looking at water profiles

[oliver]

alright, if anyone wants to check my math that'd be greatly appreciated. I'm going to use 15 quarts of Distilled water tomorrow, and treat it all at the same time with, .975g Gypsum, 1.15g Epsom, .40g seasalt, and 2.25g Calcium Chorlide.

The grist is 2.5# of Belgian pils, 2# of White Wheat. I'm also looking for some nice fruity hoppiness (~30IBUs)

 

[Thurston Brewer]

According to the BF calculator that comes out as:

Calcium: 32
Magnes: 4
Sulfate: 38
Sodium: 6
Chloride: 51
Carbonate: 0
Alkalinity: 0

Is that what you're looking for? There's no built in water profile for Belgian Wheat.

 

[oliver]

Is that what you're looking for?

is that? honestly I'm having trouble understanding what salts affect what flavors. I'm looking for a slightly hoppier witbier, but something that's also nice and juicy like an east coast IPA.

The calculator is showing me that my Mash pH is going to be around 2.7, which is extremely low, yes?

 

[GFHomebrew]

is that? honestly I'm having trouble understanding what salts affect what flavors. I'm looking for a slightly hoppier witbier, but something that's also nice and juicy like an east coast IPA.

The calculator is showing me that my Mash pH is going to be around 2.7, which is extremely low, yes?

Yep too low it's gotta be in the sweet spot of 5.2-5.6 ph range I've learned. And for an hoppier ale your going in the direction of 2-1 Sulfate to chloride ratio according to what I've learnt on the art of water tweeking. I'm finding I'm liking my water when it's 2-1 in favour of gypsum. They don't need anymore maltiness but more bitterness so gypsums your go. My latest beer that pils/ale I went 3G of gypsum to 1g of calcium chloride and I'm liking that water profile on this one.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

Must be something wrong in the calculator. You'd need a half gallon of vinegar to drive the pH that low. What calculator are you using? Double check all the values you input to see what's fnarked up.

 

[oliver]

Must be something wrong in the calculator. You'd need a half gallon of vinegar to drive the pH that low. What calculator are you using? Double check all the values you input to see what's fnarked up.

I think I've been using Yellow Balanced as my target. Except HC0 isn't included and I dont know a mumber for that.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Ill try to help when I get a break, im swamped today, maybe tonight

 

[oliver]

thanks! but, it's my day off, and I'm already brewing! Started early today. I used the amounts of salts I posted above, I decided I'm going to sparge with tap water. And just wait and see how everything comes out. Bottling something else later today, bar tonight.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

It occurs to me that you haven't told us how big a batch this will be...

If I assume:

• a 5 gallon batch (total starting volume 8 gal, 4 gal mash, 4 gal sparge)
• you're using distilled water
• you're calculating using the BR Mash Chemistry and Brewing Calculator
• with a 'Light and Hoppy' profile

I get the following as a reasonable plan:

7 gr Gypsum
1.7 gr Epsom Salt
1 gr Table Salt (no iodine!)
2 gr Calcium Chloride

This yields an estimated mash pH of 5.48

How does that look to you?

 

[oliver]

I do 10 quart mashes, and sparge for a 16 quart boil, 1 hour boil, 9 quart batch size. I was told to go really low on Gypsum by the LHBS, and higher on CaCl

 

[Thurston Brewer]

OK, that's half the batch size of the values above, so you would change them to:
3.5 g Gypsum
.85 g Epsom Salt
.5 g Table Salt
1 g Calcium Chloride

As I said, this is based on using the Light and Hoppy profile. If you went with a different profile, you'd need to readjust.

As for what your LHBS said, everyone you ask will have a different opinion, and only you can say what's right for you. One needs to start somewhere and see (taste) the result then adjust to get closer to your ideal. I prefer to start with published calculators rather than opinions, mostly because lots of other people use them and if they didn't work, you'd hear about it, and also because they're consistent, and you can always go back to them and get the same values you had before, given the same inputs.

My preference is to use the Bru'n Water spreadsheet (https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/) because the guy who made it is a freakin' genius and there are pages upon pages of detailed info on his site. Once I find out what I get with that, though, I will still need to tweak to get the exact results I want.

Art, not science. Well, scientific art.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

thanks! but, it's my day off, and I'm already brewing! Started early today. I used the amounts of salts I posted above, I decided I'm going to sparge with tap water. And just wait and see how everything comes out. Bottling something else later today, bar tonight.

Keep us posted.