Jknapp

Recipes 

I'm brewing a stout tomorrow in West Seattle. From the annual water analysis I could find and somewhat make sense of, it seems Seattle water is very soft and could use a PH increase when mashing grains for a stout.

I have purchased PH papers and will test my mash water. My question is: if you have experience with Seattle water, what adjusting salts/minerals should I have on hand? What typical adjustments have worked for you for brewing darker beers in Seattle?

Any tips or advice for a 1st time PH adjuster?

Jknapp

ElDuderino

Recipes 

Someone else asked about this on the forum, and included some numbers...

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/seattle-water-chemistry-101454/

I haven't brewed in Seattle; I live in Portland and our water is softer than in Pilsen... I would add burton on trent salts to pales when I began brewing all grain beers but eventually stopped and my results have still been very good. I just worry about chlorine/chloramine.

bvn

Recipes 

Our water is incredibly soft and chlorinated.
- if I am doing a Burton on Trent style, I dump a handful of food grade wall board (Burton Salts) into the boil
- if I am doing a Themes Valley, then is is food grade chalk.
It makes a very small difference, especially when compared with other tricks.
- We chill our cold strike water the night before. The rest we boil out in the boil pot. Gets rid of the chlorine taste. Chlorine lowers the ph, the salts raise it. The mash overwhelms whatever ph fiddling we do.

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Brewing is a culinary art - Bruce vanNorman