Hello all, I've been out of the brewing scene for about 4 years had stuff going on. But I'm Back now. Anyway to my question: I have a well, the water taste great, however when boiled a lot of chalk precipitates out, how is this going to affect my beer. Every thing I have found is not really telling me what the issue can cause as far as off flavors or bad mashing issues. The PH of the water is right about 7 so I think I'm ok once the grain Goes in, but what about the boil? Hop utilization? Off flavors? Thanks for your help ahead of time. Thom P
Hardness can be removed by pre-boiling your brewing liquor. If pH of your brewing liquor going into mash tun is 7.0, you should be ok for beers with darker grains like crystal, chocolate, roast, etc. Most important is mash pH though. Water pH doesn't mean much alone, the grist interaction is what counts. As long as your mash pH is 5.2 - 5.5 you should be good. If your initial mash pH is too high, there are a few ways you can lower pH: food grade acids (lactic, phosphoric acid), acidulated malt. Hop utilization increases with pH. Not sure on the threshold, but the more alkaline the wort, the higher the hop utilization & harshness of the bitterness. From my understanding, most impact of mash pH is enzymatic and can also have effect on mash efficiency, tannin extraction, etc.
Right on Thanks, That is about what I expected to hear. I just don't want to preboil to precipitate out if I don't have to. Any Ideas about weather it will cause off flavors? Thanks
You have temporary hardness if you precipitate chalk after boiling. Water pH means little for mash pH due to the buffering of the water. Hit the mash pH using a program like brewers friend or Brunwater, and use a pH meter to verify the actual pH. If the pH is too high for light beers like lagers, they are not crisp and taste "muddy" to me. If the pH of a dark beer is too low, they taste sharp rather than rounded.
You have a very good point. Because this is the first brew after 4 years of not brewing, I'll do I ph test on the mash and see where I'm at. might as well do an Iodine test to check the conversion to. Thanks man, you seem very knowledgeable, which is exactly what I was looking for.
Your mash pH is going to be different for every recipe. That's why hopfenunmaltz recommended Bru'nwater or another program/sheet. You'll want to predict the mash pH (and make gross adjustments) before you mash, measure, and adjust on the fly.
Think he meant that what you inferred about his water matches what he saw on the report. i.e. you grok water.
Oh, ok. It is always good to see what is in the water, as it can vary quite a bit from source not too far apart.
Exactly. The report I have is a couple of years old. I am being told there is a pace in town, I live in the country, and they will test the water for free. I'll take a sample and get a new report, but I think if the chalk isn't an issue, dark beer heaven is just around the corner, mmmmmmmm black IPA..
You might want to ask what they test for before you spend time and effort talking in a sample. It might be a safety standard type of test, and not measuring brewing ions. I'm just guessing, but my gut says that a free test might likely be the former.
My mom has the original free copy when they installed the well, I know the water properties may change, but it'll give me an idea of what they test for. However, now that the brewed beer is in the fermentor, I'll have a result in a month or so and will see how it is. Not the best way, but it is a way.
