Hey HBT,
I have soft water here in San Francisco.
Calcium 5 ppm
Magnesium 1 ppm
Sodium 7 ppm
Chloride 4 ppm
Sulfate 1 ppm
Alkalinity 22 ppm as CaC03
Ph 9.2
I plan to brew a BIAB Porter (6 gallon batch) this weekend, 5 into fermenter.
5# Fawcett Maris Otter 2.7L
2# Flaked Oats
1# Wyermann Munich Malt 6L
1# Dingemans Cara45 47L
8oz Crisp Pale Chocolate 275L
4oz Bairds Chocolat Malt 457L
4oz Bairds Roasted Barley 500L
Putting this into a water calculator with 6 gallons of tap water for the BIAB mash
has me adding
1g Gypsum
5g Cacl
which puts me into the proper mash ph range for the mash, I then top up with water to start my 7.2 gallon boil no sparge.
What I do not understand is why people talk of adding baking soda/lime etc with soft water and dark beers? I can never get my ph to go so low that I need to use either in messing around with water calculators. Do these additions listed above make sense or am I missing something?
I have soft water here in San Francisco.
Calcium 5 ppm
Magnesium 1 ppm
Sodium 7 ppm
Chloride 4 ppm
Sulfate 1 ppm
Alkalinity 22 ppm as CaC03
Ph 9.2
I plan to brew a BIAB Porter (6 gallon batch) this weekend, 5 into fermenter.
5# Fawcett Maris Otter 2.7L
2# Flaked Oats
1# Wyermann Munich Malt 6L
1# Dingemans Cara45 47L
8oz Crisp Pale Chocolate 275L
4oz Bairds Chocolat Malt 457L
4oz Bairds Roasted Barley 500L
Putting this into a water calculator with 6 gallons of tap water for the BIAB mash
has me adding
1g Gypsum
5g Cacl
which puts me into the proper mash ph range for the mash, I then top up with water to start my 7.2 gallon boil no sparge.
What I do not understand is why people talk of adding baking soda/lime etc with soft water and dark beers? I can never get my ph to go so low that I need to use either in messing around with water calculators. Do these additions listed above make sense or am I missing something?
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