Water Chemistry

[Norto]

G'Day all,

Just about to start out with All grain brew and just wondering what is the best water chemistry and for what recipes, we were thinking of starting with an Australian Ale or something. I have access to some Spring water which has very low TDS but not sure if this will be OK.
Thanks.
Norto.

 

[Phoney]

G'day Norto.

It all depends on where you live if you are going to be using tap water.

Checkout the Big Post of Water thread and see if you can find the numbers for your city.

Then, with the EZ water calculator, you just plug in the numbers into the spreadsheet and take it from there. Play around with your Gypsum & Calc. Chloride or Epsom Salt & Baking Soda additions until you reach the right targets..

With Spring Water it's impossible to determine what the chemical breakdown is, without sending it to a lab for testing. A few members here have done this in the past, it usually does cost money (unless you know a water chemist) but - it's probably worth it if that's what you're going to be brewing with in the long run.

Good luck

 

[O'Henry]

Well, you want around 70-100ppm Calcium for yeast health, yeast flocculation, good wort pH, good sugar conversion and a number of other reasons. If nothing else, I would add 90ppm Ca in the form of CaCl2 and CaSO4.

Then, on top of this, I would add magnesium (in MgSO4) to about 15ppm and sodium (in NaCl) to about 30ppm, just to give the beer a more rounded flavour. Totally salt free water will be a very light on, which would be fine for a Pils, but not great for many other styles.

Try to keep the ratio of Ca:SO4 to around 1:1 for an average beer. If you want to accentuate malt, add more calcium. If you want a more assertive bitterness, add more SO4. There are a billion things to read on the net on this. This is the calc I use when feeling lazy.

Edit: too slow!!!1!!
Edit #2: I'd prob do 1:1 for Australian ale

 

[Bribie G]

Where are you located?

For example Melbourne / Sydney with water off Warragamba........... you can probably assume you are almost using very soft springwater anyway so using your "spingwater" might not be an advantage really. Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth: a different story altogether. To start off with, I'd just try to get a bit of calcium into the mash anyway using Calcium Chloride for a malt accented beer or Calcium Sulphate for a more hop accented. And for an Aussie Ale, definitely sulphates so use some Calcium Sulphate and some Magnesium Sulphate as well.

All salts available from Sponsors at top of page.

 

[Norto]

Thanks for the replies,
I think I will get my water tested as we are on a mixture of bore water and rain water because we live out of town. I am putting together a water filter for our house so getting the water tested makes sense before i do this. I used to work in the springwater industry so still have a few contacts to get the water tested I just was not sure what effect it had on what beer.

Regards,
Norto

 

[O'Henry]

If you have access to potable rainwater, id just use this an ensure there are no heavy metal taints. Then you can add anything you want to basically a clean slate. Just what I would do.

 

[donburke]

on the topic of water chemistry, i am reading a recipe on the weyermann website for an american pale ale

http://www.weyermann.de/usa/hr.asp?go=deta...&sprache=10

it says to add CaSO4 to achieve 200ppm of Ca

thats a MASSIVE addition, and will result in sulfates of approx 450ppm for my soft sydney water

450 ppm seems like a lot of sulfate, as too does 200ppm of calcium

is there something i am missing or is this gonna be ok to have that much salt in the beer ?

 

[HoppingMad]

on the topic of water chemistry, i am reading a recipe on the weyermann website for an american pale ale

http://www.weyermann.de/usa/hr.asp?go=deta...&sprache=10

it says to add CaSO4 to achieve 200ppm of Ca

thats a MASSIVE addition, and will result in sulfates of approx 450ppm for my soft sydney water

450 ppm seems like a lot of sulfate, as too does 200ppm of calcium

is there something i am missing or is this gonna be ok to have that much salt in the beer ?

Funny I was on this website yesterday and was gobsmacked when I saw that too.

Ray is an American who from what I can gather is based in Chicago Illinois. His water chemistry and yours in Sydney would be quite different.
If it were me I'd ignore his suggestion on additions and be guided by the sort of additions local brewers in your area would use for an ale. The big post of water thread would be a good way to start.

Can't give you any pointers on Sydney water being a Melburnian - sorry our water would be quite different so the addtions will be too.

Hopper.

 

[felten]

it says to add CaSO4 to achieve 200ppm of Ca

thats a MASSIVE addition, and will result in sulfates of approx 450ppm for my soft sydney water

450 ppm seems like a lot of sulfate, as too does 200ppm of calcium

is there something i am missing or is this gonna be ok to have that much salt in the beer ?

I've made up a beer with 280 so4, 90 cl in the mash before, which according to playing with beersmith, should get reduced down to around 400 so4 / 125 cl at the end of boil volume and the beer was fantastic, super hoppy with a clean bitterness. It did have 50g ekg, 60g styrians late/dry though so it matched up well.