Help Fixing Water And Ph

[katzke]

Brewed OK extract beer but the all Grain is not very good. Traced it to PH and water problems.

I have copies of water reports from the city but not all the info I need is there. The only info that may be useful are the PH, Total Alkalinity (as CaC03), Chloride, Hardness (as CaC03), and Calcium. I have 3 of the wells and all are a bit different but close.

PH ranges from 7.0 to 7.8
Total Alkalinity ranges from 71.8 to 64mg/L
Chloride from 2.3 to 2.04mg/L
Hardness from 42 to 50mg/L
Calcium from 6.97 to 9.23mg/L

I also found an old report on-line from the 90s for one of the city wells.

PH 8.2
Alkalinity 67mg/L
Hardness 41mg/L
Calcium 6.7mg/L
Magnesium 5.9mg/L
Sodium 13mg/L
Chloride 2.1mg/L
Sulfate 1.2mg/L


What else do I need to know?

I read Palmers How To Brew and he gives ways to get some other values from what I have, I think. Anyone know for sure? And the convert from mg/L to PPM question, is it as simple as being the same?

 

[ozpowell]

Brewed OK extract beer but the all Grain is not very good. Traced it to PH and water problems.

I have copies of water reports from the city but not all the info I need is there. The only info that may be useful are the PH, Total Alkalinity (as CaC03), Chloride, Hardness (as CaC03), and Calcium. I have 3 of the wells and all are a bit different but close.

PH ranges from 7.0 to 7.8
Total Alkalinity ranges from 71.8 to 64mg/L
Chloride from 2.3 to 2.04mg/L
Hardness from 42 to 50mg/L
Calcium from 6.97 to 9.23mg/L

I also found an old report on-line from the 90s for one of the city wells.

PH 8.2
Alkalinity 67mg/L
Hardness 41mg/L
Calcium 6.7mg/L
Magnesium 5.9mg/L
Sodium 13mg/L
Chloride 2.1mg/L
Sulfate 1.2mg/L


What else do I need to know?

I read Palmers How To Brew and he gives ways to get some other values from what I have, I think. Anyone know for sure? And the convert from mg/L to PPM question, is it as simple as being the same?

Hi Katzke,

If you want to use Palmer's Nomograph to calculate the RA in your Mash, you only need PPM values for Alkalinity (as CaCO3), Ca and Mg (yes - PPM == mg/L). Not sure if your most recent reports have a value for Mg, if not you should be able to get it from your local council. With these numbers and the Nomograph, you can figure out the beer colours best suited to your local water without any salt additions.

Based on your numbers above (assuming Mg hasn't changed much since the old 90's report), your water appears best suited to amber beers. So, if you wanted to brew a very pale beer, you would need to lower the mash pH. Perhaps by adding some gypsum. You can use the Nomograph to figure out how much you need to add. Similarly, if you were brewing a dark beer, you would probably want to raise the pH (perhaps add some Calcium Carbonate).

Take a look at How to Brew to see how you can use the Nomograph to calculate the size of the salt additions required to raise/lower the mash pH to the desired level.

The only other thing I'd add is that your water is pretty low in Chloride. The addition of regular table salt to the mash (perhaps a teaspoon for a 25L batch) would increase Chloride levels giving the finished beer a fuller flavour.

Hope this helps.

 

[katzke]

Was surprised this morning by a return call from the local microbrewery (only took 3 weeks). Nice chat and after all my research it was nice to know that I was on the right track to fix my problems. For there blond beer they add lactic acid. They are also playing with the acid malt so they can stay within the purity laws.

All of my problems are related to high PH. From what I have read water is more important in Biab because of the large water to grain ratio. I plan on working up a chart for treating my water for the different styles. Will update on my next brew results with the additions. Lucky me and I have water with low salts so I can adjust to what ever I need with out buying water for dilution.

 

[Whorst]

I had similar difficulties. The easiest thing I've found is a product called 5.2. I use a tablespoon in the mash. It locks in your mash pH. Gone are the days of astringent, dry, cracker like flavors.