Water Profile

[ricardo]

I seem to have ruined many beers lately by not fully understanding what i can and can't do with adding salts. I must have spent weeks sitting in front of water calculators tweeking this and that, thinking I've hit the mail on the head only for the beer not to taste as i expected.

Does anybody know of a service whereby you give them your water report, pay them a fee and tell them what style you want to make and they tell you how many grams per gallon you need to add. I know many tastes differ but i'm just after something that will put me at least in the right area for the beers i want to brew?

 

[troopa]

Where do you live.. and searching here usually is a good help

BTW im in a similar boat.. played with salts for a while not understanding and only got back into them in the last 5 brews.. the profile is heaps better but the hops hit is subdued..

 

[mikk]

Use EZ water calculator or similar. Get as close as you can to what you think is correct, then post a screenshot with the details of the beer you're trying to make.. Us AHB'ers can tell you how to optimise your water profile.

The book 'Water' will also tell you all you need to know...

 

[manticle]

Pay me. I'll do it for a fee. How sure are you that it's your water additions that are resulting in beer that's not how you imagine?

 

[ricardo]

I'm pretty sure, it is getting better with the aid of the brun water calculator but it's just not quite right. I'm kind of tired of spending hours juggling stuff around not really knowing the effects of temp hardness and such.

My last attempt was an IPA using the Randy Mosher profile and whilst it was a step in the right direction it was a bit too dry on the finish. Don't get me wrong I like dry but it wasn't quite right

Manticle - Thanks for the offer I'm going to stick with the same IPA for my next brew and try lowering the salts, if it doesn't work I'll take you up on the offer if that's OK. Below is my existing profile along with what I'm going to go with this time around, this is based as close as I can get to the one I got from Mitch Steels at Stone brewing

Existing

Ca-13 MG-5 NA-14 SO4-10 CL-28 HCO3-38

Stone

CA-99 MG-12 NA-30 SO4-244 CL-52 HC03-38

Mash 5 US Gallons - 7g Gypsum + 1.4g Epsom
Sparge 4.5 US Gallons - 6.1g Gypsum + 1.2g Epsom + 1.5ml Lactic 88%

Before anybody pulls me regarding measurements I bought my kit in America

 

[Parks]

I haven't checked your numbers there against the calculator I use but it looks perfectly OK to me. I have read using Epsom salts should be avoided (Brewing better beer by Gordon Strong from memory) but really should be fine.

How are you removing Chlorine and Chloramine?

 

[manticle]

Fair whack of sulphate.

What was the FG of your beer that was too dry?

Leave magnesium/epsom out. You don't need extra Mg with an all malt brew.

I was joking about the cash but I can try and help. Have you been measuring mash pH at all? I'd suggest, instead of trying to replicate someone else's water, that you start low and slow with additions - just a touch of gypsum and/or a hint of cal chloride, make sure the pH is in the right range and build from there.

 

[Parks]

I had to put a similar amount of gypsum in to my currently fermenting AIPA which was based on a lot of reading in Mitch Steel's IPA book. Putting SO4 up to 350ppm is very common and some went way above that.

 

[manticle]

Yeah it's not outside the recommended range but it is high and if he's finding his beers drying and bitter, that could be a potential culprit.

Personal taste and all that but that amount of sulphate might be too much for his palate. Certainly if my beers were too dry for my taste, i wouldn't be whacking in that amount.

 

[Parks]

Right, as you were

 

[ricardo]

Fair whack of sulphate.

What was the FG of your beer that was too dry?

Leave magnesium/epsom out. You don't need extra Mg with an all malt brew.

I was joking about the cash but I can try and help. Have you been measuring mash pH at all? I'd suggest, instead of trying to replicate someone else's water, that you start low and slow with additions - just a touch of gypsum and/or a hint of cal chloride, make sure the pH is in the right range and build from there.

The FG of the beer (Pliny clone) that was too dry was 1.010 down from 1.072 so I hit my numbers. This had a total of 13.6g Gypsum & 4.7g Magnesium all up so slightly more sulphate than the next batch I am planning.

pH is good in the mash as I'm hitting 5.5 room temp. Sparge water was pH 6, a little above what I wanted but I wasn't overly concerned

One more thing, I know it's an IPA and needs to be drunk ASAP but do you reckon leaving it a few weeks (only been on the gas 2 weeks for carbing) will maybe mellow the astringency out a touch?

Parks - That's a great book your reading, which recipe are you doing?

 

[manticle]

Astringency? Could also be related to grain crush or hop choice (or hop choice and hop amount or hop times and hop choice or any combo of those).

Measuring pH in the mash? What are you using?

I'd certainly drop your sulphates down and see if that changes anything with the same recipe. Then build back up till you hit the sweet spot between hoppy and bitter.

 

[Parks]

Parks - That's a great book your reading, which recipe are you doing?

Just made one up this time to use up a heap of inventory. I really just took a lot of the advice on board this time and will plan to do one of the recipes later.