Help with water treatment

[alanframe]

Hi

I'm just getting started with treating my water and could do with some help. I've got the following figures for my water here in Lanarkshire from a combination of water company reports and a Salifert Kh/Alk kit and a calcium kit.

Alkalinity CaCo3 13.4
Calcium 20
Magnesium 1.41
Sodium 3.27
Carbonate CO3 18.21
Sulphate 13.77
Chloride 5.86

I've put those numbers in the calculator but I'm a little unsure as to what to select for the profile. My next brews will be a Munich Dunkel and a Kolsch.
What profile would you recommend for those.

[ben034]

Your water looks great for those styles as low bicarbonate. I would increase the calcium to over 100ppm. You can use gypsum to increase the sulfate and calcium levels (increasing hop bitterness) or for the styles you mention calcium chloride to increase calcium and chloride levels (increasing maltiness). You could add a combination to increase calcium levels whilst maintaining a balanced choride/sulphate ratio. This guide is really useful:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showt ... hp?t=64822

[ben034]

Actually for the dunkel you may need to increase bicarbonate (adding sodium bicarbonate) as your bicarbonate levels could be too low for this style

Here is a very general rule of thumb regarding alkalinity levels:

For a pale beer <20ppm
For an amber beer ~35ppm
For a brown beer ~75ppm
For a black beer ~120ppm

[Mr Uppity]

That site is also useful for word games, my number one place to go for recent non brewing related stuff.

[alanframe]

Thanks @ben034 I'll have a read of that one and come up with a plan.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[orlando]

This guide is really useful:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showt ... hp?t=64822

But this is better. Water Treatment

[MTW]

This guide is really useful:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showt ... hp?t=64822

But this is better. [url=http://forum.craft_brewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=907] Water Treatment [/url]

You've put an underscore in the url Orlando, which is making it fail. But by the way, any time I click on a link to that forum on my PC nowadays, it says it may harm my computer. Don't know why.

[Jim]

This guide is really useful:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showt ... hp?t=64822

But this is better. [url=http://forum.craft_brewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=907] Water Treatment [/url]

You've put an underscore in the url Orlando, which is making it fail. But by the way, any time I click on a link to that forum on my PC nowadays, it says it may harm my computer. Don't know why.

Google has listed them as having malware on the server. I don't believe they actually do, but they are having problems getting 'delisted'. However, direct links from here to there could get JBK blacklisted as well, so they aren't allowed.

[orlando]

Google has listed them as having malware on the server. I don't believe they actually do, but they are having problems getting 'delisted'. However, direct links from here to there could get JBK blacklisted as well, so they aren't allowed.

Agh, that would account for it. There isn't a "problem" but there may be sigs that are causing it. It's perfectly safe you just have to search for it and when Google blocks click details and then click go to "unsafe" site anyway.

[alanframe]

So for the Dunkel I have this worked out a a first stab

It's a BIAB with 27.5 l of Mash Water so.

To raise my alkalinity from 13 to 75ppm based on a brown beer gives me about 2.8 g of sodium bicarbonate.

To raise my Calcium from 20ppm to 100ppm I'll planning on using 4.4 G of Calcium Chloride and 2.8 g of Gypsum


For the Kolsch it's 27L

My alkalinity should be good where it is at 13.4

To raise my Calcium from 20ppm to 100ppm I'll planning on using 4.3 G of Calcium Chloride and 2.7 g of Gypsum


Does that look reasonable to get me close or should I be balancing more between Gypsum and calcium chloride?

[MTW]

I haven't done any calculations obviously, and can't without your grist info etc, but I bet that's pretty close. Having to increase alkalinity is not something I've ever had to do with my water, but I would add the Sodium Bicarbonate gradually and test the alkalinity as you go. With only 2.8g on the Dunkel, you wouldn't have to be much out to go way off.