Another post somewhere got me thinking. Before I started adding salts to my RO water, I used straight up RO water to brew with. This soft water did produce some really great beers. In regards to the "soft, pillowy" mouthfeel in IPAs today, would this be a better way to go than to be adding salts? My theory is the lack of ions and Ca will allow the beer to remain hazier longer and will create a softer mouthfeel. Thoughts?
Permit me to ask a few curiosity questions: What was the source of your RO water? Did you use a TDS meter to measure the total dissolved solids of the water you used? Cheers!
One of the reasons I asked those questions is because I have read/heard RO water from places like supermarkets often contain a notable amount of minerals. Assuming that your brewery's RO system is effective at removing total dissolved solids (e.g., minerals) I am a bit surprised that brewing with this water resulted in 'good' beer since from all of my readings there is a need for some level of minerals for 'good' brewing water. Cheers!
Yeah, won many medals in comps with those RO beers. I thought malt contains ions as well tho? And also yeast nutrient I've always used, so I'm sure there was at least a small amount of ion content.
Yeah, malt will contribute some minerals. Despite this aspect, it seems to be 'conventional wisdom' that brewing water should contain minerals. There are suggested brewing water mineral profiles for various beer styles (e.g., Burton Water profile to brew hoppy English beers). Cheers!
I use fairly moderate/hard city water and add even more sulfate and chloride for my IPA's. Still get the hazy, pillowy mouthfeel just fine without building from distilled and all that. More to it than water alone in my experience. My water is completely west coast, and intensely so at that. 300+ sulfates, for example.
