Brewing water

[rhys333]

I'm brewing decent beer lately thanks to all the great advice on HBT. I'm starting to wonder about my water though... seems like there's something that needs improving and I'm thinking its the water. Sounds funny, but its almost like my beer needs a dash of salt. Am I losing it?

I use about a 2:1 bottled spring water to filtered tap water ratio, and according to the Brewers Friend data, my city has a relatively well balanced water profile. What could be making me think it needs salting? Do i need a brewing addative with sodium in it maybe? Scratching my head on this one. All input appreciated.

 

[rhys333]

Here's the 2010 water profile listed on brewers friend:

 

[rhys333]

I dug around myself a bit on this and found that both sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl) at 10 and 5 ppm respectively are on the lower side. In Palmer's book he says that Na at 70-150 ppm and Cl up to 250 ppm can add roundness and fullness to beer. This makes sense with what I'm noticing in my batches. As a test I added a few grains of salt to a pint of hefe and it did exactly this. Malty sweetness was enhanced as well as mouthfeel. The difference was really quite pronounced.

Using Brewer's Friend calculator, it looks like 1/2 tsp of non-iodized table salt is all I need for 6 gals. Since I cut my water 50:50 (ish) with bottled spring, half that amount should do.

Question is, when should I add the salt... pre-mash strike water, boil, or leave it until bottling? I'm hoping someone with experience in this can weigh in.

 

[DocScott]

Add salts to strike water and sparge water


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Omahawk]

Be cautious using Spring water for mashing if you're trying to control / understand your water profile. You don't know what mineral levels are in there. With distilled or R.O., you know there's nothing in there and you add what you need.

Listen to the BrewStrong water series (3 parts at BrewingNetwork with a 4th followup Q&A) and read Palmer's Water chapter in how to brew. My water is also low in Chlorides - I've been adding some CaCl to my wash water. Do research and understand it before you start messing with water additions, though.

 

[rhys333]

Be cautious using Spring water for mashing if you're trying to control / understand your water profile. You don't know what mineral levels are in there. With distilled or R.O., you know there's nothing in there and you add what you need.

Listen to the BrewStrong water series (3 parts at BrewingNetwork with a 4th followup Q&A) and read Palmer's Water chapter in how to brew. My water is also low in Chlorides - I've been adding some CaCl to my wash water. Do research and understand it before you start messing with water additions, though.

Thanks for the tip. Listening to episode one now. I've been reading up on Palmer's water chapter. Its looking like I need a dash of gypsum and table salt to balance my water profile. Currently, the ratio of sulfate is high to chloride. Sodium is also low.

 

[WTWjr]

I would suggest going to the Brew Science forum on this site and checking out the brewing water chemistry primer. There are some folks there that really know what they're talking about when it come to water.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

 

[rhys333]

I would suggest going to the Brew Science forum on this site and checking out the brewing water chemistry primer. There are some folks there that really know what they're talking about when it come to water.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

Thanks for this. I'll check it out.