Water Adjustment Question

Are you just trying to adjust mash ph or are you looking for flavor enhancements?
For ph, add to strike, or strike and sparge
For flavor, add primarily to boil

What are you using for base water? Tap? RO? Combo?

 

I found this to be very helpful: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-2.html

 

Add to strike water or with the grains as you dough in.

You can add to sparge water, but don't add baking soda, chalk, or pickling lime there. You don't want the sparge water to be by alkaline.

For high levels of sulfate or chloride, you can add the extra minerals with those ions to the boil.

Get the pH in Range, then season to taste in the boil.

 

If you know your water profile already, I suggest using Bru'n Water Calc. It basically answers all your questions as you input the data.

 

Even better than that - I'd reco @utahbeerdude's calculator (which I am sure he will link) - it addresses some fundamental shortcomings in Martin Brungard's model.

 

Don't tell my I'm going to have to migrate to another Calc...

EZ -> Bru'n Water -> "utahbeerdude"

I can only handle so much change

 

Migrating to MpH is an easy migration. It is an elegant tool to use. Make sure you get the latest version of 1.2.

I personally found the Bru'n Water tool unwieldy to use at first due to its numerous sheets (and other aspects).

Cheers!

 

Yes MpH is very easy to use, and more accurate as well. I have used the calculator on several occasions and I have always been within 0.1 of predicted pH, and often within 0.03. Cheers!

 

Where's the MpH calc at? Online or do we have to download? I swore I saw it somewhere here before.

I use my ipad to brew and dont have excel and shit on it to download the other calcs.

 

MpH calc is a spreadsheet. I don't have the full direct URL here, but it's on utahbeerdude's blog at http://homebrewingphysics.blogspot.com/

His calculations are also integrated in BrewCipher.

 

Split them. Those will not raise the alkalinity of the sparge water. Or you could put the sparge addition into the boil if you wish.

 

There is no need to make water chemistry overly complicated, at least when one starts to adjust one's water. For anyone inexperienced in treating brewing liquor, I would offer the following guidelines for practically all beers.

First, there are three critical things one is trying to achieve by messing with one's water:

(1) Proper mash pH.
(2) Proper mash pH.
(3) Proper mash pH.
​

The rest is gravy (mostly). The next most important thing to worry about might be avoiding an increase in pH towards the end of a fly sparge. After that, salts can be used to dial in a beers flavor profile. This last concern will take a number of re-brews to effectively address.

Will that intro, here is the procedure I would recommend.

For the MASH:

(1) Start with distilled or RO water. (This doesn't have to be too expensive, necessarily. For example, I am able to buy RO at a local big-box department store for 37c/gallon.)

(2) Add CaCl and/or CaSO_4 to strike water to achieve (a minimum) 50 ppm Cl. For all but the hoppiest pale ales I would recommend solely using CaCl the first time and then adjusting the ratio of CaCl to CaSO_4 in subsequent batches, if so desired. For hoppy pale beers CaSO_4 is said to make the hops "pop" by making the beer seem drier, and so some CaSO_4 may be desired for these beers.

(3) If necessary add acidulated malt to the grist achieve a predicted mash pH of 5.4. For pilsners and pale ales, some acidulated malt will likely be required. For darker beers, it may not be. If the predicted mash pH comes in under 5.2 (say), then the simplest thing to do to achieve a proper mash pH is to remove the darkest grains from the mash and steep them independent of the mash.

For the SPARGE:

(1) Simply use distilled or RO and treat with CaCl and/or CaSO_4 to achieve the same concentration as when mashing. The low alkalinity of distilled or RO will help ensure that the mash pH does not rise too far near the end of the sparge.

If one's tap water tastes good, is relatively low in alkalinity (bicarbonate), and not too imbalanced with regards to other ions, then that water can be a good place to start. If it tastes good, but is high in alkalinity, then a dilution with distilled or RO to bring down the alkalinity can give one a good base water.

With regards to calculators, I believe the Brewer's Friend calculator to be quite accurate. However, it is (at least somewhat) daunting for the water neophyte. Some others here recommend MpH Water Calculator, found here. It is definitely simpler that the Brewer's Friend calculator, but has most everything one might want when the above recommended procedure above. You may want to give it a try.

 

Adding Calcium Chloride to your mash water does affect the pH of the mash (downward). Adding it to the kettle doesn't (of course) affect mash pH, but does increase the Calcium (which the yeast need for strong flocculation) and the Chloride, which affects flavor.

I'm not familiar with the calculator you are using, but could the 'HCO' actually be 'HCO3?' If so it could be referring to ppm of Bicarbonate ion. This is a number that you generally do not need to chase. If you get your mash pH right, and your flavor ions right (i.e. the way you want them), for any given water source there's no way to change Bicarbonate independently anyway.

 

I am not sure what the best water would be. For me it would be Portland, OR, or the McNairy-Nacatoch aquifer in part of TN.

Not bad brewing water for some beers, but not too soft. Last page.
http://www.louisvilleky.gov/NR/rdon...0/2013AnnualWaterQualityReport_WebVersion.pdf