Danscraftbeer
Well-Known Member
Where are you? Its always a help to readers to see your basic location. Water profiles etc.`
dblunn said:Hi Beamer, was the top one chlorine or was it chloride, also did they say the hardness was total hardness?
Assuming the chlorine is actually chloride and estimating the calcium level from the hardness (assuming it was total hardness) then my estimate from playing with a spreadsheet is you have:
Ca 15
Mg 3.8
Na ~5 ish
HCO3 65
SO4 2.3
so you want to get the Ca level up a bit (~50) using CaCl or Ca SO4. Just my opinion though. Best dowload a copy of Bru'in water spreadsheet from https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ and play with that to get Ca up a bit and your mash pH around 5.4
Regards, Dave
thanks for this, sorry I didn't see it before my final postdblunn said:Hi Beamer, was the top one chlorine or was it chloride, also did they say the hardness was total hardness?
Assuming the chlorine is actually chloride and estimating the calcium level from the hardness (assuming it was total hardness) then my estimate from playing with a spreadsheet is you have:
Ca 15
Mg 3.8
Na ~5 ish
HCO3 65
SO4 2.3
so you want to get the Ca level up a bit (~50) using CaCl or Ca SO4. Just my opinion though. Best dowload a copy of Bru'in water spreadsheet from https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ and play with that to get Ca up a bit and your mash pH around 5.4
Regards, Dave
Have you used it or just going off some stuff you have read?dblunn said:Hi Beamer, give the 5.2 stabliser a miss as there seams to be a lot of negative comments about its use. What is your water report down your way? Can you tell us your Ca, Mg, Cl, Na, SO4 and alkalinity?
Dave
Not used it but information gleaned from respected sources such as Palmer, Zainasheff and others. The biggest issue seems to be the amount of Na added. Might not be an issue if the water is low in minerals anyway as in your case.Droopy Brew said:Have you used it or just going off some stuff you have read?
I have used it for about 6 months and have noticed no issues with taste and have seen slight improvements with efficiency. There are also a number of guys in the local HB club with similar findings. I haven't personally heard of anyone having an issue with it here.
It is not something I would rule out using.
That said, you could try throwing 100g of acidulated malt into your next grain bill. It is a bit cheaper option and will let you know if pH is a contributing factor. With your stated pH in the water supply, I predict it would be.
Thanks Jack,Jack of all biers said:Don't play with your water pH until you know for sure your mash pH is an issue. That requires reliable and calibrated equipment for testing, otherwise you are guessing and can cause yourself some major frustrations. You are new to this game and I will bet that your perceived issues with lower OG lays elsewhere. As has been suggested, make one change at a time (ie grain crush finer, or rinse your grains in a mini sparge) and see if there is a positive effect on higher OG without a negative effect on taste. This is an important point, because you could strive to achieve the best mash efficiency and end up with a beer that doesn't taste as good, because you have over done something (ie sparging out astringency from the grains).
My 2 cents: 6 or 7 brews in should be aware of water chemistry's effects, but not play with it until you have all your other processes down pat.