comments on bitter water

[nigelsch]

I'm looking for some feedback on some of my conclusions to my water treatment.

Ive a few years AG brewing behind me and took some time back to understand the necessary treatment
given my water profile. It made a huge difference to my bitters. Anyways, on the last few brews
I have driven down my carbonate to around 25ppm, rather than using the ebc adusted value given
in John Palmers spreadsheet. The result was a softer drink, which I prefer. This has caused me to
go through the chemistry again.

My water:

CA 130, 8mg, 12na, 22so4, 25cl, 270 caco3 (my tritrate)

I have been treating my water with CRS (albeit my own mix of HCI & sulphuric acid to match crs) &
gypsum in the mash.

Having gone through all the theory again these are my following conclusions:
1) I should stick to acid treatment. Boiling or lime treatment will help take down the carb's
but ends up taking out the calcium, so I have to add gypsum to get the CA back to around 100+.
No gain over acid and alot more hassle.
2) I don't need to add any gypsum. Since acid treatment does not take out calcium and I'm
left with a good level of sulphate.
3) I'm going to change my acid mix away from the CRS profile, and use more sulphuric acid
to achieve at least a 2:1 sulphate chloride profile.

So for a typical bitter my new treated water would look something like:

130ca, 8mg, 12na, 175so4, 86cl, 25caco3 (ppm)

Whats you guys think on some on my thoughts, do I have my thinking right. I perhaps could drive down the
cl a little more and so4 up.

Nige