Having trouble getting my water right

[jceg316]

Hello. I've made a few all grain IPAs and they've all come out extremely bitter. I've gone through what might be causing the issue and my advice so far has been the water and it is too alkaline. I got a water report of my area: https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/docs/wa ... /TV053.pdf and so far people have said "it has too much of this" or "too much of that" but not really said what I need to fix it. Water chemistry is something I find quite confusing, despite reading a lot of it.

What would be great is if someone could help me out by saying what I need to do to make my water good for pale ales. Being specific is good: "you need X amount of epson salt" for example, as opposed to just "you need to neutralise the acids". Bonus points, if you could tell me why you decided on your answer that would be great! I brew to 5 gallons/22.5 litres per brew and I almost always use Maris Otter and caramalt.

I understand boiling half the mash water will give me my desired results, however this isn't option at this stage.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[mozza]

After being in a similar position I would suggest getting an analysis from Murphy & sons and then downloading brew n water.
Others will tell you to test your alkalinity before every brew and adjust your liquor with acid ect but if your looking for the easy option then just plumb everything into brew n water and have a play around with the different profiles

[AnthonyUK]

To eliminate your water try using Tesco Ashbeck bottled water in your next brew. It should add a few quid to the cost but it will be a lot less than the price of a test or a testing kit.
With the above water you'll usually only require a teaspoon of gypsum in a pale ale of a regular 5gal batch.

+1 to BruNwater.

[wanus]

Someone told me on ere to stand water in clean retainers for 24 hours b4 you brew.I cannot remember who or why but maybe you could look into it

[wanus]

I just found the old post it was from a guy called brewbitz and he sez its so chlorine dissipates.

[wanus]

I hope this helps

[barneey]

Welcome to the forum.

Step one : get your water tested to see what EXACTLY is in it.
Step two : buy yourself an alkalinity testing kit, check the water sample you sent off with this kit.
Step three : before you brew each time, check the alkalinity is roughly the same.
Step four: use whatever calculator you want to treat the water to the desired brew, you can also check the alkalinity after water treatment to see if it had the desired results.

If you do get your water tested posts the results on here, I`m sure others will look at the results & can advise accordingly, check if the actual report is correct.

[jceg316]

I used JBK water profile calculator and so far it's been the most helpful one. It actually suggests how much of each chemical you need to level out the mash water whereas most leave that bit up to you. I need a small amount of Epsom salt and CRS to even out my water for pale ales. Belgain trappist styles and lagers come out pretty well, but I think in the near future I would like to see if I can hone in on making the water even better. Water is the largest ingredient of beer by a vast majority, yet a lot of home brewers don't seem to worry a great deal about it. To be fair, I wasn't until I found out it was ruining my beer.

If anyone else is having water issues, I've also been given the advice to get a reverse osmosis (RO) machine to filter out any unwanted chemicals. As this will filter almost everything it would be necessary to either cut with unfiltered water or add salts, chemicals etc.

[AnthonyUK]

I need a small amount of Epsom salt and CRS to even out my water for pale ales.

Are you aware that CRS adds both sulphate and chloride as well as reducing bicarbonate? It may or may not be an issue depending on what you water contains to start with.

10ml of CRS will add approx 89ppm of sulphate, 64ppm of chloride and reduce 220ppm of bicarbonate according to BruNwater.

[Aleman]

Hi jceg,

Don't go with a RO machine as all you have to do is add stuff back to it to make it suitable for brewing.

Water treatment is not critical for brewing (despite what you might read) There are many other factors that have a massive impact on beer that the effect of the mineral content of the water is pretty meaningless .. .unless you are looking for the final few marks to produce a championship winning beer . . . again and again and again.

Randomly adding chemicals to water is not water treatment it is more akin to witchcraft!!

Your water report may or may not give you enough to work with, you are better getting a professional analysis of a sample of your water.

Each and every time you brew you need to measure the alkalinity, so a test kit such as Salifert Total Alkalinity is pretty much essential.

Water treatment is simple unless you have a book or a calculator to sell

1) remove chlorine if necessary 1 campden tablet will remove up to 3mg/l Chlorine , as chloramine, in 17UK gallons of water.

2) Adjust the Alkalinity according to the beer style you are brewing Pale beers need it to be under 50mg/l and you can leave more as the beers get darker so that stouts can deal with 125mg/l

3) Adjust the calcium levels to a minimum of 100mg/l using gypsum and or calcium chloride depending on if you want to emphasize hops or the malt. Of course the acid you use in (2) may well influence this as well, so you calculator should take that into account as well. . . . and in a hard water area you may well not need to add additional calcium anyway.

[och29]

As someone who uses RO water I would say that you can get excellent results using your normal tap water.

RO machines are only useful if you have a good understanding of water chemistry, know what water profile you want for the style you're brewing and can't make that profile using your existing water(due to mineral content or to a lesser degree taste). That being said, I think they are great, in the right hands, especially if you want to make pilsners or to fine tune a recipe.

[fisherman]

Hi everybody I would definitely go along with everything that Aleman says,Get the alkalinity right and use Camden if you want to and adjust malt and hops with gypsum and calcium chloride to your own taste. When it comes to hops I use most in the last 15 or 5 mins. Ido like low AA hops . Happy brewing