Ph and other stuff

@Jos3h2r . FYI in the link provided by Jack Horzempa, Wards Labs provides an email address in addition to a phone number for inquiries originating from outside the United States.

Distilled water is easy to come by in the US at grocery stores. Do you have access to it in Panama?

 

Another option is to purchase a kit so that you can test your tap water yourself but at 120 bucks it is not cheap:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/lamotte-brewlab-basic-water-test-kit-718901.html

Cheers!

 

I’ve looked and haven’t yet found a chart or other resource that describes the optimal target water profile for any/every style of beer, but I tip my hat to Michael Tonsmeire (The Mad Fermentationist) who shares some thoughts on water profiles for styles HERE and HERE.

I had a question very similar to yours and posted it in another thread (linked here), where @minderbender replied with some excellent input that moved me closer to a better understanding, particularly posts 9 & 13. If you study those posts 9 & 13 along with minderbenders post 19 in this thread, you might find the topic and process will become somewhat clearer......every little bit helps.

As mentioned by others, Chapter 15 of How To Brew (online version) gives a brief primer on malts and minerals. Palmer covers that subject in depth in the same chapter of the print version of his book.

 

pH meter. Strips are nearly worthless, even the "good" ones.

 

MoreBeer is a (the?) primary retailer for the LaMotte water test kit referenced by @JackHorzempa .
After additional interwebbing I found this link on the LaMotte website to a John Palmer Water Calculator, which is downloadable as an Excel file. The third tab, named “Scratch” lists profiles for 72 beer styles. It's good to see those profiles all on one sheet.

There's another Palmer calculator named Palmers-Water-Adj-Gallons-4pt0.xls available from the online version of How To Brew. (near the bottom of the linked page)
At first glance the files appear to be identical with the exception that the one from Palmers site must have the “Scratch” tab hidden.
In either file you can click the dropdown box to the right of the Style cell in the Main tab and it will display the “Suggested Water Mineral Ranges for the Style”
NOTE: Palmers website offers two versions, with the distinction being one for Gallons & °SRM, and another for Liters & °EBC.
FWIW, I think all the Excel downloads reference the old 2008 styles.

If one or more of our more knowledgeable members would take a peek at the file and offer additional insight, it would be appreciated.

BrewCipher has a similar feature whereby one selects the Style on the Recipe tab. Water profile/s are then suggested on the Water tab when using the dropdown box that's located 4 cells below "Water Results" (cell b32 for those of you who turned on the headings). The adjustments suggested there are quite specific, as opposed to the wider ranges in the other Excel files mentioned
Homebrewers are a picky, opinionated lot and have their favorites.
I'm liking Brewcipher more and more with each new discovery. It's powerful, comprehensive, doesn't depend on web access once downloaded, and (hooray!) it's free.


The suggested profiles in the calculators might or might not prove useful for a novice, but I'm thinking one could use those water adjustments as a starting point and see if it hits the mark. Then tweak the profile to personal preference for mouthfeel, hops characteristics enhancement, yeast flocculation, etc.....likely an improvement over a "hit or miss" approach.

 

The Palmer numbers look reasonable to me. He provides pretty broad ranges for most styles, which accurately reflects the fact that most styles do not call for any particular balance of flavor ions, and it's up to the brewer to choose.

I just remembered that Martin Brungard used to write (maybe still writes?) articles for Zymurgy magazine describing the water profiles of various brewing regions. An important thing to note is that brewers have long adjusted their water, so the water profile of a given place may not match the water profile of beers brewed there, but it would be an interesting starting point for anyone who wants to dig into the subject.

 

Makes sense. Otherwise folks could use my regional profile, without adjustments, for a pale Ale, Stout, Saison, Hefe and so on.....since my "region" is the water distiller.

Circa 2010 Tonsmiere, referenced earlier, probably found it “interestlng” as well and echoed Brungard's thoughts, (paraphrasing here) > > after replicating the Burton-on-Trent heavy sulfate content (most water reports put it around 800 ppm, nearly a gram per liter). He brewed an English Pale with enough salts in the mash/sparge water (2.9g gypsum, .5g chalk, and 1.8g epsom salt per gallon) to get to that level a couple years back and the results tasted a bit like licking drywall. ( Classic Brewing Water Profiles Rant )
I'll rely on his experience for that, as I don't remember ever licking drywall.

 

Nobody ever remembers licking drywall. It is only when your buddies show you the pictures/video that...

Cheers!

 

I can't imagine how embarrassing that must have been for you.........
If licking drywall was the worst shenanigan that was made known of me, I'd be in good stead.

 

I don't hang around with a 'young crowd' that own smart phones so I am 'clean' here.

One advantage of not being 'with it'!?!

Cheers!

 

I use a Milwaukee MW101and have no complaints.