Building from distilled.

duckmanco · 07-13-2011, 02:44 PM

After reading through tons of water stuff, my head is spinning. Here is what I currently do:

Extract brewer that also does PM
4 gallon boil which causes about 1.5-1.75 gallon top off

So, I'd been using my tap water for the boil and then topping off with gallon jugs of cold store brought spring water. My hoppy beers just hadn't had much pop to them so I thought I would post this thread about my water report:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/anyone-feel-like-looking-my-water-report-253632/

I thought, after some learning, that maybe I needed to use campden tabs to get rid of the chloramine so after two batches of treating my 4 gallon boil water with 1/2 a tablet, the fermemtations have reeked of sulfur. So what should I do? Also this profile I'm attempting to build is for west coast style ipas, but with the ability with slight adjustment to dial the water back down for maltier styles.

Adjust my water using the campden and spreadsheet?
Start from ro or distilled and salts back in (I'd rather do this to be honest as the campden tabs have made me somewhat nervous)

Also for using the ez water calc, how would an extract brewer or partial mash brewer use it with respect to the total water used in a batch.

Thanks for any help. Also I'm not opposed to using someones trusted water profile with simple directions such as "6.5 gallon distilled water +1sp gypsum+etc". I read through yoopers easy primer about starting with soft/distilled water and adding salts but then it said also to add 2% sauermalz which Ive never even heard of. Any help is greatly appreciated.

ArcaneXor · 07-13-2011, 02:56 PM

If you use extract, there is no reason to build up the water - the extract already has minerals in it, and you don't know what they are, i.e. you don't know where you are starting from.

Sauermalz is also known as acidulated malt - handy for adjusting mash pH or, in large amounts, for making mock Berliner Weisse-type beers.

**ajdelange** · 07-13-2011, 04:08 PM

For chloramine the recommendation is 1 tablet per 20 gallons water treated. There is no reason why campden tablets should result in a sulfury smelling fermentation. They do release sulfur dioxide when added to water but that will get knocked out in the boil. Many yeast strains, particularly the lager ones, do produce sulfidic aromas as they work.

For extract brewing there is no need to tweak the water except for stylistic considerations. For example, if you want more assertive hops you can add some gypsum. For a smoother, rounder, sweeter beer you can add some calcium chloride.

Sauermalz is often called "acidulated malt" and that's just what it is. Malt that has been sprayed with lactic acid or upon which lactic acid bacteria have been permitted to grow. You will not need this for extract brewing unless you are trying to make a pseudo Berlinner Weiße or something similarly sour.

**samc** · 07-13-2011, 05:45 PM

I did many RO extract batches without adding any salts in, they came out great. Now if I was to do an IPA extract batch I'd probably do the AJ recommended Calcium addition and wee bit of Gypsum as well.

duckmanco · 07-13-2011, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajdelange

For chloramine the recommendation is 1 tablet per 20 gallons water treated. There is no reason why campden tablets should result in a sulfury smelling fermentation. They do release sulfur dioxide when added to water but that will get knocked out in the boil. Many yeast strains, particularly the lager ones, do produce sulfidic aromas as they work.

For extract brewing there is no need to tweak the water except for stylistic considerations. For example, if you want more assertive hops you can add some gypsum. For a smoother, rounder, sweeter beer you can add some calcium chloride.

Sauermalz is often called "acidulated malt" and that's just what it is. Malt that has been sprayed with lactic acid or upon which lactic acid bacteria have been permitted to grow. You will not need this for extract brewing unless you are trying to make a pseudo Berlinner Weiße or something similarly sour.

Ok cool, I'm in but have the following questions:

Should I use ro or distilled for the extract batches, any benefit or difference between the two? Also you said for hoppy beers add SOME gypsum.... How much for a 5 gallon batch? Tsp, tblsp? Also will steeping grains in just ro or distilled water cause problems?

duckmanco · 07-15-2011, 04:44 PM

I read this qoute in a different thread but it seemed to make sense and not something too crazy to try out:

I was right, your water is alkaline... Your water is fine for an AG brew (using 5.2 stabilizer), but for extract I would skip your water and go with 100% RO water; that will give you a less harsh hop bitterness, and will get rid of the pronounced mineral aftertaste I'm getting. For a hoppy beer you can add a tsp. of gypsum to the kettle with the RO water which will help up the sulfates and give you a crisper bitterness, but that is optional... For malty/balanced brews straight RO and extract will yield superior results every time!

So I'm going to do an extract batch with steeping grains, NB T-Can and Bearcats wheaten Beatdown actually using ro water and 1tsp gypsum.