prrriiide

Recipes 

My water profile has the following:

pH - 7.5
Sodium (Na) - 7
Calcium (Ca) - 37
Magnesium (Mg) - 10
Chloride (Cl) - 13
Sulfate - 18
Carbonate - 134
Alkalinity - 110
Hardness - 134
Flouride - 1.08
Iron (Fe) - <0.01
Total Disolved Solids (TDS) - 209
Nitrate - 1.7

I'm interested in doing some cold steeping, since I only have a 10 gallon tun, and can't do much in the way of 10 g batch big beers in it. If I can steep the grains without crapping on my mash pH, I'd like to try it and see what happens. So far, I've had very good results with mashing everything and using straight tap water - no alterations. The stouts have been especially smooth, but even the kolsch's have been quite smooth, with a nice evenness and balance from start to finish. I don't want to fix that part of it, cuz it ain't broke.

The alkalinity number is a bit higher than the regional average of 99. Here is the link to the analyses for reference. I have First Utility water, the first column.

Will cold steeping benefit me or will it change the taste and evenness of the finished products?

__________________
It seemed like a good idea at the time...

ShinyBuddha

Recipes 

I'm with/was with prrriide on this one (thanks for the education DeafSmith). I've never heard of alkalinity described outside of its direct correlation to the pH scale. I do believe I owe mabrungard a homebrew.

luhrks

Recipes 

At our monthly club meeting this week, I had the chance to talk to the other brewers that do lots of stouts and other styles that require these grains and their opinions were universal. Either cold steep them seperately, or toss them in at the end of the mash just before you vorlauf/sparge.