Tweaking my water

I'm planning on brewing in the morning and wanted to make sure my plan for making a couple minor adjustments was a decent one. My main concern is chlorine (which I confirmed with my local utilities dept. is not chloramine). I've read that this will dissipate on its own if left uncovered so my question is will filling up my mash tun (10 gallon round rubbermaid variety) with all the water I plan on brewing with tonight and letting it sit till morning be sufficient enough? My second (and significantly less important) concern is the low amount of calcium in my water (19 mg/l I believe). To compensate for this I was going to throw a bit of gypsum into the water in my mash tun in the morning, but I would be open to suggestions if there might be a better option.

Calcium chloride will work as well - it has chloride in it (obviously) whereas Gypsum contains sulfate. Use whichever one goes best with what you're brewing.

Letting it stand overnight should do it. If you cannot smell chlorine in a sample poured back and forth between two tumblers, it is gone.

If you have a hose end spray noozle, I find that you can can a significant volatilization of chlorine out of the water if you spray into the pot with a fine spray. You should smell the chlorine as you spray. I would still let it sit overnight, but you will have removed some of the chlorine off the bat. Investing in an activated carbon filter is also a good chlorine removal method.

Bumping the calcium up is a good idea. As AJ says, the source of your calcium addition should be based on the flavor goal of the current beer.

mabrungard said:

If you have a hose end spray noozle, I find that you can can a significant volatilization of chlorine out of the water if you spray into the pot with a fine spray. You should smell the chlorine as you spray. I would still let it sit overnight, but you will have removed some of the chlorine off the bat. Investing in an activated carbon filter is also a good chlorine removal method.

Bumping the calcium up is a good idea. As AJ says, the source of your calcium addition should be based on the flavor goal of the current beer.

Click to expand...

Dang - I finally get one right and the credit goes to AJ. He gets enough of them right on his own.

Just kidding Martin.