Water profile for an APA/IPA?

bguzz · 10-28-2009, 03:34 PM

I'm doing an all grain IPA with american 2 row and an SRM of 5 or 6. IBU's should be about 65 or so, with OG of 1.065.

My water is the following:
Ca..................................2
Mg..................................1
So4.................................1
Cl....................................24
Carbonate (Co3)................18
Bicarbonate (HCo3)............146
Total Alkalinity (CaCO3)......150
Total Hardness (CaCO3)......9
PH is 8.9

If I am reading this right, I have very soft water?? but the bicarbonate is throwing me. I can cut my water with RO, but what would you suggest as what to do for an IPA? I am under the assumption that my Sulfates to Chlorides ratio should be 2/1, so maybe getting my Cl to 50and So4 to 100 and my Ca to 80 or so? I don't think I want to go as far as burton on trent.

Help a water novice please

**Kilted Brewer** · 10-28-2009, 03:44 PM

I am no expert, and I know others will chime in, but I think you've got your CL/SO4 ratio reversed. You want your SO4 to be the higher number and 1 ppm is quite a ways off from where you want to be. I am working on getting mine up to about 140ish from 4! But I let the more knowledgeable folks dive deeper into it.

Oh, just a heads up, water questions are usually in the Brew Science section. Welcome to HBT!

bguzz · 10-28-2009, 04:05 PM

Yeah, I was thinking as I was typing I might have it backwards...THANKS! I'm going to edit it.

**jmo88** · 10-28-2009, 04:06 PM

For more details you'll want to enter your numbers in palmers spreadsheet or EZ water adjustment. Search either one. Your alkalinity or bicarbonate is too high for srm of 5. You'll see it's effect on your RA in the aforementioned spreadsheets. It'll need to be cut down with distilled.

Chloride to sulfate ratio is your own preference. Sulfate accentuates bitterness whent it's higher than choride.

You'll need to add calcium and other salts to get them in prefered range. Also listed on the spreadsheets. Don't overlook calcium. It's a big player in fermentation.

**Bobby_M** · 10-28-2009, 05:33 PM

Your water is very alkaline which makes it better suited for amber to dark beers. If you want to go with a pale ale on the copper/amber side of the range, you can do it with adding
CaSO4: 1 grams
CaCl2: 0.5 grams
MgSO4: 0.75 grams

per gallon of water used in the mash and sparge.

If you want to go with a pale, pale in the 4-6 SRM area, you'll probably need to acidify your mash in addition to the above by adding .5ml of lactic acid per gallon in the mash or dilute up to 50% with distilled water and build it back.

bguzz · 10-28-2009, 05:52 PM

Thanks for the great info.

I plugged some numbers into palmers spreadsheet. If I diluted 50% with RO water, and went with following per gallon: 1gm Gypsum, .75gm Calcium Chloride and .5gm Magnesium Sulfate, I would get the following:

Ca.......................117
Mg.......................14
Alkalinity (CaCo3)...75 (I might want this to be lower?? maybe 50?)
Cl........................107
So4......................199

Residual Alkalinity would be -16 which puts me in the 4 - 9 SRM range according to Palmer. Seems like my sulfate to chloride ratio would be good.

I think I may actually get this now. Does the above profile look like it would work for an IPA? Does anything look over the top or missing the mark? thanks!

**Bobby_M** · 10-28-2009, 06:10 PM

You didn't have Na (sodium) listed but I know Palmer recommends against having both high Na and Cl at the same time. In fact, no matter what Cl of 107 seems high. None of the famous brewing cities have Cl higher than like 60.

bguzz · 10-28-2009, 06:19 PM

My Na is 72, so w/50% dilution it would be 36.

I will play with some numbers to see about how to drop the Cl and still stay in balance for the SRM. Gotta say, Palmers spreadsheet is pretty cool once you read everything on it!

**Bobby_M** · 10-28-2009, 07:07 PM

I'm partial to HBT user TH and his sheet. It's more compact and does similar work.

bguzz · 10-30-2009, 02:54 PM

Hey, I tried the HBT EZ Water Calculator...you're right, easier to use and the same thing. Here's my new plan:

Dilute with 50% RO water and add the following per gallon:
1.1 gm gypsum
.25 gm Cacium Chloride
.6 gm Epsom salt

That would give me the following:
Ca............84
Mg............17
Na.............36
Cl..............40
So4............233
Alkalinity.....60
RA.............-10

The sulfates look high, but I was reading some posts on other sites and I saw Mike McDole recommends getting in the 300ish range for sulfates for IPA's and DIPA's (goes over this for his pliny clone). I have read it in a few other posts as well.

what do you think?

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