Too get HCO3 you take alkalinity as CaCO3 and divide by 50 and then times by 61
....which for ryde report would be 35 ppm to 45 ppm
I'm studying a little the water chemistry for brewing and I found this post...
I live in Mosman and I also have Ryde water supply as discussed here, this is the report:
http://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/g...ments/document/zgrf/mdq0/~edisp/dd_044731.pdf
From the report, I've gathered the following info:
Ca+2 11.4 - 17.3 mg/L
Mg+2 18 - 27 mg/L
SO4-2 7.4 - 8.8 mg/L
Na+ 12.3 - 19.0 mg/L
Cl- 25 - 35.5 mg/L
HCO3- 35.4 - 47.6 mg/L
(Alkalinity 29 - 39 mg CaCO3 /L -> 29 mgCaCO3 * 61 / 50 = 35.38 mg/L and 39 mgCaCO3 * 61 / 50 = 47.58 mg/L)
So if you use a basic water calculator like this one:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/
The input should be (average of the percentiles):
Ca+2 14.35 mg/L
Mg+2 22.5 mg/L
SO4-2 8.1 mg/L
Na+ 15.65 mg/L
Cl- 30.25 mg/L
HCO3- 41.5 mg/L
Does it sound about right?
I've been playing a little with this calculator to see what would I need for brewing an IPA (select Burton on Trent on the target profile combobox) and for my batch: 10L + 2L trub, boil 90', efficiency 68%... bla bla... total water needed 21.3L
For having the "green stars", the closest I can get to the "desired" values is by using:
Chalk CaCO3: 2g
Baking Soda NaHCO3: 5g
Gypsum CaSO4: 10g
Calcium Chloride CaCl2: 0g
Epsom Salt MgSO4: 1g
Canning Salt NaCl: 2g
I get green-range in everything but a huge deficit in:
Ca+2 : -127
SO4-2: -432
But "Burton on Trent" water, according to this calculator, is not even safe for drinking!
About the salts, my home brew supplier has:
- Magnesium Sulphate = Epsom Salt MgSO4
- Calcium Sulphate = Gypsum CaSO4
- Calcium Carbonate = Chalk CaCO3
and I can buy the table salt and the baking soda from the supermarket but... I don't know about the Calcium Chloride, maybe I can live without it... I think it is used for lowering the PH, but I've only seen products for reducing it in my supplier page, meaning, acids: malic acid, tartaric acid and citric acid.
Do you recommend buying a cheap chinese PH meter from ebay or go directly to the PH paper strips (cheaper, don't need calibration)? And from those 3 (malic, tartaric and citric acid) which one is best?
When is the best moment to add the salts? Do they affect the mash? I know they can modify the PH and thus the sugar extraction, but everyone seems to say: do it at the beginning of the boil (after sparge).
About the PH, when should it be measured? after the mash before the mash out? and adjusted? Should I try to calculate the final PH in advance and add (if necessary) the acid to the initial mash water (and sparge water) ?
About Chalk vs Baking Soda, do they "fight each other"? Should I use both at the same time? I don't know if this calculator is accounting for that. And by the way: what is Baking Soda in Australia? Sodium bicarbonate, ok... but what particular product do I buy at Coles/Woolworth/IGA? What about the salt? "canning salt, kosher salt, pickling salt, or pure salt - just make sure it is not iodized" <- any particular brand / product from australian supermarkets?
P.S. This is the recipe I want to brew ("Three Floyd's Zombie Dust" clone):
https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/biab-chinook-ipa.96298/page-3#post-1481250 @manticle told me to use half a teaspoon of gypsum/calcium sulphate and forget about the rest until I improve a little. I will most likely do that for this one but I want to keep learning!
P.P.S. I just found this other extended version of the calculator:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/
And using 2g of citric/tartaric acid (100% strength) I get 0.00 deviation of the target PH for the selected water profile (burton on trent) using the recipe's grain.
(
Mash pH *: 5.64 * mash prediction is for mash sample cooled to 25 C / 77 F)
Other alternative would be to substitute 100g of the pale malt for acidulated malt (2.8% of the total grain bill).
Which option would you recommend?
