Basic water treatment for first AG brew

[Monkeybrew]

Boil your water, brew your beer and worry about the fine tuning once you've got a handle on how beer made from your water supply tastes. Only then can you really say what tweaks and changes are needed. Throwing salts at a brew is pointless until you know what you're actually working with. If you're still bothered about it then by all means use some gypsum and get some pH strips and iodine, but believe me all you are doing is adding an extra level of things to fret about that aren't really necessary at such an early stage.

Concentrate on the simpler more important things like hitting reasonable strike/mash/sparge temperatures and good sanitation and you'll make great beer without worrying about the science. First brew days are tense affairs for everyone and you'll probably feel like you're juggling around and on the go for the whole day, so as few distractions the better. After a few brews everything becomes second nature and experimentation becomes a lot easier once you're more organised and you've got your typical AG brewday plan sussed. The key to your first AG brewday though is keep it simple and you'll not go wrong. Enjoy and be sure to let us know how it goes

Many thanks

Next Saturday is the big day, and I've got the whole day set aside to brew. I plan to start at about 7am.

I have done 8 small scale BIAB's throughout last year, so I'm familiar with some aspects of the brewday. I just used bottled water for these as they were only 10L brews.

I have got some PH strips, so will test my mash for future reference.

Cheers

MB

[Monkeybrew]

Cheers for all of the comments and ideas.

My water is classified as HARD with a figure of 262.5mg/l for Calcium Carbonate.

-EDIT- Just noticed Alkalinity in the report as 141 mg/l CaCO3

There are many other chemicals and nasties listed in the full quality report, so what are the other key chemicals that I am looking for?

I agree that water treatment may over complicate things a little for my first brew, but as I understand it, certain types of water not only affect the flavour/style of a finished beer but also affect the mash too, so why not try and hit an optimum mash PH the first time around?

Cheers again.

MB

Hello, agree with what others have said about keeping it simple initially.

The most important thing with water is the alkalinity which effects the mash ph. Untreated yours is a bit high for pale ales but good for darker beers. The other minerals do have some effect on taste especially at the extreme ends but I feel this aspect is massively overplayed. Just get the alkalinity right, then if you want to dig into it some more.

You will need to look into 'CRS' water treatment for reducing your alkalinity but take it one step at a time.

All the best.

Many thanks too

[mark4newman]

Hi

Regarding ph strips, IMHO they aren't worth buying , as they seem inaccurate. Have a look at ez water, this will help you estimate the ph. But IMHO, just get on and brew a few batches.

As someone else said, get yourself some asda smart price water 19p for 2l, and add a tsp of gypsum to the mash, and you will not go too far wrong.

[Dunk]

My biggest concern for water on your first AG brew would be getting it from one vessel to the other without it peeing all over the floor when hot and sticky!

Run hot water through everything to check for leaks before you start and don't worry one iota about the chemistry. I've made hefeweisens, stouts, pale ale and Belgians with no water treatment and got excellent results.

Good luck though, and let us know how it went!

[Monkeybrew]

My biggest concern for water on your first AG brew would be getting it from one vessel to the other without it peeing all over the floor when hot and sticky!

Run hot water through everything to check for leaks before you start and don't worry one iota about the chemistry. I've made hefeweisens, stouts, pale ale and Belgians with no water treatment and got excellent results.

Good luck though, and let us know how it went!

Don't worry, I've tested all of my homemade equipment well.

[orlando]

Boil your water, brew your beer and worry about the fine tuning once you've got a handle on how beer made from your water supply tastes. Only then can you really say what tweaks and changes are needed. Throwing salts at a brew is pointless until you know what you're actually working with. If you're still bothered about it then by all means use some gypsum and get some pH strips and iodine, but believe me all you are doing is adding an extra level of things to fret about that aren't really necessary at such an early stage.

Concentrate on the simpler more important things like hitting reasonable strike/mash/sparge temperatures and good sanitation and you'll make great beer without worrying about the science. First brew days are tense affairs for everyone and you'll probably feel like you're juggling around and on the go for the whole day, so as few distractions the better. After a few brews everything becomes second nature and experimentation becomes a lot easier once you're more organised and you've got your typical AG brewday plan sussed. The key to your first AG brewday though is keep it simple and you'll not go wrong. Enjoy and be sure to let us know how it goes

But for the first 3 words this is really sound advice. Keeping it simple then tweaking is the right thing to do. So why quibble with the first 3 words, well they contradict the tenor of the rest of the advice but it also has 2 affects, one you want, it will reduce alkalinity, the other you don't, which is it will considerably reduce calcium which is a vital component for a number of reasons; you also forgot to add re-aerate the water afterwards.

So stick with the rest of the advice " brew your beer and worry about the fine tuning once you've got a handle on how beer made from your water supply tastes."

[barl_fire]

Boil your water, brew your beer and worry about the fine tuning once you've got a handle on how beer made from your water supply tastes. Only then can you really say what tweaks and changes are needed. Throwing salts at a brew is pointless until you know what you're actually working with. If you're still bothered about it then by all means use some gypsum and get some pH strips and iodine, but believe me all you are doing is adding an extra level of things to fret about that aren't really necessary at such an early stage.

Concentrate on the simpler more important things like hitting reasonable strike/mash/sparge temperatures and good sanitation and you'll make great beer without worrying about the science. First brew days are tense affairs for everyone and you'll probably feel like you're juggling around and on the go for the whole day, so as few distractions the better. After a few brews everything becomes second nature and experimentation becomes a lot easier once you're more organised and you've got your typical AG brewday plan sussed. The key to your first AG brewday though is keep it simple and you'll not go wrong. Enjoy and be sure to let us know how it goes

But for the first 3 words this is really sound advice. Keeping it simple then tweaking is the right thing to do. So why quibble with the first 3 words, well they contradict the tenor of the rest of the advice but it also has 2 affects, one you want, it will reduce alkalinity, the other you don't, which is it will considerably reduce calcium which is a vital component for a number of reasons; you also forgot to add re-aerate the water afterwards.

So stick with the rest of the advice " brew your beer and worry about the fine tuning once you've got a handle on how beer made from your water supply tastes."

His water is hard, alkaline and smells of chlorine hence boiling is essential. I don't think the reduction of calcium due to some of it dropping out of solution because of bicarbonate degradation would be a major problem with water that is already abundant in calcium. If he's worried about that then a little gypsum would do but I'd still leave alone for now tbh until after the first brew.

As for aeration that's irrelevant to preparation of liquor for mashing, as this water will be used in the mash then boiled in the form of wort which I'm sure Monkeybrew knows he's got to cool and aerate before pitching

[Matt12398]

I'm also confused why you'd reaerate prior to mashing. That's unless you know something don't. I wasn't aware that oxygen content affected the mash.

[orlando]

If you have Graham Wheeler's book Brew Your Own British Real Ale (3rd edition) he recommends aerating before boiling (p 45)

[barl_fire]

If you have Graham Wheeler's book Brew Your Own British Real Ale (3rd edition) he recommends aerating before boiling (p 45)

And in my copy too, but he also offers no scientific reasoning in the context of liquor treatment/alkalinity reduction for aeration. Furthermore, assuming Monkeybrew's water to be boiled, is freshly drawn British cold tap water, it will already have a significant amount of gaseous molecular oxygen in solution anyway which after a 20-30 min boil would be pretty much fully depleted anyway.

I am curious whether and how aeration prior to boiling has any benefits in this regard, but without any information or ideas from my own basic knowledge of the chemistry behind it's reasoning it's not something I'll rush to do next time I brew using tap water.

Personally I'm a bit loathed to do anything in a brewing context such as a teaspoon of "this" here and a few mls of "that" there just because it's what other people do, without thinking about or knowing whether there is any real justification for doing it. All this does is muddy the issue as to why a brew doesn't turn out quite as good as one would hope. That's why for a first AG brew it's best to keep everything simple.

[orlando]

I checked this too and he doesn't elaborate anywhere else that I found either. But I agree with you and your original advice, but wouldn't boil for the same reasons. Find out what the base water does or doesn't do then start tweaking after that. If it turns out the OP likes it that way he has just made his life a lot simpler. I wish I didn't have to treat my water but if I want the style of beer I like best I have no choice.

[darkonnis]

I checked this too and he doesn't elaborate anywhere else that I found either. But I agree with you and your original advice, but wouldn't boil for the same reasons. Find out what the base water does or doesn't do then start tweaking after that. If it turns out the OP likes it that way he has just made his life a lot simpler. I wish I didn't have to treat my water but if I want the style of beer I like best I have no choice.

+1 it is the simplest change to make, boil/not boil the HLT. Start as standard and go from there.