Gold Coast Water Profile

[BKBrews]

So I've got a couple of brews under my belt and while I am reasonably happy, I honestly think I can taste what I would call "garden hose water" in them. I brew in my garage using my outside water source and garden house, so it is likely completely in my head, but I've been doing a fair bit of research on water chemistry and have decided it's not necessarily as daunting as I once thought.

I emailed the guys from Black Hops Brewery here on the Coast to find out what they do, and they kindly sent me back their latest (and apparently quite typical) water testing reports. It came out as:

17.15ppm Calcium Ca
1.49ppm Magnesium Mg
11.17ppm Sodium Na
17ppm Chloride CI
18ppm Sulfate SO4
45ppm Alkalinity CaCO3

I have been tweaking my water calculations using the EZ Water Calculation with the following additions:

100g Acidulated Malt
10g Gypsum CaSO4 (added to mash water)
5g Calcium Chloride CaCI2 (added to mash water)
3.5g Calcium Chloride CaCI2 (added to sparge water)
5g Epsom Salt MgSO4 (added to mash water

This has given me the following water profile:

5.33pH Mash
165ppm Calcium Ca
16ppm Magnesium Mg
11ppm Sodium Na
150ppm Chloride CI
258ppm Sulfate SO4
0.58 Chloride/Sulfate Ratio

All of these are within the recommendations, except for Mash pH which is a little low (suggested of 5.4 - 5.6) and the Calcium Ca (suggested <150ppm). In regards to both of these, I have read that a lot of people like a Mash pH as low as 5.2 and Calcium as high as 200ppm. It also suggests that a Chloride/Sulfate Ratio of 0.58 may enhance bitterness (0.77 - 1.3 is balanced).

So my questions -

Does this seem reasonable to you?
Any of the above figures you would try and increase or reduce?

I am heavily biased towards brewing hoppy styles, so I had this in mind when devising the above.

 

[BKBrews]

Not many people messing with water chemistry huh? [emoji23]

 

[Coldspace]

Doesn't appear to be, call Martin at national homebrew I think he knows our waters here in brissy/Gold Coast . He supplied me with the minerals for Brisbane water.

 

[hairydog]

Looks like your around the ball park for water around the goldy,and using more gypsum will bring out the hop bitterness in the brew.
My only suggestion is maybe drop the acidulated malt and try it in the next IPA as you will still be within a good PH.I am in Sydney and
this is close to what I do for my hoppy brews but I have purchased some 88% lactic acid from a brew shop on-line and use this mixed
with water say 10ml-1 litre of water and keep it stored for brews in the future,usually use 200ml=2ml lactic acid.This allows me to do other
styles without adding too much salts and keep PH at a controlled level,give it a go a little less is better than too much,play around with same
brew different ways like acid malt yeast etc

 

[BKBrews]

Looks like your around the ball park for water around the goldy,and using more gypsum will bring out the hop bitterness in the brew.
My only suggestion is maybe drop the acidulated malt and try it in the next IPA as you will still be within a good PH.I am in Sydney and
this is close to what I do for my hoppy brews but I have purchased some 88% lactic acid from a brew shop on-line and use this mixed
with water say 10ml-1 litre of water and keep it stored for brews in the future,usually use 200ml=2ml lactic acid.This allows me to do other
styles without adding too much salts and keep PH at a controlled level,give it a go a little less is better than too much,play around with same
brew different ways like acid malt yeast etc

Any particular reason you recommend dropping the acidulated malt and using lactic instead? My understand is that they technically do the same thing, but adding the acidulated slightly increases your grain bill and therefore minutely affects your OG and ABV.

I've done some further playing and have settled on the following mash additions:

8g Gypsum
6g Calcium Chloride
3g Epsom
100g Acidulated

This gives me:

5.36 Mash pH
119ppm Calcium Ca
10ppm Magnesium Mg
11ppm Sodium Na
94ppm Chloride CI
198ppm Sulfate SO4

This puts me within the acceptable ranges for each and gives me a ratio of 2.1:1 SO4:CI, which is recommended for hoppy beers.

 

[Motmo]

Excuse my ignorance but i couldn't see to what volumes you were adding this too ie mash and sparge. I am interested as i am am having all sorts with the gold coast council water.
Cheers,

 

[BKBrews]

Hey mate, my mash and sparge numbers are changing depending on the recipe I'm doing. Download the EZ Water Calculator and use the figures from the first post. Sorry to hear about your issues, but glad I'm not the only one.

I just put down my first brew since figuring out that it was probably my issue, so we'll see how we go. I boiled all of my water the night before, hit it with a vit c tablet and then just added some gypsum to the mash.

 

[sixfignig]

I'm northern GC so interested to see if you notice and difference.

 

[MickGC]

One thing to be aware of with GC water, or anywhere from Robina to Noosa for that matter, It can change.
GC water generally comes from GC dams and through the GC treatment plants, but it can depending on a few factors come from as far as noosa or form the De-Sal plant.

 

[BKBrews]

One thing to be aware of with GC water, or anywhere from Robina to Noosa for that matter, It can change.
GC water generally comes from GC dams and through the GC treatment plants, but it can depending on a few factors come from as far as noosa or form the De-Sal plant.

Good to know. The figures that I got above from Black Hops are roughly what they have been getting since they opened, so hopefully it doesn't change too often.

Annoyingly, I put down both of my maiden grainfather brews within a week of each other, so only found out afterwards that they are rubbish. It appears the water we get is heavily chlorinated as well, so make sure to treat that too.

 

[fletcher]

would specs for currumbin/elanora be similar to the stats black hops had above? i'll be brewing there soon and can't find too much online about the water analysis for there.

 

[Motmo]

Hey mate, my mash and sparge numbers are changing depending on the recipe I'm doing. Download the EZ Water Calculator and use the figures from the first post. Sorry to hear about your issues, but glad I'm not the only one.

I just put down my first brew since figuring out that it was probably my issue, so we'll see how we go. I boiled all of my water the night before, hit it with a vit c tablet and then just added some gypsum to the mash.

Thanks mate PH is my biggest drama at the moment.
Cheers

 

[fungrel]

One thing to be aware of with GC water, or anywhere from Robina to Noosa for that matter, It can change.
GC water generally comes from GC dams and through the GC treatment plants, but it can depending on a few factors come from as far as noosa or form the De-Sal plant.

I don't live near GC, but I gave up on testing my water as it was so variable that I had to test at least every 4 weeks in order to dial in my recipes.
If you aren't aiming to be as accurate, to get in the ballpark is okay. But be aware that you should probably not try and push flavour thresholds from mineral additions unless you know exactly your water profile.

What style of beer are you intending to make?

 

[manticle]

Think I missed it but stop using your garden hose.

From previous/other threads, it sounds like chlorine was an issue and you have addressed that.

 

[scooterism]

Can anyone help with a Bicarbonate (HC03) level for GC water please?