water treatment

[beer gut]

Hi lads n' lasses i have a bit of a dilema iam making a Strong dark crimbo ale and i am trying to get the ph right in the past i have been told to use table salt in dark beers but recently i have been told to use calcium chloride but what i was not told was how much ruffly to add to a 5 gallon batch. So i read the latest britsh real ale book by camra and in the book he said that people say you add excess of 200mg to porters, stouts ect i don't even know how many mg is to 1gram, so if any body has any hints or tips on this dilema it would be a blessing.

[kevron]

hi,
1g = 1000mg

[nobby]

It all depends on your Water. The water in each town is diffrent from very soft to very hard. All types need diffrent treatment and the treatment is diffrent for the type of beer. At the very least you need to go to your local water company site and look at the report for your area, or email them. Then use Graham Wheelers water treament program. There is a link in the brewing liquor part of this forum.

[jubby]

You need to follow nobby's advice, but if I were you, I would keep it simple by just reducing your alkalinity with an acid of your choice. I use CRS but you can boil the water for about 30 mins, let it cool and rack it off the sediment for use. If you use CRS, then you need to know your waters alkalinity level. If you are brewing a black coloured beer (porter, mild, stout) then you can leave a higher alkalinity level in your liquor. If you live in a soft water area, you might get away with adding nothing. It depends where you are.

[beer gut]

Thanx for all the replys lads n' lasses but to clear things a little more were i live is in the north east and last i knew what sort of water i had was that it was hard water. I am new to this and numbers and figuers confuse me so if 1000mg = 1 gram how do i weigh that my electronic scales only does grams/kilograms/ounces/pounds?

[Jim]

Have a look at the table at the bottom of this page. It gives equivalent weights for all the common treatment salts in teaspoons.

To work out how much of each salt you need, you ideally need an analysis of your water. You can get a good idea by looking at your water supply company website. Northumbria water publish a summary of the water types in each area they supply; it's not detailed, but it'll give you some idea.

There's a water treatment calculator here(courtesy of Graham Wheeler).

[beer gut]

Thanx jim that's a great help !! i have asked for a water report from my local water supplier. Iam not so hot on numbers but my better half is like a human calculater