water for German Hefeweizen

Doing a search I saw a few threads, but nothing with any real answers.

What's recommended for the water profile for a German Hefeweizen? My guess would be to do it with a fairly soft water with low sulfate and chloride, lean a bit towards malty and at least hit the minimums on the other ions.

Thoughts?

Here's what I used for a Bavarian Hefe last month. It was the best batch of this beer I've ever brewed. You certainly could adjust to the malty side, based on your preference.

I started from distilled water.

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 0
Mg: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 0
SO4: 0
HCO3: 0

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 5.625 / 4.31
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 0 / 0
CaSO4: 2.5 / 1.915555556
CaCl2: 2 / 1.532444444
MgSO4: 2.5 / 1.915555556
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
NaCl: 4 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 52 / 52
Mg: 11 / 11
Na: 74 / 42
Cl: 159 / 110
SO4: 111 / 111
CaCO3: 0 / 0

RA (mash only): -44 (2 to 6 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.99 (Balanced)

Cool. Thanks for posting.

Right now, I'm looking at using 90% distilled water and ending with these numbers. I want to keep suflate and chloride a bit lower than you have it and don't want to add sodium chloride personally.

Ca 62
Mg 10
Na 1
Cl 85
SO4 71
Alkalinity as CaCO3 20
RA -31

Chloride to Sulfate ratio 1.19 Balanced

MattHollingsworth said:

Cool. Thanks for posting.

Right now, I'm looking at using 90% distilled water and ending with these numbers. I want to keep suflate and chloride a bit lower than you have it and don't want to add sodium chloride personally.

Ca 62
Mg 10
Na 1
Cl 85
SO4 71
Alkalinity as CaCO3 20
RA -31

Chloride to Sulfate ratio 1.19 Balanced

Click to expand...

That is very close to what I do mine at. These are the only differences.
Ca 67
Na 13
Cl 75
SO4 91
RA -40

Probably nothing you would even notice.

I would keep the sulfate closer to zero. Assuming you used gypsum to get it, this should raise your RA. That will allow you to use a small portion of acid malt (or a lactic acid addition) which I think is welcome in wheat beers.

My last Weissbier I made I used 3.5% acid malt in recipe. I used less gypsum & calcium chloride and let the malt bring my mash down to proper ph. I just kegged it Tuesday so I have not sampled it yet to see how it compares.

MattHollingsworth said:

Cool. Thanks for posting.

Right now, I'm looking at using 90% distilled water and ending with these numbers. I want to keep suflate and chloride a bit lower than you have it and don't want to add sodium chloride personally.

Ca 62
Mg 10
Na 1
Cl 85
SO4 71
Alkalinity as CaCO3 20
RA -31

Chloride to Sulfate ratio 1.19 Balanced

Click to expand...

Matt,

I'm fairly new at water adjustments and still have plenty to learn so I have to ask, why do you want to keep the sulfate & chloride levels lower? I thought it was just the ratio that mattered (as long as they were in the recommended ranges, of course)?

Sockmonkey said:

Matt,

I'm fairly new at water adjustments and still have plenty to learn so I have to ask, why do you want to keep the sulfate & chloride levels lower? I thought it was just the ratio that mattered (as long as they were in the recommended ranges, of course)?

Click to expand...

Sulfate accentuates hop bitterness. I won't have much bitterness in this beer and what little I do have, I don't want accentuated. I don't mind if the chloride slips a little higher but I don't really see a reason with this beer to really push it either. It's not just the ratio that matters. They also contribute flavor. I wouldn't personally use a lot of sulfate with any of the Belgian styles I brew or with this wheat beer. I use a bit more for pale ales and bitters but I don't EVER approach the Burton levels.

Read more here:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-1.html

remilard said:

I would keep the sulfate closer to zero. Assuming you used gypsum to get it, this should raise your RA. That will allow you to use a small portion of acid malt (or a lactic acid addition) which I think is welcome in wheat beers.

Click to expand...

I'm not going to use lactic acid or acid malt in this beer to lower the pH though as I need to get the calcium up a bit with my use of 90% distilled water. My tap water has 386 ppm of bicarbonate, so is pretty much worthless for this beer.

MattHollingsworth said:

My tap water has 386 ppm of bicarbonate, so is pretty much worthless for this beer.

Click to expand...

Wow you got me beat, my bicarb is 382. Not much you can do with this water straight out of the tap is their, I have to cut it with RO water for everything I brew.

enid said:

Wow you got me beat, my bicarb is 382. Not much you can do with this water straight out of the tap is their, I have to cut it with RO water for everything I brew.

Click to expand...

My water's perfect for stouts, actually. I made a Dry Stout and a RIS without any water treatment at all (other than filtering, that is) and both came out really great. My pale ales generally use about half distilled water and darker beers even less, but then those pale ales aren't nearly as light as this wheat beer will be. But then I also pre boil the water sometimes (not with those stouts) to remove some of the bicarbonate. By my calcs (using Dave Miller's formula of removing 3 ppm of calcium for every 5 ppm of bicarbonate) I get the bicarbonate to 243 and the calcium to 0 with the preboiling. While that isn't likely exact, it does remove a ton of bicarbonate and using either Palmer's or the EZ water spreadsheet, I hit a good pH every time and the beers have been coming out consistently tasty.

Out of the tap, it's like so:

Ca 86
Mg 27
Na 9
Sulfate 31
Cl 12
Bicarbonate 386