Water from distilled for a Porter

[str1p3s]

Does anyone see problems with this? This is very different from any other way I've treated my brewing water.

I'm using baking soda AND pickling lime to keep the sodium levels and calcium levels in check and all the sulphate is coming from Epsom salt. I've never done either of those before and I'm looking for some opinions.

Thanks!

 

[mabrungard]

You're using the free version of Bru'n Water and the sodium and calcium levels are for the mashing water only. When the low alkalinity sparging water is added to the overall wort, those levels will be substantially reduced. The supporter's version reports the kettle wort concentrations and that would help reduce your anxiety about the amount of sodium you're adding.

The other consideration is that sodium is actually very welcome in Porter. The Porter brewers in London obtained their brewing water from wells and that water does have fairly significant sodium content. I've brewed Porters with only baking soda as my alkalinity source and they were tasty.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

What's your tap water like? You could most likely make it work for this beer without having to start with distilled water (unless is tastes bad).

I'm with Martin on the Sodium. I've started adding table salt to all of my beers (I start with rainwater, so basically a blank slate) to about 50ppm and have noticed an improvement. John Palmer (How to Brew) says up to 150ppm is OK for brewing, and that 'At levels of 70 - 150 ppm it rounds out the beer flavors, accentuating the sweetness of the malt'. I might try 100ppm on my next dark beer.

 

[str1p3s]

Thanks for the input. I will definitely keep it in mind next time. I brewed this on Friday and went ahead with what I had so hopefully it turns out fine.

I've never had my tap water tested. I know it has a ton of chlorine in it. I've just skipped that headache and started from a blank slate of distilled.

 

[BrewMan13]

I use the black-balanced profile in bru'n water for my porter and it comes out great; only needs minor tweaks with my base water. I just use baking soda as needed, never bothered with pickling lime. And if you're worried about chlorine, campden tabs are an easy fix for that.

 

[myndflyte]

Even though you brewed it, for what it's worth, I used Black malty on Bru'n Water for my porter, which is quite close to the black full profile you used. Just kegged it this weekend and it tastes quite good.