Jim's Beer Kit

Some important influences in the presence of calcium ions when brewing. During wort production, calcium aids enzyme activity of malt and protects alpha amylase from the adverse influence of heat to give greater extraction. Oxalate derived from malt will deposit with calcium, that would otherwise fo...

My thanks to those who have responded and to all following this thread. Perhaps now I should indicate my intent for what follows. Brewing is a fascinating subject of science and skill, potentially trivialised by constant debate of which spreadsheet makes better beer, rather than what makes beer bett...

I prefer swing tops.

Without question, water is the major ingredient in beer, and brewing liquor composition influences quality of the finished product. It requires adjustment to achieve the correct composition relevant to the beers being brewed and solids dissolved in brewing liquor can substantially effect many beer p...

About 40 years after first brewing with lots to learn, I read that chlorine in water supplies caused problems. Campden Tablets were the answer and worked in an instant. Buying a pack, they were used every brew until I forgot. A while past before the warning again did the rounds, and the tub had sat ...

I think I follow your line of thought with chemistry, but my line of thought more usually follows brewing process, leading to this juxtaposition. Brewing liquor is mostly composed of 3 major cations, Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium, with anions Sulphate, Chloride and alkalinity in forms of carbonate a...

PeeBee wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 11, 2023 8:38 pm

Crikey! I think I've described something for you very wrong? "Insolubility of sodium salts" ... I need to check how I've passed on that idea. Give us a moment (night) I'll straighten that possible miscommunication out.

Sorry, it should have been sodium carbonates, or base.

Hi PeeBee, I think we've reached the point where we differ in opinions. I don't think you will find any peer reviewed paper on the insolubility of sodium salts, I think anyone capable of doing such a review wouldn't waste their time. My quick search revealed only that sodium bicarbonate was more sol...

But ... the impact of sodium ions on carbonate exiting the water (as insoluble calcium carbonate) is what I'm hoping to understand from this thread. :thumbsup: That shouldn't cause problems, acid can be used to bring alkalinity down to the desired level for the type of beer being brewed. What canno...

Why would Mr Brungard's program determine that all hardness in that water is temporary? It is likely that temporary hardness will be somewhere near half of the total hardness. The given analysis can't be exact and the figure for alkalinity is a primary suspect. However, sodium sulphate is only rarel...

I've added milliequivalents to your given ppm values. Calcium: 30.33ppm (1.51mEq) Magnesium: 6.27ppm (0.52mEq) Sodium: 50.35ppm (2.19mEq) Chloride: 50.19ppm (1.42mEq) Sulphate: 38.06ppm (0.79mEq) ... Alkalinity: 154.67 ppm as HCO 3 (2.53mEq) What a lot of Sodium! Still, I don't think it's unusual do...

Temporary Hardness plus Permanent Hardness equals Total Hardness? Yes. Alkalinity plus Permanent Hardness equals Total Hardness? Not when the carbonate or bicarbonate is bonded with sodium. The are few places in Britain where such alkalinity exists naturally. Ion exchange water softeners replace cal...

Thus far the emphasis has been on hardness and alkalinity, but without a grasp of what those might be, water treatment can turn into a jungle, a tangle of seemingly unconnected strands that make little sense, not helped by foreign opinions of how British brewers made their beers. Home brewers with h...

To answer your initial question, yes, you can. My last runnings are frequently less than 1005, but little value is obtained at such low levels. As said, the reason for stopping at a particular gravity is to limit pH increasing above the level when unwanted products are released. My target is to be <...

It has to be said that not all soft water will have low alkalinity. There are some waters in UK, and more in US, where the calcium and magnesium levels are low, but have sodium present in alkaline (carbonate) form. Fortunately such water isn't commonly found in UK. Soft water is something I've littl...