pcollins

Recipes 

Brewed my usual pale ale recipe the last couple of weeks and did two batches. Both batches were the same with ingredients purchased at the same time at my LHBS. The only difference between the two batches, as far as I know, was that I used hard water on the second one. That second batch seems to be significantly paler than the previous one.

I'm brewing extract with full boils.

Any thoughts?

remilard

Recipes 

That depends on what you mean by "hard". If you mean more calcium, maybe.

If the pH is higher during the wort boil, the color will be darker. Water with a lot of calcium (and magnesium) will result in a lower pH than water with similar alkalinity and less hardness.

ericd

Recipes 

I have terrible water and even beers made entirely from pale malt came out amber until I switched to distilled + 5.2 buffer, now they come out the right color. It can definitely make a difference.

pcollins

Recipes 

Yeah, I don't have a water analysis for my area but I normally use soft water through my tap but I bypassed the water softener for that second batch. I imagine there is more of both but not sure.

Any other Cambridge brewers out there with more knowledge? Devils Creek?

Schnitzengiggle

Recipes 

Are you using only distilled water and 5.2 stabilizer in the mash?

No other salt additions, such as Mg, SO4, Ca, NaCO3, etc...?

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