I’m relatively new to brewing and I’m still learning. I’ve made a few extract brews and they’ve come out fairly good. Now I’m trying to improve on my water. I’m not quite ready to jump into all grain brewing yet. But working to get there. My question is about the water calculator and its potential use in extract brewing. I have the LaMotte Brewlab basic so I know what my water chemistry is. But can and how do I use the water calculator to improve the water for my extract brewing? Thank you.
Water calc tool and extract brewing?
- Thread starter BaileyCreekBrewer
- Start date
I should add that I have been doing a full boil starting with 6.5 gallons for a 5 gallon batch. So any water additions would be based upon that, I think. Thank you.
I think I found my answer. I’ll just adjust my alkalinity, maybe.Thank you.
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2021
- Messages
- 3,952
- Reaction score
- 5,894
- Points
- 113
I usually use RO filtered water so that i start from a nice clean known place. Then i use a spreadsheet called "ezwater". Very easy to see what salts you want to add based on what you want.
I will say, unless your water is really bad. Water can be the cherry on top, but won't ruin a batch. You will see much more advances by going all grain IMHO. You have more control over the process and you know when it was brewed.
I will say, unless your water is really bad. Water can be the cherry on top, but won't ruin a batch. You will see much more advances by going all grain IMHO. You have more control over the process and you know when it was brewed.
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2023
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 1
A water calculator tool can be a helpful resource for homebrewers who want to adjust the mineral content of their brewing water to achieve a specific flavor profile in their beer. These tools can help you calculate how much of each mineral to add or subtract from your water based on your target water chemistry and the mineral content of your source water.
Yes, you got it. Basically, extract has the brewing salts in it already. Alkalinity of the water is irrelevant, once you add the extract that will overwhelm whatever is in the water.
So, a related question: is there something about your beer that has you thinking about improving it? Or did you figure that the next typical step is to consider water chemistry?
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2018
- Messages
- 9,443
- Reaction score
- 17,201
- Points
- 113
If you are extract brewing the only thing you need to worry about with your water is making sure there is no chlorine, or cloramine in it. Water chemistry is more to do with ph in the mash and the sulfate to chloride balance to accentuate hop or malt characteristics. The extract producer has done the mash for you.
Just my thoughts but I wouldn't worry about making much if any water adjustments for extract brewing. Except of course, make sure you deal with chlorine/chloromine. A campden tablet, even half of one will rake cate of that. Alternatively you could purchase spring water from the store.
A game changer for improving beer that may make more sense for you now, may be controlling fermentation temperature if you don't already have that. If the yeast you are using has an upper temperature limit of 20C, and you are fermenting in a room that is 20C, the temperature in the fermenter could get as much as 2-4 degrees higher than that. This will negatively affect your beer flavor.
Just my thoughts but I wouldn't worry about making much if any water adjustments for extract brewing. Except of course, make sure you deal with chlorine/chloromine. A campden tablet, even half of one will rake cate of that. Alternatively you could purchase spring water from the store.
A game changer for improving beer that may make more sense for you now, may be controlling fermentation temperature if you don't already have that. If the yeast you are using has an upper temperature limit of 20C, and you are fermenting in a room that is 20C, the temperature in the fermenter could get as much as 2-4 degrees higher than that. This will negatively affect your beer flavor.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2021
- Messages
- 65
- Reaction score
- 59
- Points
- 18
The water calculators that I'm aware of are intended for all-grain brewing. The challenge with using these calculators with DME / LME is that 1) the mineral composition of the DME / LME is not published, and 2) the mineral content probably varies based on brand.
How to Brew (4e), chapter 8, has a section titled "Adding Brewing Salts to Season Your Beer". Occasional topics in various forums (including Brewers Friend) offer ideas to advance the process for "dialing in" flavor salt additions. And I find the flavor salt additions do make a good beer better.
If you are deeply interested in working on a "season to taste" process, there is more that can be said. And maybe someone else is aware of a calculator that already does this for DME / LME.
