm not talking about the Ph level.

 

[verysupple]

As you're probably well aware, water chemistry can get pretty complicated pretty quickly. Here are some podcasts, documents, software etc that you might find helpful. As you can tell from the length of the list there's a lot to know. Manticle's article is pretty good and the last two BN podcasts in the list are the best in my opinion.

AHB article:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/articles/article124.html

Bru'n Water:
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brun-Water/464551136933908

The Brewing Network podcasts:
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/497
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/500
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/508
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/513
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/967
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/1074
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/1084


But for a very short, overly simplified answer to your questionregarding some important minerals: Calcium is good for helping (ale) beer clear, sulphate lends a crisp, dry character (can help showcase hop character) and chloride tends to give a rounder, fuller character.

An easily accessible way to find out about recommended concentrations of various important minerals and ions is to hover over the cells in Bru'n Water that have red corners. The comments are quite useful. I think there are also some recommendations in How To Brew, but I'm not sure how up to date they are.

 

[manticle]

No calcium level?

 

[TidalPete]

Did you get those results from Unity Water Martin? They are VERY hard to get any info from.

I'm no water chemistry whiz but IMHO those results will not be much use to you as they do not show the PPM of
Calcium
Manganese
Sodium
Chloride
Bicarbonate (HCO3) or alkalinity (CaCO3)

After reading up on the links supplied by verysupple download the metric version of the EZ Water Calculator & have a play with it.

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

 

[seehuusen]

Thanks VerySupple! I'll read through some of that information tonight and see if I can wrap my head around it better.
The guidelines, is there a specific ppm level you should have for those minerals?

Yes Pete, that's from Unity water, on their annual report for different areas. My water in Golden beach is supplied from the Caloundra station from what I can see.
I'm guessing you'd have fairly similar water where you are, what, if anything do you add to your beer?

Thanks again!
Martin

 

[verysupple]

I can't remember off the top of my head what ppm for each mineral. Just download Bru'n Water (it's just an Excel spreadsheet). One of the sheets (tabs at the bottom) is a water adjustment calculator and if you hover over the different mineral headings it gives recommendations.

But as others have pointed out, calcium is an important mineral and it's important to know the alkalinity and hardness of your starting water. It's kind of hard to do anything if you don't know what you're starting with.

 

[seehuusen]

thanks verysupple, it seems that my water report shows none of the essential bits of information required
I've sent an email to the water supplier, hopefully I'll be more lucky than your experience Pete...

 

[TidalPete]

I used to have a great contact in the local council & later with UW but that has since gone by the board as they now ask big $$$$'s for special tests.
These days I just take the average results from those years & plug them into EZ Water Calc. Seems to work ok.

Calcium 23.5
Magnesium 2.5
Sodium 8.0
Chloride 11.0
Sulphate 23.0
Alkalinity as CaCO3 61.0

it seems that my water report shows none of the essential bits of information required

Local water reports were MUCH more helpful before UW got their thieving hands on our H2O.
I'm spreading the love here so be happy.

 

[seehuusen]

Awesome, thanks for sharing those figures, I'll read up and use those as a base for my additions

 

[seehuusen]

Just a minor update on this as I managed to get the values through some very nice people at the water supplier.
Anyone brewing with Caloundra, QLD water, should be able to use these values:
(all values are average values)


Calcium (Ca) - 15-20 mg/l This was a bit flakey as it was an older measurement.
Magnesium (Mg) - 5 mg/l
Sodium (Na) - 8.5 mg/l
Chloride (Cl) - 15 mg/l
Sulfate (SO4) - 29 mg/l
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) - 58 mg/l


Ph: 7.6 average

I hope they're of help to other people in the area

Cheers
Martin