Water adjustments for beer, á la NPR

I add enough CaCl2 to my Bo Pils water to get in the neighborhood of 50 ppm calcium. The beer ends up amazingly clear, I assume in part because of the calcium impact on flocculation. Well, that and gravity/time in the lagering keg.

 

Same here, and the bitterness matches that from PU. No sulfates, so you get a rounded bitterness that does not linger.

 

yikes, my Ca is extremely low. That's less than half and I don't think that this effect is linear.

I know that there is really no normal, but should municipal water really be this low?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
pH 8.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 222
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.37
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.7 / 3.7

ppm
Sodium, Na 53
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 20
Magnesium, Mg 4
Total Hardness, CaCO3 67
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.4 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 17
Chloride, Cl 41
Carbonate, CO3 3
Bicarbonate, HCO3 80
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 70
Total Phosphorus, P 1.06
Total Iron, Fe 0.03

 

A few years ago I moved to a region that has water as pure as the venerated Pilsen. I think I may never leave.

 

Yea, totally normal for Ca to be in that range. I think mine is around 15-20 as well. Make sure you're adding some Calcium as its pretty much the most important ion.

 

We in New England are blessed with beautifully soft water...a bit of CaCl2 and I'm good to go.

 

What is normal? It depends on where you are, and if the water is from surface sources or wells.

Detroit water ~ 35 ppm Ca, and it is from Lake Huron.
The little town where I live = 113 ppm from wells.

Portland OR makes Pilsen look hard. Many places in the US have levels <10 ppm.

 

Yeah, maybe if I get that fixed I won't be such a yeast ****. Or maybe not.

 

How's this look? It's for a hop forward red ale.

If the image is too small then right click and "view image". Or here is the direct link:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/udo_b/water.jpg

I won't be adding any additions to the sparge though. As normal I'll heat up more water then I need too. I'll just figure out the actual spare amount, update the sheet and then add to the boil kettle

I'm not too sure how much I'll trust this spreadsheet for ph with toasted malt though.

 

Relevant

Some of you may know of this guy.

 

Look reasonable to me, given the starting water profile. That sodium is pretty high, but I'm thinking it won't be detrimental. Disclaimer: I build most of my water from distilled, and my sodium is never that high, even when buillding from my tap water, so I don't know for sure.

Looks like you're adding epsom salts to get some Mg. If so, I wouldn't bother. The malt will provide plenty IMO.

 

Thanks, I'll play around with it a bit more.

I think that you could divide this into three levels of tuning. First make sure that there are no glowing issues. Such as my Ca being woefully low. Second would be some general tuning, which is what I'm doing now. Just making sure that I'm somewhere in the ranges. Third and last would fine tuning for each style.

I really think that playing with the spreadsheets is a must if you want to learn. E-Z water is pretty simple.

 

These water chem threads are fascinating.

My tap water has a pH of about 7.6. Is using a small amount of acid malt, just to lower pH, advisable? How much should be used for a 5gal batch for this purpose?

 

It really depends on the water's mineral profile (not the water's own pH) and the grains you'll be using. Two different waters could both have a pH of 7.6, but their mash pH (with same grain bill) could be very different.

 

There is such a thing as too much, depending on the style. Super hard water would not be good for, say, a pilsner, even though the yeast would love the calcium.

 

Maybe you listened to the lower link and just have questions, but if you didn't do check it out. I'm still reviewing Palmer's four part series on TBN, but even though the lower link is a review it's presented a bit more organized.

Thanks EPK.

 

I hope you like venerated Pilsens, because most beers need some hardening.

 

Hmm, alright. I'll see if I can dig up my water report and tinker with the EZ water calc spreadsheet. Thanks!

Still at work, but I'll check that out. Thanks for highlighting it for me.

 

Oh, for those who use 100% RO or whatever. When do you add in your chemicals? I ask because I'm told that some are hard to dissolve in plain water but will in a mash. So just throw everything in before you dough-in?

FWIW I do recirculate and use a RIMS tube.