Water chemistry

[Doctormcbrewdle]

Just wondering, what kind of additions are you guys using for hoppy pale ale types?

I was always told 4 : 1 (sulphate to chloride) but someone recently mentioned this is quite wild (which took my profile to 280ppm sulphates and around 50ppm chloride). I'm up for learning

Also read an experiment on pilsners and tasters preferring the brew with lots of additions over the traditional pilsen water profile saying it was crisper. I personally have water very close to Pilsen so haven't been adding anything in my lagers. Should I?...

Discuss

 

[mtb]

There are plenty of existing threads on this topic already on AHB. Try searching; not using the inbuilt engine because it's shit, but rather use Google. Go to Google.com and type site:aussiehomebrewer.com [your search terms here without the brackets]
Here's an example, it just so happens that the first result is a thread started by some uneducated knobhead named MTB back in 2016.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site:aussiehomebrewer.com+water+chemistry

 

[mtb]

..actually I get different results every time I run that search for some reason, so here's my own experience in asking this exact question, with a fantastic response from the community a year ago. It was super helpful.

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/who-bothers-with-water-chemistry.93312/

 

[rude]

Should use some calcium I recon ?

 

[Doctormcbrewdle]

Ahh, yea..

 

[Dan Pratt]

for my hoppy beers as follows:

lower abv summer or session ales 4%ish I target 125ppm to 50ppm sulphate/chloride.

American pale ales 5%ish I target 200ppm to 50ppm sulphate/chloride.

IPAs are always boosted to 300ppm to 75ppm sulphate to chloride, however the mash is 200 to 35 and then at 10mins left in the boil I add the remaining 100ppm and 40ppm of chloride. Seen this technique on the pliney the elder brew sheet.

 

[manticle]

Thing is - there are recommended ranges for a reason. There's no single digit that will be right for all palates, all beers.

Get calcium levels right first (even that has a recommended range), adjust pH with acid or acid malt if necessary*, then focus on flavour salt. I've never found the need to be excessive (just favaour sulphate for hoppy, chloride for malty) but I also don' t ever move into iipa or beyond territory. For pale/hop forward US types, I sit mostly between pale and ipa, with most other preferred styles being uk, German or Belgian.

 

[markp]

Hi guys,
Only been brewing all grain for a short period of just under a year and want to dabble with a bit of water chemistry but am somewhat frazzled at all the calculators and bits. My plan is to use rainwater and start simple by doing what is described in the attached screenshot I got from a previous ahb forum, my question is do I treat both mash and sparge water or just mash water and leave sparge water blank ?

Cheers
Mark

 

[Zorco]

good stuff mate. so much to learn