Rockhampton water analysis - Do I need to add brewing salts

[Joel Mcleod]

Hey Guys,
Can anyone help deciphering the attached water analysis. I'm wanting to know if I would get any benefit from adding any brewing salts. And when do you add the brewing salts?
Cheers.
View attachment Water Report 12 March 2014.pdf

 

[dicko]

Joe Mc

The easiest way to determine what you need to do with your water is to use one of the spreadsheets that are available on the net.

I use EZ Water so I have taken the liberty of putting your water profile from Glenmore Potable into the spreadsheet.

You will see that I have taken the results of your water test and put the relevant figures into the boxes along the top of the spreadsheet.

And for the excercise I assumed a grain bill of 5 kg of 2 row malt and a mash water volume of 20 litres.

from the sheet you will see that I have had to add some CaS04, some Cacl with a tad of magnesium and 2 mls of acid to bring the PH of the mash to the required levels along with the recommended levels of salts.

If you look along the bottom of the spreadsheet you will note the recommended levels of each element as per John Palmer. They are in green.
There is also a chloride / sulphate ration on there at the bottom right hand side that will help with hoppy or malty styles.

I hope this gives you a start as to what you need to achieve for brewing water.

View attachment Rockhampton water additions.xls

 

[Joel Mcleod]

Hey Dicko,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer, really appreciated. I didn't realise there was this type of water spreadsheet available.

Well, here is a round about question for you.

I've seen a PH stabiliser on the craftbrewer site. Would it make sense to add this stabiliser to the mash to create a ph of 5.2. And then add the specific amount of chloride/sulphate on top of this stabiliser to adjust the water for hoppy or malty styles accordingly?

Thanks again Dicko.

 

[dicko]

I personally would forget the PH stabiliser.
There are many differing reports on the results of using this additive and As I am not qualified I choose not to make any comment.
The main purpose of treating brewing water is to achieve the correct PH for your mash and in real terms there is no magical way to do it.
You have a very good water report there and just build you brewing water from there.
I will add that rather than adding calcium carbonate to raise PH in dark beers, my method is to just steep your dark grains and add to the brew close to the end of the mash so as not to need to rely on the unreliable affect of adding chalk to the mash.
When I get a chance I will add to this thread with some links to other sites that you may care to read on brewing water.

Cheers

 

[dicko]

Here are two links that may help you understand the process.

this first one is from AJ DeLange and he operates on the principle of KISS

Water info



This one is from Martin Brungard who is a member and contributor from time to time on AHB. He goes into a lot more detail.

More Water info

With brewing water I tend not to try to achieve the water specifications for the area in which the style was brewed but more go on the water adjustments to achieve the results I want for the beer.

 

[Bomber Watson]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for Joe Mc....

Mate, I live in the same area as you, the above is pretty self explanatory, and very handy as i was just trying to suss out what i had to do to Rocky water to tweak it up a bit, but the silly question is, do you know if they use Chlorine or Chloramine?

Reading the website im kinda lead to believe its Chlorine, which means i should just be able to boil it out?

What do you do to get rid of this nastyness?

Cheers.

 

[jimmysuperlative]

I went asking my own questions of Rockhampton's water supply back in 2012. To my question about treatment methods, Fitzroy River Water replied...

Disinfection in this plant involves adding gaseous chlorine and not chloramine.


Although some would suggest the issue of chlorine in your brewing water can be solved by heating and allowing to cool ...or even just allowing water to stand overnight before use, I went for overkill adding a small amount of potassium metabisulfite (campden tablet) to the water just in case sneaky chloramines were developed as the chlorine went about it's work.

I also run my brew water through a simple benchtop carbon filter prior to treating it with the potassium metabisulfite. Perhaps over the top, but it's become part of my routine.

 

[AndrewF]

I found this article helpful when I was beginning to adjust my water. It uses Melbourne's water profile as an example but the concepts the same. http://www.melbournebrewers.org/images/stories/BrewWiz/key%20concepts%20in%20water%20treatment.pdf.

 

[mabrungard]

Well, two of the water sources show fairly low ionic content. The third source is moderate in its content. Depending on the beer getting brewed, it does appear that some additions are appropriate. When it comes to hoppy beers, I strongly recommend boosting the sulfate content which helps dry the beer finish and helps the hop perception to shine through.

For malty lagers, the existing water looks well suited. One thing that will require attention for any pale beers, is to neutralize the moderate alkalinity in those waters.

As mentioned above, chlorine removal via either metabisulfite addition or activated carbon filtration is a very desirable way to avoid chlorophenols (medicine, band-aid) in the finished beer.