My first go at water adjustments

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Cqr

My first go at water adjustments

Post by Cqr » Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:50 pm

How's this look
Whats calcium chloride
Seems a lot off crs is this right
I live in Kent so hard water
The photos a bit crap but here's a link
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html
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orlando
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Re: My first go at water adjustments

Post by orlando » Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:58 pm

For what?

Need a bit more information first, difficult to see exactly what you have there. Where did you get your water report from? What are you trying to brew?
I am "The Little Red Brooster"

Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,

Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer

Cqr

Re: My first go at water adjustments

Post by Cqr » Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:19 pm

South east water + a salifert test kit
I like hopy ipa, and stout


Dave S
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Re: My first go at water adjustments

Post by Dave S » Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:24 pm

Cqr wrote:South east water + a salifert test kit
I like hopy ipa, and stout
Well you've got two opposite ends of the spectrum there. Hoppy IPAs = low alkalinity, (20-50 ppm) with a Sulphat:Chloride ratio >1 Stout = moderately high alkalinity (100-150 ppm) with a Sulphate:Chloride ratio < 1. Your inputs to the calculator will be different accordingly.
Best wishes

Dave

BenB

Re: My first go at water adjustments

Post by BenB » Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:39 pm

That sure is a lot of CRS. But then 47 litres is a lot of water- what brew length are you planning?

You can tell you sit on top of a band of chalk as it's got lots of calcium carbonate and not much else. This isn't such a problem as you can always add other minerals. Actually, your high alkalinity and use of CRS is almost going to add "too much" especially (for IPAs) chloride.

The issue you are going to have if you want to brew a IPA is that uses a sulphate high water profile and as it is pale (therefore lacking acidic dark malts) you're going to need even more CRS than currently shown (bitter profile). You'll end up with fairly high levels of both chloride and sulphate which will limit you ability to increase sulphate to get twice as much as chloride to get a sulphate:chloride ratio that will accentuate the hoppy flavour.

Personally if you like Stout I'd brew one of those first. Covers up a multitude of sins.

However if you do want to brew an IPA you can just use other methods of reducing alkalinity. You can boil the water first or do what I do- just use 50% tap water and 50% Tesco Ashbeck "mineral" water. The mineral water is actually pretty much distilled water. Or you could reduce alkalinity with phosphoric acid or lactic acid. Or pickling lime. Or even just use food grade sulphuric acid. Obviously boiling and CRS are used in that calculator, if you wanted to use alternative acids you'ld probably want to use an alternative calculator like the Bru'N water spreadsheet.

It's important to note when boiling that the idea is to boil the water then let it cool and precipitate, rack the water off the sediment then heat up again for the mash.

Cqr

Re: My first go at water adjustments

Post by Cqr » Mon Jul 18, 2016 5:25 pm

BenB wrote:That sure is a lot of CRS. But then 47 litres is a lot of water- what brew length are you planning?

You can tell you sit on top of a band of chalk as it's got lots of calcium carbonate and not much else. This isn't such a problem as you can always add other minerals. Actually, your high alkalinity and use of CRS is almost going to add "too much" especially (for IPAs) chloride.

The issue you are going to have if you want to brew a IPA is that uses a sulphate high water profile and as it is pale (therefore lacking acidic dark malts) you're going to need even more CRS than currently shown (bitter profile). You'll end up with fairly high levels of both chloride and sulphate which will limit you ability to increase sulphate to get twice as much as chloride to get a sulphate:chloride ratio that will accentuate the hoppy flavour.

Personally if you like Stout I'd brew one of those first. Covers up a multitude of sins.

However if you do want to brew an IPA you can just use other methods of reducing alkalinity. You can boil the water first or do what I do- just use 50% tap water and 50% Tesco Ashbeck "mineral" water. The mineral water is actually pretty much distilled water. Or you could reduce alkalinity with phosphoric acid or lactic acid. Or pickling lime. Or even just use food grade sulphuric acid. Obviously boiling and CRS are used in that calculator, if you wanted to use alternative acids you'ld probably want to use an alternative calculator like the Bru'N water spreadsheet.

It's important to note when boiling that the idea is to boil the water then let it cool and precipitate, rack the water off the sediment then heat up again for the mash.

Thank you for your reply
I do biab brewing
90 minutes mash
90 minutes boil
No chill
Can I ask one more question please
If a used 20 litres off ashbeck in a 47 litre mash would I not need to treat my water for hopy IPAs

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