Water Analysis at Murphy and sons

[Graham]

Thank you CEB

[fisherman]

My brewing has really improved over a period of time thanks to you all, my brewing water seems to have a steady alkalinity but I still check every time I brew. Grahams calculators and Beer Engine are more than helpfull they are brilliant. The laboratory at Murphy and son of Nottingham are great. Many thanks to all the members online for advice given . My latest two buys have made a world of difference to my beer, I bought a refractometer and a digital thermometer both were advised by members of this forum, I did not have to search high and low for them, such help is so appreciated all bought from home online, the refractometer from Hong Kong and the thermometer from England brilliant . Brewing is great and I am enjoying the spoils.
I am still using DLS and CRS in fact my last order was 1 kilo of DLS and 1 litre of CRS I wont run out for a long time.
I wish you all
Happy Brewdays

[fisherman]

For the last three brews ( in three weeks ) I have made Pale Ales and dropped my alkalinity down to 25ppm and used extra hops at flameout and the beer has improved even more, when will this pleasure stop.
I am very happy with the beer now except that the first one does not hit the sides,
Happy Brewing

[crookedeyeboy]

Haha Excellent news Fisherman!

[fisherman]

I have changed my water treatment on a couple of experimental 25 litre brews, I used the homebrew forums water calculator and just used Gypsum in the mash rather than the usual DLS. And for the additions to the boil added the minerals weight in the second additions and added that weight of DLS.
So for a brew of pale Bitter with a alkalinity of 51.5 I added 0.14ml of CRS to all water and 5grms of gypsum to the grist, and 10 grms of DLS tp the boil, I used just M/Otter 4kg a touch of wheat and IBU to 20, a 2hour mash and 75 min boil with cascade and citra hops and I have a very pale lager type beer that tastes great. Can anyone give any comments on this water treatment?. The hop taste is more mellow and not so harsh as when using DLS in the grist.
Does anyone have an opinion about crystal malts in beers, I am considering leaving them out altogether what do you think? are they to strong in flavour?
Happy Brewing

[adomant]

Crystal is good for that toffee / caramel taste and colour, it does not provide much in the way of fermentable extract

[jonnyt]

Every time I use Crystal I get a horrible burnt taste!

Consigned to the bin for me.

[Aleman]

I think it is too easy to overdo the darker shades of crystal, and have been avoiding anything over 120EBC using Carapils or Caragold instead . . . I compensate for the colour with some steeped chocolate malt or roast barley

[seymour]

It is high time that the JBK tendency to endow the ubiquitous campden tablet with magical properties was well and truly hit on the head. I have been vociferous about this subject on more than one occasion. One such occasion is here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33594

The main reason for my objection is that the use of, or lack of use of, a campden tablet has become the universal cure-all for any medicinal off-taste in beer, whereas in reality the cause of the problem is rarely, if ever, anything to do with chlorine. The real cause is almost always microbiological. This infatuation with the magic campden tablet diverts attention from the real cause, and the hapless sufferer goes round and round in circles.

Apart from being quite unnecessary (in my view) the amount of sodium metabisulphite required to neutralise chlorine in tap water is extremely small. In my area the maximum amount of residual disinfectant present in the water has not exceeded 0.35ppm over the last three water reports; usually half that. Therefore the amount of sodium metabisulphite necessary is correspondingly small. If someone wishes to neutralise chlorine with campden, only enough to do the job should be employed. There are consequences to overdoing it, certainly grossly overdoing it, particularly if there is no copper (the metal) in your brewing set up. One of the consequences is the beer smelling of rotten eggs, because some yeasts, particularly lager yeasts, can metabolise sulphur dioxide into hydrogen sulphide.

Well Said!!!

Yeah! That guy should write a book. Oh, wait...

[fisherman]

Well I have had six months off brewing and now have a ICD Pacemaker implanted so you can imagine how keen I am to start brewing again . When working out calculations for the mashtun does everyone work out the dosage of minerals per litre for the grist in the mashtun, or do some people put all the additions in with the grist and no extras in the boil?. I would really like to know the answer. My alkalinity was 97ppm on reading a Salifert test kit last week yet today I have a reading of 57ppm. Do you think the test kits are accurate or not?.
Dave

[WishboneBrewery]

If you concider liquor treatment to be replicating a geographic region's water, treatments for the full volume of liquor you'd use per brew. (for additions I add these to the Malts before mashing in).

[Eric]

While not knowing how accurate various alkalinity test kits are, those I've used are good enough for my purposes and many times better than using figures supplied by the water company or even most historical test data. Last year, alkalinity here was frequently more than 300, but almost halved by this spring. In July I got a reading of 225 and for my last brew it was 75 mg/L CaCO3, but the important reading is that for the water after treatment. I believe it is essential to test alkalinity after using CRS or the like and before you obtain such products.
I'm still experimenting with salt additions.
Glad to hear you're feeling better Dave.

[fisherman]

Eric you are dead right about testing the water after treating with CRS . This week I did a reading, dosed after a test ( 65 litres ) then tested again and chucked the lot down the drain. It was far to low, Considering I use good syringes in various sizes I was surprised. I made a new boiler last week and to get the liquids right for marking the volume I weighed the water just to be sure. Good point.
Dave

[fisherman]

Regarding water treatment I used Calcium chloride for the first time for a mash today, it seems not as harsh as all gypsum.
Dave

[fisherman]

Hello,
Back again after making changes in individual mineral additions due to my new mini scales that weigh a maximum of 100grms. I have stopped using DLS for additions at the present time due to a quite sour taste on the end of the hop flavour. I have tried with success using Grahams water calculator for sweet pale ale and the finished beer is much improved. I notice the calcium levels are lower than stated by Brupacks about 120ppm to 150ppm, and using more calcium chloride seems to give me a much better flavour, Have you any water treatment advice regarding calcium chloride . Could the 200ppm of calcium Brupacks state for bitter be to much?. This bitter taste from the minerals in DLS which mineral could it be epsom . surely not gypsum. Anyway my brewing is going very well.
On a new subject has anyone mashed and brewed with SNOW. I have just done an alkalinity reading on fresh snow and it comes out at 20ppm. Sounds good !.
would anyone brew with it?, No chlorine in it and nice low alkalinity, Could it be suitable for lager?.What Would you brew with it or would you forget the idea?.
Happy Brewing to all