Water Profile...Price Check - Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale

[Tricerahops220]

Hello all,

I am still new to the whole altering the water profile thing using brewing salts. I am attempting to brew a Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale Clone which will be dry hopped with Galaxy.

As my situation stands now, I do not have an RO machine (hope to get one here shortly) so I am stuck starting with distilled water for now. This has proven to have some difficulties so far but I have had some success with it.

So based around distilled water, I am starting with 0 ppm in all of the mineral counts, the image attached is what I have come up with for salt additions on Bru'n Water. My target numbers are below. I cannot seem to get the Calcium number up to 100 ppm without setting the Sulfate or Chloride over my target of 125 ppm. Now I know that the Sulfate:Chloride ratio doesn't have to be 1:1 but with this being a somewhat bitter pale ale due to the hops, I don't to throw the ratio too far off.

Target Numbers:
Calcium: 100 ppm
Magnesium: 18 ppm
Sodium: 30 ppm
Chloride: 125 ppm
Sulfate: 125 ppm
Bicarbonate: 40 ppm

 

[BigGutHeavyD]

1.) Your image isn't showing

2.) To hit those target numbers with 4 gallons of distilled mash water you would need:

Gypsum: 0.85 g/gal
Calcium Chloride: 0.5 g/gal
Magnesium Chloride: 0.2 g/gal
Canning Salt: 0.14 g/gal
Baking Soda: 0.21 g/gal

Of course you would be missing 12 ppm magnesium but you could always add magnesium phosphate dibasic to reach your magnesium goals.

3.) The target numbers listed don't make a balanced profile (Cation/Anion).

4.) Chasing profiles and matching numbers exactly isn't really necessary to make good beer.

5.) Concentrate on the sulfate and the chloride and forget about the sodium, magnesium and bicarbonate.

 

[Yooper]

Target Numbers:
Calcium: 100 ppm
Magnesium: 18 ppm
Sodium: 30 ppm
Chloride: 125 ppm
Sulfate: 125 ppm
Bicarbonate: 40 ppm

The Mg and sodium can be 0- there isn't any flavor impact at 18 ppm of Mg or 30 ppm of Na.

You can use calcium chloride and gypsum to get where you want to be, but I'd keep both chloride and sulfate under 100.

I don't know why you have a target for bicarbonate- that may be a bit high if you don't have some dark or roasted grains in the grainbill. Your "target" bicarbonate should be 0, or whatever it takes to get a mash pH of 5.3-5.4.

 

[ajdelange]

If you just add 1/2 tsp of gypsum and 1/2 tsp of calcium chloride to each 5 gal of DI water you will be fine. Brewers being largely drawn from engineering and the sciences just love to over complicate things hence all the spreadsheeets and calculators for water adjustment but they are not really necessary especially for beginners.

The sulfate/chloride ratio thing is a shibboleth. Forget you ever heard about it.

Do not add any bicarbonate unless you have inordinate amounts of high kilned malts in your grist. I have no idea what Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale is so it may indeed contain some but most beers need acid rather than base. Bicarbonate, if not required, will raise mash pH out of the desired range.

Have a look at the Primer (sticky here) but note that we are now recommending half the amounts of salts in the OP.