Water Adjusments Making My Beers Dull?

[HumboldtBrewer]

Hey everybody,
So I've been tinkering with my water for the last 4 brews (Session Pale, Weizenbock, Strawberry Sour Saison, and IPA). The Weizenbock came out great, but all of the lighter beers seem to just be "meh", as in lacking flavor and depth. I am in the process of reading the water book and I am using Bru' N Water to dial in my water profile, and I am also using a good pH meter to get my mash pH. Not sure what is going on but I'll give you guys what I did for my IPA, since it is the dullest of them all. if you guys can find anything that may be wrong with this I would love some input. It could just be my recipes are dull hahah.


Citra IPA
4 gallons

Grain:
9.5# 2 Row
1# Wheat
8 oz. C60

Water: RO
1.5 qt/Lb

Additions:
Gypsum: Mash: 4.9 grams, Sparge: 3 grams
Baking Soda: Mash: 0.4 grams
Calcium Chloride: Mash: 1.6 grams, Sparge: 1 gram

Finished Water Profile:
Calcium: 103.5
Magnesium: 0
Sodium: 15.2
Sulfate: 180
Chloride: 55
Bicarbonate: 36
RA: -44
Mash pH: 5.53

 

[ajdelange]

Try skipping the bicarbonate and adding 2% sauermalz (or 1.7 mL lactic acid) to drop the pH by about 0.1 (be sure to measure the pH to verify that you got the drop). There is no guarantee that this will work but there is a good chance of it.

 

[mchrispen]

First thing that jumps out is the mash pH at 5.5 - I would shoot lower a bit for 5.4. That seems to help me with hoppier beers.

You could take a beer and add a drop or two of lactic or phosphoric acid and see if that improves things... or create a strong gypsum solution (make sure it is completely dissolved in very cold water) and start dosing a known measure of beer - you may find that you want more sulfate. I tend to push my IPAs over 200 ppm sulfate for a very dry crisp finish, but that is not for everyone. Your value is close enough that it may not make a huge difference. Others like a big 300 ppm sulfate level.

Otherwise, I don't see anything unusual with the water profile. I would look at the freshness of your grains and hops, perhaps move more bitterness early in the boil (totally a guess here) and more late additions (10 minutes to flame out to hopstanding) or just increase the amount of hops.

 

[hanuswalrus]

I have also recently been toying with salt additions and I had the same issue with my last IPA.. extremely dull and disappointing. My addition was a little more balanced between Gypsum and CaCl. I did about a 1/4 teaspoon each for the mash and just a small dash of each for the sparge water. I also use Campden tablets to eliminate chlorine and chloramines.

I'm also curious as to how salt additions/water adjustments could possibly lead to such a dull beer when they are meant to enhance flavors.

 

[Yooper]

First thing that jumps out is the mash pH at 5.5 - I would shoot lower a bit for 5.4. That seems to help me with hoppier beers.

You could take a beer and add a drop or two of lactic or phosphoric acid and see if that improves things... or create a strong gypsum solution (make sure it is completely dissolved in very cold water) and start dosing a known measure of beer - you may find that you want more sulfate. I tend to push my IPAs over 200 ppm sulfate for a very dry crisp finish, but that is not for everyone. Your value is close enough that it may not make a huge difference. Others like a big 300 ppm sulfate level.

Otherwise, I don't see anything unusual with the water profile. I would look at the freshness of your grains and hops, perhaps move more bitterness early in the boil (totally a guess here) and more late additions (10 minutes to flame out to hopstanding) or just increase the amount of hops.

I'm with AJdeLange and Mchrispen- the mash pH is a bit too high. Your other amounts are fine.

I like 5.3-5.4 for IPAs. You definitely don't need the baking soda, so lose that right away and consider acid (lactic or phosphoric) or acid malt to bring your pH to more like 5.35-5.4.

With that water, and a slightly lower pH, the flavors should be bursting forth, so double check the recipe and the age of the hops and grains.

 

[HumboldtBrewer]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your insight, I will definitely shoot for a lower pH and use lactic acid. As far as freshness of the ingredients, they were pretty fresh, as my LHBS goes through stock pretty quick. As far as making a gypsum solution and slowly dosing a beer, is there any method to this? Or should I just slowly add it and estimate how many ppm of calcium sulfate I'm adding when I hit the desired level of taste?


Tap 1: Weizenbock
Tap 2: Citra IPA
Tap 3: Empty
Tap 4: Sour Strawberry Saison
Primary: Empty
Secondary: Empty