Water chemistry - low HCO

[Chap]

Hi all,

I’ve never really used a water calc to change my water too much, so thought I’d give it a try. I’m using brewers friend.

I’m doing a Vienna Amarillo smash - 5kg Amarillo and 0.1kg acidulated malt, 3 grams of both gypsum and calcium chloride which gives me a pH of 5.33. The question I have in making these additions is that the HCO levels drop to 2.075mg/L.

Does anyone know what affect this will have on the mash/wort/fermentation/final beer?

Cheers
Chap

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi all,

I’ve never really used a water calc to change my water too much, so thought I’d give it a try. I’m using brewers friend.

I’m doing a Vienna Amarillo smash - 5kg Amarillo and 0.1kg acidulated malt, 3 grams of both gypsum and calcium chloride which gives me a pH of 5.33. The question I have in making these additions is that the HCO levels drop to 2.075mg/L.

Does anyone know what affect this will have on the mash/wort/fermentation/final beer?

Cheers
Chap

According to Brewers Friend 0-50 ppm for pale beers, did you use their water profile in the water chemistry?

 

[MHB]

Chap
What makes you think you need Carbonate, generally carbonate is the enemy as it raises the pH to well outside the optimum for amylase. Where carbonate is high steps are taken to reduce it, either boiling the water to remove temporary hardness, adding acid/acid malt to neutralise or using dark malts that are more acidic to get down to the right pH.

Its a rare thing when you need to add carbonate in any form, maybe in a big stout (say >10% roast) in general its a salt that gets left in the rack.
Mark

 

[Chap]

Thanks for the replies, sorry for not being more clear. I’m going off the balanced profile on brewers friend which calls for 100mg/L HCO, and by adding gypsum, cal chloride and acid malt (0.1kg) to my Brisbane water profile, it calculated 2.075mg/L HCO which I figured was a huge difference and I wasn’t sure of the repercussions of it. Screenshot of the table below.

If HCO is the enemy then I guess based on that I should be able to move forward without any further changes? Happy to provide more info if required

Cheers
Chap

 

[wide eyed and legless]

John Palmer I believe put together the water profiles for Brewers Friend I have found it to be spot on with the salt additions and the pH, so much so that I ashamedly admit to not always checking the pH.

 

[MHB]

I don't know the Brisbane water profile, but I suspect that it has the 100ppm of Carbonate, in large part what you are doing is neutralising it.
Just to be clear, it is asking for additions of SO4, Cl and Acid malt, but not carbonate, is that right.
Mark

 

[Chap]

It’s asking for Ca, Cl and SO4, and the mash pH before any additions is 5.8. When I add 3g of both gypsum and Cal Chloride it brings the water profile into line but the mash pH is still high at 5.71 according to brewers friend calc. Adding the 0.1kg acid malt drops the pH to 5.3

 

[MHB]

Make sense, provided its a pretty small grain bill (very small)
Acid malt is standardised to lower the mash pH by 0.1 for every 1% of acid malt in the grist.
Your adding 0.1kg to move the pH by 0.4, so your 0.1kg would have to be 4% of your grist, making the grain bill around 2.5kg. If you aren't making around a half sized (12.5L) batch, you might need a bit more acid/acid malt.

In your OP you say your using 5kg of Amarillo, I suspect that's base malt not hops, if its 5kg of Vienna you might be closer to the right pH, being darker Vienna is going to have more acidic melanoidins than would say pilsner malt.
Probably one of those cases where if you aren't measuring the pH we are all guessing to some extent.
Mark

 

[Chap]

Haha sorry yeah 5kg gladfield Vienna. And yes I’m not measuring the pH yet, relying on the software at this early stage. Will have to invest in a pH meter soon for precision and tuning.

Thanks for your feedback, always love your precision and knowledge to find solutions, much appreciated.

Cheers
Chap