How's my water look?
- Thread starter Neptune
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They don't tell you the alkalinity which is the most important parameter to the brewer. Here it is about 100. Thus your water is pretty typical of east coast municipal water except that the sodium is a bit high (don't worry about it). You can be guided by the reams of posts concerning water pretty similar to this one that you can find by reading back in the post history a bit.
That actually doesn't make much difference. The alkalinity rolls the effects of pH and bicarbonate into the same tortilla.
I'm sorry, this is pretty far out of my comfort level, but I'm trying really hard to understand it.
It seems that this website from bru'n water is equating alkalinity with CaCO3. Is this not correct?
It seems that this website from bru'n water is equating alkalinity with CaCO3. Is this not correct?
I'm afraid you are confusing alkalinity (which is often reported in "as CaCO3" units) with CaCO3. Alkalinity is NOT CaCO3.
I finally got an answer that alkalinity is 110. So...
Hardness 54.4 ppm
Na 59 ppm
Chloride 51 ppm
Sulfate 6 ppm
Calcium 15 ppm
Magnesium 4.1 ppm
Alkalinity 110
Now, excuse my ignorance if this is way off, but it looks like I can calculate my HCO3 to be 133 based on the equation in the bru'n water page referenced previously (Alkalinity/0.83).
So I put this into brewers friend water calculator and it looks like adding some gypsum to my water would help get me to my target levels... Also, if I understand correctly, I can add some acid malt to my mash. Am I on the right track here?
Hardness 54.4 ppm
Na 59 ppm
Chloride 51 ppm
Sulfate 6 ppm
Calcium 15 ppm
Magnesium 4.1 ppm
Alkalinity 110
Now, excuse my ignorance if this is way off, but it looks like I can calculate my HCO3 to be 133 based on the equation in the bru'n water page referenced previously (Alkalinity/0.83).
So I put this into brewers friend water calculator and it looks like adding some gypsum to my water would help get me to my target levels... Also, if I understand correctly, I can add some acid malt to my mash. Am I on the right track here?
... my guess of 100 wasn't too bad.
Alkalinity of 110 --> 110/50 = 2.2 mEq/L --> 2.2*61 = 134 mg/L bicarbonate but you don't really care what the bicarbonate is. You need to know the alkalinity in units of mEq/L. About 90% of that is the amount of acid you would need to 'neutralize' the bicarbonate in the water
Gypsum and calcium chloride have limited ability to neutralize alkalinity by reacting with malt phytin.
For more dramatic control you need acid from dark grains, a bottle, or sauermalz. It can really be quite simple. See the Primer here for hints on how to get started.
Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I'm still trying to figure it out.
Does 4% acidulated malt in the grain bill seem reasonable (pale ale/IPA type beer)? It's either that or add 12 ml of lactic acid to my 15 gallons. Are one of these options better than the other?
I used the brewers friend calculator with my water profile and this seems to be the recommendation. Just trying to make sure I'm in the right ballpark. Thanks!
Does 4% acidulated malt in the grain bill seem reasonable (pale ale/IPA type beer)? It's either that or add 12 ml of lactic acid to my 15 gallons. Are one of these options better than the other?
I used the brewers friend calculator with my water profile and this seems to be the recommendation. Just trying to make sure I'm in the right ballpark. Thanks!
I've found that the advanced water calculator in brewer's friend is quite accurate. My pH readings usually match the predicted value. 4% is reasonable. I usually only need ~2% in my recipes, but perhaps you are using only very pale malt. (Specialty malts can lower the pH) I recall using a half pound in a Belgian tripel that was 100% pils malt.
Either will work but I prefer the Latic acid approach as long as you have a syringe that can measure accurately.
That's like asking if one should buy an iPhone or an Android.
Sauermalz is very easy to measure out as you are measuring out specialty grain anyway. It's major advantage to many is that it is a specialty malt in its own right. It adds desirable but subtle flavors to lager beers. One might also argue that it is more traditional than acid from a bottle.
Lactic acid from a bottle is more predictable than sauermalz. 88% lactic will always be 11.3 N to pH 5.4. It does not impart any nuanced flavors and is more difficult to measure. You'll need a pipet, syringes, a volumetric flask or mixing cylinder. These things need to be cleaned. It is not traditional but then sauermalz isn't traditional for an ale either.
Four percent sauermalz is a perfectly reasonable level.
Agreed, but I do think you should always have latic acid on hand regardless....you never know when you might get a high pH reading during mash and need to adjust it on the fly.
