Water Additions

[3G]

Hi all.
A few more questions on water, sorry.
Does anyone see any problems with the following procedure.

Use rain water in HLT with ph5.2 and no other additions.

Add epson salts, chalk etc as required to the kettle after sparging, worked out on the pre boil volume.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Stuster]

5.2 is mainly for hard water. For rain water it might be best to use calcium chloride, gypsum (calcium sulphate), epsom salts and chalk. It really depends on what kind of beer you are brewing though. Have a look at Palmer's chapter on water chemistry, here.

 

[gap]

5.2 is mainly for hard water. For rain water it might be best to use calcium chloride, gypsum (calcium sulphate), epsom salts and chalk. It really depends on what kind of beer you are brewing though. Have a look at Palmer's chapter on water chemistry, here.

Hello Stuster,

MIght be a silly question, but what is "chalk" and where do you get it.

Regards

Graeme

 

[3G]

CaCo3 is Chalk or Calcium carbonate. Available from Beer and winemaking supply shops.
Stuster, i was going to add the 5.2 to make the ph of the rain water 5.2 which i thought is perfect for the mash.
The other chemicals were going in the kettle after.
Cheers

 

[Stuster]

The thing is, 5.2 is designed to buffer mashes for American brewers, in general for hard water which needs the mash pH reduced. Apparently, it's not necessarily that good for soft water. Soft water, and you can't get much softer than rain water, will have other issues. The mash will not have enough calcium for the enzymes to work as well as they can. AFAIK, 5.2 doesn't really do that for your mash. Adding some chemicals will get the pH right depending on what you add depending on the beer you want to make. As I said, have a read of Palmer as he has the full info on this. But if you don't want to get into it, in brief for your water - gypsum will be good for pale, hoppy beer; calcium chloride for pale malty beers; calcium carbonate for darker beers.