"A teaspoon of gypsum in the mash..."

[Dennis King]

I suggest using a test kit and getting all the info you can from your local waterboard then put all the info into Grahams beer engine.

[far9410]

fine I can understand that, but I was really looking to improve the water quality without getting too bogged down in hi tech chemistry, just get a bit better, is this not possible?

[Dennis King]

Can assure you if i can do it any one can. Then Grahams wonder tool does the maths and tells you what to add. My water board were very helpful. The guy who e-mailed me said he was a brewer but had never thought of water treatment, can you believe that, of course I e-mailed back and recomended he join Jims.

[far9410]

ok dennis, I'll bite the bullet and look into it. funny thing about this site, i used to happily make extract brews, until persistent advice to go all grain, now I keep moving on and doing more and more to improve, where will it all end?

[Dennis King]

where will it all end?

It doesn't been brewing 30 years and probably learnt more in the last 4 or 5 since discovering this forum

[GARYSMIFF]

where will it all end?

It doesn't been brewing 30 years and probably learnt more in the last 4 or 5 since discovering this forum

From day one of JBK I was better off.

Dennis do you add 1 tsp Gypsum in the Mash and Boil ( as we have the same water ) after your CRS treatment and E223 got that of the front of the container.

[Naich]

fine I can understand that, but I was really looking to improve the water quality without getting too bogged down in hi tech chemistry, just get a bit better, is this not possible?

The best way to do this is to check the alkalinity (from the water report or with a Salifert kit) of your water to see if it is in the right range for the beer you are brewing and, if necessary, adjust it. If it's too high you are best off either boiling[1] or adding the correct amount of CRS. Too low and you can add chalk to bring it up. Read the Brewniversity article on alkalinity if you have not done so yet. Getting the alkalinity in the right range should make the mash pH more or less right, which is an important factor in getting good beer. Everything else is going to give you diminishing returns for the amount effort you put in to getting all aspects of the liquor spot on.

If you want to take it further, making sure the level of calcium in the water is high enough is the next thing to do. This aids the enzymes in the malt and the yeast. Doing this requires either a water report to find the levels in your water or adding enough that you can be sure there will be plenty, no matter what the initial level is - this is where the teaspoon of gypsum comes in. I'm hoping to come up with a system that is slightly less random than this, but we'll see where that one goes

Then you get into the territory where it's debatable whether the treatment has any effect at all. It is supposed to be the case that the ratio of chlorides to sulphates effects the beer - enhancing the malt or hop flavours. You can use water calculators like Graham's to perfectly balance your chloride to sulphate ratio but whether you would actually notice any difference is uncertain.

There is also adding 1/2 a tab of sodium metabisulphate to 23L to get rid of chlorine and chloramines. Most people seem to do this but, again, some very knowledgeable people think it's not worth it because the amount of chlorine in tap water is too small to effect the taste.

I hope this clears things up a bit. Now someone will come along and tell me that it's all wrong

[1] Boiling the water to reduce alkalinity will require the addition of gypsum to the mash to replace the calcium that was lost in the boil.

[Dennis King]

where will it all end?

Dennis do you add 1 tsp Gypsum in the Mash and Boil ( as we have the same water ) after your CRS treatment and E223 got that of the front of the container.

I add 30mls of CRS to the total liquor, camden tablet and 1 tsp of gypsum to the mash + 1tsp to the boil with 1/2tsp of epsom salts.

[norstar]

I've been reading through this thread with interest and I saw the comment that someone's "beers are perceived better since water treatments". I'm having the opposite problem and promising bitters etc are coming out with a bitter aftertaste and full clingy mouthfeel the whole time. The only common denominator I can see is the water.

From day one I've blindly followed my local brew shop's advice and added two rounded teaspoons of gypsum and 1/2 teaspoon of Magnesium Suplhate and Salt for 38l of water in total. I've worked out using Graham's calculator that after the treatment, I end up with the following profile:

Total alkalinity (per water board) 189
Ca 165
Mg 17
Na 40
CO3 140
SO4 250
Cl 75

From what I understand, the Suplhate:Chloride ratio is well out, and the sulphate level seems very high also. Would the ratio imbalance or the high sulphates give my beer the harsh bitter taste I'm finding?

I'm a bit lost to be honest - just hoping the two Kolsch brews I've done where I've intentionally changed the treatement works better as I'm now using CRS then trying to balance the sulphate/chloride level as low as possible.