Water Report Assistance

[NFryan]

Looking for any advice and all on my water profile.. Any info would be appreciated. I am new to water profiles. I usually make 22 gal batches and am looking to create a good all around water profile for west coast style IPA's, and APA's. What would be my best bet additions wise? Gypsum and Calcium Chloride?





Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

[NFryan]

Will the following additions get me where I would like to be? Or am I way off. What changes should I make if any.. Thank you

 

[ajdelange]

Cut 1:1 with RO. See the Primer.

 

[mabrungard]

Cut??? There is no reason to cut that water. That water is a great starting point. You will need to learn to acidify the water.

 

[ajdelange]

Yes, there is a reason to cut it. If he does the alkalinity goes down below the magic 1 mEq/L and he can follow the recommendations of the Primer. No need for him, obviously a beginner, to fiddle with complicated spreadsheets or calculations. He can learn to do that later while he is drinking good beer!

 

[NFryan]

Cut??? There is no reason to cut that water. That water is a great starting point. You will need to learn to acidify the water.

Should I be able to produce a fairly good IPA based on the provided pictures I have entered into your bru'n water spreadsheet ? Or is my profile and logic severely flawed. I am brewing tomorrow.

What are your recommendations.


Thank you

 

[mabrungard]

I would still bring the pH prediction down closer to 5.4 with a minor acid addition. Lactic acid will do, since you wouldn't be adding enough to create off flavors.

 

[NFryan]

Thanks again for the reply. I wound up holding off till next weekends to brew.. I just update my recipe again in the Donation version. I will be adding lactic acid to my mash and sparge water to get my PH down to 5.4.. Im also going to grab PH strips..

I recently moved and never tested my water at my previous home. I've always made hop forward beers and never had an issue. My ale's always came out fairly good (or at least I thought).. Now...I tried making 2 IPA's with the well water at my new home (water test above) and was seriously disappointed.. Almost zero hop aroma and really bad flavor.. I'm hoping to turn things around!

 

[NFryan]

I would still bring the pH prediction down closer to 5.4 with a minor acid addition. Lactic acid will do, since you wouldn't be adding enough to create off flavors.

So I finally brewed today and Im not sure if I ran into an issue with faulty PH strips, or if my PH was very low.. Room temp mash ph was showing about 4.8 or 4.9. (I was aiming for 5.35). The strange thing is the strips were showing roughly the same color with : cold, warm, or hot wort. So I disregarded the strips and just following my BRU'N water additions.. Below are the pictures of my grain bill, settings, mineral and lactic acid additions.. Any info as to if I messed something up or if my strips were probably just garbage please let me know.. These were the strips I used: http://www.northernbrewer.com/ph-test-strips-beer-range?gclid=CjwKEAiAn7HEBRDHwNqitoWqsQcSJAADWmI2RlE6RguaoHGazNs9IdK8DVjVNdlAN7ohpZbnXwO2sBoCyErw_wcB

 

[mabrungard]

Strips are notorious for reporting about 0.3 units low in beer wort. It sounds like your pH might have been in the ballpark. It looks like your water profile should agree with the APA or IPA.

 

[NFryan]

Strips are notorious for reporting about 0.3 units low in beer wort. It sounds like your pH might have been in the ballpark. It looks like your water profile should agree with the APA or IPA.

Thank you for the quick response.. Ill let you know how it turns out.. I agree its probably just the strips.. I will invest in a meter soon. Do you have any recommendations in that department? On a side note....I noticed during my sparge, I added my gypsum , Ca Cl , and salt additions.. Then only 1 ml of lactic acid then tried a ph strip, and still got the same reading.. I then added the rest of my lactic acid, and again, it still it registered the same PH.. I must have took 8 wort samples and cooled them to room temp at different times today and every one registered around 4.8- 4.9....I think it clearly has to be an issue with cheap strips.. My efficiency was 2% higher this time and my cold break was noticeably better than previous batches at my new address.