Water Chemistry

[Fifthpinned06]

Hello there fellow brewers,

Ive recently been looking into water chemistry a little and am in the process of getting my water tested. But I was having a play around with the water profile tool on beersmith and put Pilzen, Czech water in the base profile and Dublin, Ireland water in target profile two totaly different waters for totally different beers just to suss how the tool works.
And it said to add .5g of epsom salt (easily available) .2g baking soda (easily available) and 4.5g of chalk what sort of chalk are we talking about and where do you get it from?

And also when you add 5.2 stabiliser to your mash that basicly means you have locked the ph at 5.2 so you no longer need to worry about adding any of the ingredients to change the ph all you have to concentrate on is the flavour of the water is this correct?

 

[Wolfy]

Food grade chalk (for brewing purposes) is available at most decent home brew shops, including the site-sponsors.

 

[dabre4]

Some places call it Calcium Carbonate.

 

[Fifthpinned06]

cool calcium carbonate cheers fellas

 

[manticle]

Just double check if you really need to add it and read up about whether using alleged water profiles is the best approach to water chemistry*.

As for 5.2 - I understand it works well with some waters and less well with others.

Again - double check.

*EG: Pilsen water is soft historically according to beersmith and home brew texts. Dublin water is soft now according to the dublin council. Historically/previously it has been very hard. Things change and if you are thinking of playing with your water ions, you can guarantee that most/all major breweries do too.

Brewing science texts and HB texts often seem to disagree on appropriate water treatment for various beer styles.