Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Well I have been brewing now straight from the tap for a good few years and my beers have been pretty good for the most part. So I'm at a stage where I am looking to make them a bit better and have started looking into all this water treatment stuff. To be honest I'm lost in the jargon, chemistry and wot not.
So I got my water report in with what I hope are the correct ones that I need.
Calcium – 17mg/l (PPM)
Magnesium – 2.35mg/l
Sodium – 7mg/l
Chloride – 15mg/l
Sulphate – 16mg/l
Alkalinity – 35.81mg/l CaCO3
I'm not after different profiles for IPA/Stouts etc at this stage, just a general adjustment to my Mash/Sparge waters (max 20ltr) that I can add to improve the beer and after looking at different posts and calculators online I have come up with this.
Additions:
Gypsum: 5.0
Salt: 1.0
Epsom Salts: 2.0
Calcium Chloride: 1.0
I have rounded the additions up and down just to make things simple for the time being.
Does this sounds okay for a starting point before I dump this lot into my HLT next brewday?
So I got my water report in with what I hope are the correct ones that I need.
Calcium – 17mg/l (PPM)
Magnesium – 2.35mg/l
Sodium – 7mg/l
Chloride – 15mg/l
Sulphate – 16mg/l
Alkalinity – 35.81mg/l CaCO3
I'm not after different profiles for IPA/Stouts etc at this stage, just a general adjustment to my Mash/Sparge waters (max 20ltr) that I can add to improve the beer and after looking at different posts and calculators online I have come up with this.
Additions:
Gypsum: 5.0
Salt: 1.0
Epsom Salts: 2.0
Calcium Chloride: 1.0
I have rounded the additions up and down just to make things simple for the time being.
Does this sounds okay for a starting point before I dump this lot into my HLT next brewday?
Last edited by Sye on Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- orlando
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Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Read [url=http://forum.craftbr%20ewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=907]this[/url] first then ask your questions. Where did you get the water report from and what beer style are you trying to brew?
I am "The Little Red Brooster"
Fermenting:
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Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Handy link.. ta.. as for the water report the Water Quality Advisor at Wessex water emailed me what I asked for. As for style, I know each style has it's own "profile" I'm lookin for a baseline to work from.orlando wrote:Read [url=http://forum.craft%20brewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=907]this[/url] first then ask your questions. Where did you get the water report from and what beer style are you trying to brew?
- orlando
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Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
What you need to do is decide the style, then decide what characteristics you are looking for from the flavour, that is going to shift as the style changes. Your water report is unlikely to be accurate. Most water co's will give you an average. If you really want to get to grips with water you have to have a proper report. Contact Wallybrew on here and get one from him. When you have done that and decided on what sort of beer you want to brew it will give anyone chipping in a good starting point.Sye wrote:Handy link.. ta.. as for the water report the Water Quality Advisor at Wessex water emailed me what I asked for. As for style, I know each style has it's own "profile" I'm lookin for a baseline to work from.orlando wrote:Read [url=http://forum.craft%20brewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=907]this[/url] first then ask your questions. Where did you get the water report from and what beer style 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
Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
- Dennis King
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Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
I know Wallybrew is planning to do a new some testing early April, he likes to have several to test in one go. I recently e-mailed him as it's been a couple of years since my last test.orlando wrote:What you need to do is decide the style, then decide what characteristics you are looking for from the flavour, that is going to shift as the style changes. Your water report is unlikely to be accurate. Most water co's will give you an average. If you really want to get to grips with water you have to have a proper report. Contact Wallybrew on here and get one from him. When you have done that and decided on what sort of beer you want to brew it will give anyone chipping in a good starting point.Sye wrote:Handy link.. ta.. as for the water report the Water Quality Advisor at Wessex water emailed me what I asked for. As for style, I know each style has it's own "profile" I'm lookin for a baseline to work from.orlando wrote:Read [url=http://forum.c%20raftbrewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=907]this[/url] first then ask your questions. Where did you get the water report from and what beer style are you trying to brew?
Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
I recommend checking out "bru'n water" spreadsheet. It has a very good list of "basic" profiles broken down by the colour and sulfate chloride ratio. I just pick the one that matches what I'm brewing and calculate the additions (either in the spreadsheet or BS). I use RO water and build it back up to what I want.
- orlando
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Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Rad wrote:I recommend checking out "bru'n water" spreadsheet. It has a very good list of "basic" profiles broken down by the colour and sulfate chloride ratio. I just pick the one that matches what I'm brewing and calculate the additions (either in the spreadsheet or BS). I use RO water and build it back up to what I want.
As long as you ignore Calcium cells turning red when the levels go "too high".
I am "The Little Red Brooster"
Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Use this.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html
Select General Purpose in the drop down box and enter your water details.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html
Select General Purpose in the drop down box and enter your water details.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin
1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip
It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)
Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)
1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip
It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)
Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)
- orlando
- So far gone I'm on the way back again!
- Posts: 7197
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:22 pm
- Location: North Norfolk: Nearest breweries All Day Brewery, Salle. Panther, Reepham. Yetman's, Holt
Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Do read the notes thoroughly first though.IPA wrote:Use this.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html
Select General Purpose in the drop down box and enter your water details.
I am "The Little Red Brooster"
Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,
Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer
Re: Basic Water Treatment advice (Please)
Hi Sye
As Aleman puts it in that thread that Orlando linked to above (admittedly about a slightly different element of variability in getting your water "right" but I think the principle still stands) ...
I'm really not convinced that you'll get the improvements you're looking for (consistently) if you simply treat all beers similarly ... but if you're willing to follow some of the advice above and take it a short step on from there, then you really won't be that far off identifying the different treatments for the different beers you brew, to start gaining the benefits
Cheers, PhilB
... I think this is where I don't think you've grasped the point ... the sorts of adjustments/additions that would make one beer in that spectrum "better" really won't be improving another beer, of a different typeSye wrote:I'm not after different profiles for IPA/Stouts etc at this stage, just a general adjustment to my Mash/Sparge waters (max 20ltr) that I can add to improve the beer ...
As Aleman puts it in that thread that Orlando linked to above (admittedly about a slightly different element of variability in getting your water "right" but I think the principle still stands) ...
... we might as well forget the details about your water that you've posted, and give you the "generic, rule of thumb" advice that goes "add a teaspoon of gypsum to the mash, and another to the boil" ... but even then we should really add " ... for hop-forward beers, make it teaspoons of calcium chloride for malty beers and half gypsum, half calcium chloride, for 'balanced' beers"Aleman on Craft Brewing Forum (link) wrote:a "One Size Fits All" approach . . .Which is fine if you want a consistent level of mediocrity . . .but if you really want to lift you beer above the average then you really have to make an attempt to understand the logic and reasons behind water treatment
I'm really not convinced that you'll get the improvements you're looking for (consistently) if you simply treat all beers similarly ... but if you're willing to follow some of the advice above and take it a short step on from there, then you really won't be that far off identifying the different treatments for the different beers you brew, to start gaining the benefits
Cheers, PhilB