Salts question

[slogger]

After six years off I'm back to brewing. I had previously used filtered tap water and never made any salt additions, and the beer came out fine every time. I attribute this to we had great tasting tap water. We've moved and the tap water is more like crap water so I'll be using off the shelf RO water. Is it imperative that I add salts/is there a safe broad stroke approach for salts?

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I got a Ward Labs analysis on my tap water for ~$45. Then, I use the Brewer's Friend Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator to adjust the mash pH and minerals. I just use the "Balanced Profile" for everything, but I haven't tried any out-there beer styles yet, just ambers and pale ales. I've been pleased with the results.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... off the shelf RO water ... is there a safe broad stroke approach for salts?

Brewing Better Beer (Strong) or A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer may be what you are looking for. Both take a "software calculator" free approach with just a couple of minerals. Three parts: initial water quality, mash pH, and flavoring salts. At a "high level", the approaches appear to be similar, but vary on how to adjust mash pH (acid vs sour malt).

 

[Sammy86]

I moved as well and got a water test from Ward labs as well. I would definitely recommend using a water addition calculator like mentioned above.

I use Bru'n Water and Beersmiths water calculators and was pleasantly surprised they were spot on for the profile I wanted.

If I may suggest reading Water by John Palmer it will definitely give you a better understanding.

 

[jdauria]

If you are using RO water (I do too, since my local water is not great) you definitely need to add salts. RO has basically zero minerals and you need at least 50 ppm of Calcium in every batch for yeast health, though you can go lower for lagers. Use Bru'n Water and adjust the RO water to the style of beer, more gypsum for hoppy beers, more calcium chloride for malty beers, etc.

I argue with guys in my homebrew club who still don't adjust tap water, that beer is 95% water, we pick the best grains, the best hops, good yeast...so why would you ignore the biggest ingredient of all? In my town, my water is very high in sodium and chloride, so if I used it, the sodium would throw off every beer and with the amount of chloride, every hoppy beer would be blah unless I added a lot of gypsum.

Here's an example of adjusting your water, I am brewing a Festbier Friday, BIAB so no sparge, so all added at beginning of mash. I picked yellow full (malty) in Bru'n Water and my additions are:

Gpysum 0.6 grams
Calcium Chloride 4.3 grams
Epsom Salt 0.8 grams
Sodium Metabisulfite 1.0 grams
Lactic Acid 0.8 ml

Which gives me a water profile of:
Calcium 45
Magnesium 3
Sodium 8
Sulfate 56
Chloride 71
SO4/Cl ratio of 0.8 = Malty
pH 5.39 - I target 5.4 pH for lagers and then lower to 5.2 in kettle if needed.