Wanting to brew Mcewan 80/- Scottish Ale next fancied trying it with Edinburgh liquor as per Grahams Liquor Treatment Calculator, is this the best target liqour for 80/-?
Cheers
Glauber's salt
Glauber's salt
Hi, where can I buy Sodium Sulphate - Glauber's salt, can't find any mention of it on here. Found info on it being used in paper production and as a laxative years ago
Wanting to brew Mcewan 80/- Scottish Ale next fancied trying it with Edinburgh liquor as per Grahams Liquor Treatment Calculator, is this the best target liqour for 80/-?
Cheers
Wanting to brew Mcewan 80/- Scottish Ale next fancied trying it with Edinburgh liquor as per Grahams Liquor Treatment Calculator, is this the best target liqour for 80/-?
Cheers
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steve_flack
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steve_flack
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steve_flack
The profile GW is using for Edinburgh doesn't agree with others I've seen. They have a lot more chalk in them than he suggests - the amounts in GWs look unrealistically low.
http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer/waterpro.html
Edit: the London Tap looks iffy too - a cursory glance inside our tea urn at work would suggest there's a fair amount of calcium in there.
http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer/waterpro.html
Edit: the London Tap looks iffy too - a cursory glance inside our tea urn at work would suggest there's a fair amount of calcium in there.
Last edited by steve_flack on Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Graham
The water profiles are not the stuff that comes out of the ground, but target water; the stuff that the brewers would of brewed with, based on the fact that the brewers invariably boiled their water before use. Calcium carbonate has been removed.steve_flack wrote:The profile GW is using for Edinburgh doesn't agree with others I've seen. They have a lot more chalk in them than he suggests - the amounts in GWs look unrealistically low.
http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer/waterpro.html
Edit: the London Tap looks iffy too - a cursory glance inside our tea urn at work would suggest there's a fair amount of calcium in there.
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steve_flack
But how many commercial brewers would boil their water to remove carbonate now? Most would chemically remove the carbonate....which would leave the calcium present in most cases.
As far as I can see, your calculator could leave those people with very soft water with too little calcium after treatment as assuming a target of 0ppm for calcium would mean they wouldn't add any.
As far as I can see, your calculator could leave those people with very soft water with too little calcium after treatment as assuming a target of 0ppm for calcium would mean they wouldn't add any.
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mysterio
From Ray Daniels:
Which suggests you should probably taylor your water to what you're brewing rather than a single analysis of Edinburgh water.The brewers of Edinburgh have been both blessed and cursed by the water available to them for brewing. Blessed because the geology of the area can yield various types of water, thus allowing brewers to adapt to changed in beer styles and consumer tastes. (Recall that Edinburgh became a great producer of pale ales thanks to the availability of hard water.) But the curse also comes in this variability. More than one brewery has observed changes in the character of its well water that required drilling of a new well or complete relocation of the brewery. A consulting geologist explained this phenomenon in Noonan's work in Scotch ales: Edinburgh lies in the center of a heavily faulted, generally north-dipping pile of Lower Carboniferous and Upper Old Red Sandstone strata. The juxtaposition of different rock types has meant that individual breweries have always had access to differing sources of water. Even boreholes in close proximity could produce waters with vastly different analyses. Thus the Edinburgh brewers have always blended waters to produce their characteristically wide range of beers, from milds to bitters and beyond.
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Graham
Modern commercial brewers aren't daft enough to want to match their water to historical water data; home brewers are, for some strange reason.steve_flack wrote:But how many commercial brewers would boil their water to remove carbonate now? Most would chemically remove the carbonate....which would leave the calcium present in most cases.
As far as I can see, your calculator could leave those people with very soft water with too little calcium after treatment as assuming a target of 0ppm for calcium would mean they wouldn't add any.
The fact is that it has been a long-term folly for home brewers to apparently strive to match such ground water and then shove the stuff into their mash tuns. It isn't what the brewers of old shoved into their mash tuns - it was boiled first - it was standard practice. I am sure that it is more appropriate to target what they actually used, not what came out of the ground, for those that want to do such things. They stand a better chance of success that way.
This historical regional water thing is one of those long-term momilies in home brewing that irritates somewhat. It isn't the way to tackle water treatment, but I have to compromise in some respects - even though I think it is wrong. I did give a sort of cloaked warning in the instructions: "One reason, although not necessarily a good one, for treating water is to match a particular water type."
It is true, however, that I perhaps should not have reduced the carbonate to exactly zero after the boil - it doesn't happen in practice; there is always a little bit left and it can cause problems for people in soft water areas with absolutely no buffering power in their water. It is not an issue for most people though.
To look at the water profiles of these areas after the boil makes certain things clear. It is plainly obvious why most London Brewers could could not produce a pale ale if their life depended on it. London well-water has no calcium but a fair amount of carbonate remaining (after boiling). No wonder they were stuck with dark beers.
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RabMaxwell
