JoMarky

Recipes 

Donner,

just out of curiosity is your tap city or well water? Does it get run through a water softener?

Donner

Recipes 

it's the city's water and isn't softened on my end. I knew we had soft water, but never thought it'd be as soft as it is.

i just hope that it is from the same source all year. I know Jamil and John Palmer commented that cities often get its water from different sources at different times on the year.

__________________
DonFeitel.com

Donner

Recipes 

so i'd like to expand this thread and see if anyone can help me with a few things.

I've used brewer's friend and palmers spreadsheet and i think i understand how most of it all works. I was hoping someone would fill in a few things for me, though.

Palmer's sheet has estimated SRM low and high. Is that just giving me a range to see if my beer's SRM fits within the range? Also, am i supposed to calculate the mash water only, or include my sparge water (4 gallons vs. 8 gallons).

If at all possible, i'd appreciate if someone could give me a sense of what their water numbers look like for an IPA. I'm thinking of brewing an english IPA (a first for me) and i want to get a sense of what other's successfully used for water numbers. I think it would help me understand all the relationships.

thanks for any and all help.

__________________
DonFeitel.com

Zen_Brew

Recipes 

Palmers numbers are a range to use to ballpark your water to and you can fall anywhere within the range. Palmer also has limits in the RA and hardness numbers. If you use his chart it can get to some pretty extreme numbers if you are brewing a very dark beer.

From Palmer he says when doing mineral additions do your first addition in the mash and base it on water volume in the mash. Do not add to the sparge. Do a second addition in the boil kettle and figure that based on the water above and beyond what was in the mash. So if you mash with 3 gallons base your mash addition on 3 gallons. then if you will boil 7 gallons, make a boil kettle addition based on the additional 4 gallons of water in the kettle.

The Brewing network has a 4 part series with Jamil and Palmer discussing water. It is a good listen and they cover some of the things you are asking about. Scroll down to find the water podcasts.
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong

For alternative spreadsheets just browse the brew science forums. there are a couple members here that have set up their own sheets and some have some profiles included.

__________________
Primary: German Hef, Belgian IPA, Scottish 80, Belgian Dubbel
On Tap: Oatmeal Stout, Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, Belgian Dark Strong, Munich Dunkel, Dunkel Weizen, Oktoberfest, Bock, IPA, Black IPA, English IPA, Pale Ale

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Using your senses to look for reality is awareness.

"One time I was so desperate for a beer I snuck into the football stadium and ate the dirt under the bleachers." Homer Simpson

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hoppiness