LeedsLad wrote:I've been reading this post with interest as I'm in SM1.
AG#1 is scheduled for the bank holiday and I thought my water treatment was sorted, based on the lactic acid/salt/gypsum additions as recommend by our good friend in Cheam.
Trying to understand the Sutton water profile, I'm now beyond confused and have steam coming out of my ears!
I don’t really go for Dark beers/porters and will be brewing hoppy APA’s/IPA’s. Is the lactic acid/salt/gypsum addition a fairly safe starting point or have you tweaked your treatment for better result using CRS?
many thanks
Not sure exactly when you are brewing but:
the alkalinity n the SM6 area, just north of the Dukes Head was 163 on 19.04.11 and 165 on 20.04.11
If you are using the lactic acid which it is assumed is 60% (previous post) then you will need to add 0.36ml per litre to achieve a final alkalinity of 25 (all based on calcium carbonate and that they haven't cocked up on the water treatment at the Cheam plant).
if you have CRS then you will need to add 0.78 ml per litre.
The calcium content of the water you are using should be at least 80mg/L (unless you boil it), therefore no further calcium additions are strictly required, however, addition of 1g of calcium sulphate per kg of grist will not do any harm.
The addition of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) as recommended to Norstar is pointless. The final magnesium content of a wort of 1040 gravity after boiling should be at least 70mg/L.
Malt contains approx 960mg/kg of chloride and 720mg/kg of sulphate The figure for sulphate is variable and depends on the soil on which the barley is grown. The figure for 720 applies to warminster malt which is I believe what you will have purchased from Richard.
Any other additions of calcium, chloride and sulphate should be made to the copper.
So at the copper stage if you have brewed to get a beer of 1040 of length 23 litres you should get if you have used lactic acid:-
chloride - about 130 from the malt and 22 from the water - so allowing for concentration due to boiling about 155mg/L
sulphate - about 96 from the malt, 17 from the water and 100 from the gypsum (based on 4.1kg of malt so 4.1g of gypsum) - so allowing for concentration due to boiling about 216mg/L
If you were to use CRS you will get additional quantities of chloride and sulphate from the acid and then the figures would be
Chloride - 199
Sulphate - 293
It has been written that it is the ratio between sulphate and chloride rather than the overall quantities which has the effect on taste, or if you prefer, affects taste.
for a brew length of 23 litres the following apply:
1 g of table salt adds 26.3mg/L of chloride
1g of gypsum adds 24.3mg/L of sulphate
1g of calcium chloride dihydrate adds 21mg/L of chloride
So if you wanted a sulphate chloride balance of 2:1 you should add about 4g of gypsum to the copper.
If you wanted a 1:1 balance then you should add 3 to 4g of table salt or 4 to 5g of calcium chloride to the copper.
Sorry the above is slightly waffly and disjointed and I hope I've got the calculations right as its all done from memory which is slowly getting worse. If you want to use CRS and I'll assume Richard doesn't sell it I cannot help you but if you would like to try sulphuric acid PM me.
, I've offered to brew her a Kolsch...
