Water adjustments for beer, á la NPR

I use mostly RO water, but will mix in tap water to utilize the bicarbonate levels, if the mash pH requires it. I don't look to emulate any locale, but focus on mash pH, proper ion levels for yeast health and flavor.

 

I use strictly tap water, but as Nathan does, I adjust for mash pH. I also adjust for the impact on the final product. For example, my water has only about 30 ppm calcium. I try to get that closer to 75-100 just to help keep the beer from being lifeless and dull. I also only have 6 ppm (!) sulfate, so I bring that up to make the hops pop a bit.

I don't try to emulate a particular region, but I do understand that it helps to have water match the beer I'm trying to make. There is, after all, a reason pilseners developed in Plzen and not Munich, and stouts worked in Dublin better than Plzen, etc. That's another of the advantages we have over brewers of centuries ago; we can adjust our water.

 

Large breweries that have the technical capability use RO systems and adjust the water. Some mix that RO water back with the tap water to get the mineral balance they want (Stone). Some use all RO water and adjust with brewing salts (Firestone Walker). Many will add Gypsum or CaCl2 to adjust the Ca, SO4 and Cl to levels they want for the beer being brewed (I have seen a lot of sack of those minerals on brewery tours). John Palmer has been touring breweries and talking to the brewers for his new book, which should have good information on what is done in the industry.

I use all RO water and adjust with minerals for the beer being brewed.

One point that everyone should know is that the SO4 is used to accentuate the hop bitterness. It might sharpen the bitterness and makes the beer drier. The flavor and aroma are not impacted, unless you go overboard and get the "Burton Snatch". Beers such as PU when fresh have good hop flavor and aroma, and the low SO4 levels allow for a rounded bitterness that does not linger.

 

This is used in Germany to get around the Reinheitsgebot. They can't use industrial acids. They can use the lactic acid that has been produced by the lacto bugs on the grain to lower the mash pH, as it is "natural".

 

Is using just malt within the Reinheitsgebot guidelines? I was under the impression that you had to make a sour mash and add sour wort..

 

The sour malt is said to be sprayed with lactic acid. I don't think that they specify if it is from a natural sour mash or idustrial lactic acid. I would think if it was not from a sour mash, it would not be alllowed, but then again maybe it would be.

 

Okay, back to the thread.

I'm just starting to play with adjustments. I'll be interested to see if this affects(?) my hop forward beers. With no adjustments my Chloride / Sulfate ratio was .8, at least on the hoppy side of balanced. And with that it seemed like I wasn't adding in as much hops as I've seen recommended at times. I could be wrong but I'm thinking that some people have the wrong profile and are adding too much hops. And maybe that explains some of the flavor stability issues that people elude too.

Then again the ratio is for hop flavor quality and not quantity. But some of these descriptors don't translate very well.

 

Very much this. There's a reason 35-40 IBUs in an Urquell are so markedly different than 35-40 IBUs in, say, a Sierra Nevada pale, and it isn't all just variety differences. It's precisely because of this that I add no gypsum to my American lager recipes, which is what I mean when I say I'm not trying to match a particular city's water profile, but I am trying to match my water to my beer. That's why I cringe a little when I see people blindly adding gypsum to everything, or when I read the old Papazian recipes that called for 8 teaspoons of gypsum in a stout recipe without regard to starting water profiles. Through blind luck they'll occasionally make really good beers this way. But you really have to know where you're starting and know where you want to end up before you can ever map an effective route to get there.

 

I always use water from the "Glacier Water" machine at the local grocery store. RO at $0.30/gallon. I add whatever salts I need based on online software calculators.

 

Just adding my two cents: My city water tastes terrible, so I start with RO water and make a few additions. I try to keep them to a minimum, since I really don't understand all the various interactions between ions and residual alkalinity and all that. Usually this means adding a few grams of gypsum or calcium chloride to the mash, depending on the type of beer, and a little bit of phosphoric acid to the sparge. I usually also add yeast nutrient to the boil, just to cover my bases. A lot of really good brewers say that it's better to under modify your water than to over do, and I take that to heart. Eventually I'd like to get to the point where I'm confident in making more adjustments to the water, but I ain't there yet.

 

If your willing to use RO then this should be pretty simple. Most of the sheets are pretty easy to use. E-Z water is pretty straight forward.

Basically you can split the process into two half's. You adjust the mash for ph and the boil you adjust for flavor. Frankly to make tasty beer you do have a lot of wiggle room. Some adventurous soul could probably give you two very basic sets of amounts. One for pale to brown and brown to dark. You wouldn't be 100% perfect by the numbers but you'd make good beer. With some of the beers in a side-side comparison you could tell the difference. But given just one of those beers a day later, probably very few of us would know which beer of the two beers it was. The flavor in the boil adjustment is also not a big deal. But it wouldn't be that hard to have a malty and a hoppy make-up either.

 

I had been brewing and not knowing the water profile, and it worked alright.
Then I moved. Beers sucked especially hoppy beers.
Obtained a water report and saw I had very soft water. So I started working on water chemistry.
Beers do not suck anymore, and some are the best I have ever brewed.

So, if water chemisry is on your mind I encourage you to check it out. You will be happy you did.
Like everything else in brewing it may be a little complex to understand at first, but after you adjust a few times it becomes second nature.

 

starting with soft water and adding minerals is a hell of alot easier than using hard water, treating it, then calculating the needed additions. if you are very particular then RO water, with a lab analysis, is the only real solution for homebrewers.

i have my artesian tested for basic compounds since i have a good lab connection and have had the USGS analyze for the presence of literally hundreds of compounds (since i have a USGS connection). so i know whats in my water as well as anyone at a big brewery.

water chemistry is a right royal pita. i just use enough distilled water and a dose of my artesian, or the occasional addition of burton salts and that will get it close enough 9 times out of 10 for me. if i were trying to brew the perfect PU or Dortmunder then it might be different.
Cheers.

 

Great thread.

I actually did my first water adjustments a few days ago for an APA. I recently learned that Portland, ME water is soft, and has very low dissolved minerals (basically 10ppm or less across the board). So I added 5g each of CaSO4 and CaCl2 to harden things up and help accentuate the dryness/bitterness in a five-gallon batch. I've made a few hoppy beers with Portland city water and have found them good, but lacking something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Hopefully the water adjustments will help.

Any recommendations for adjustments for German lagers? I'm thinking about brewing up an Oktoberfest sometime soon. Prost

 

If your water is under 10 ppm across the board for the big 6 (Ca, SO4, Mg, HCO3, Na, and Cl), then you could feasibly make a pale lager without adjustments at all. That is close to the water in Plzen, if you're one who likes to match city water profiles. Any adjustments you make to that should be small, just to get the salts to the low end of the range.

 

I have seen some say that in Pilzen they add CaCl2 to bring the calcium up. Others don't mention that.

In the old days they would do a tripple decoction to help the malt convert with the low Ca levels. The malt was not as modified as now, and they would get the pH to drop with the acid rest.

Edit - Matching city water profiles is something of fools errand. If you match the water for Munich, you then have to drop the alkalinity for a Helles. If you look at Vienna, that water won't make a Vienna lager (see Designing Great Beers),.Which water do you want for Burton on Trent, each well is different and they have a wide range in SO4. Dortmund has the stories of the brewers using RO water. It can also be very difficult to match some city water profiles with the means at our disposal.

 

Agreed on the matching cities. I offered it up because I know some like to do so, hence the list of famous city profiles in nearly every brewing water spreadsheet or calculation program. I admit I had not seen where brewers in Plzen added CaCl2, but it would make sense, thereby getting calcium to at least the low end of the range so the beer isn't washed out.