Water profile - SNPA

Anyone have any advice on what type of water profile to use for a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone?

I brewed up a clone recipe recently using "Moshers Idea Pale Ale" water profile and it seemed a little harshly bitter when I transferred to secondary just now. Granted it's got lots of time before it's officially ready to drink but still...kind of makes me wonder if I should have used a different profile??

I built the water profile from distilled water. Below is the ingredient list and then the water profile:

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** Ingredients **
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11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 91.67 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
0.45 oz Magnum [13.10 %] (60 min) Hops 17.7 IBU
0.50 oz Pearle [8.20 %] (30 min) Hops 9.5 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (10 min) Hops 8.2 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 35 ml] Yeast-Ale

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** Water profile **
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Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 3.75 / 5
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 0.5 / 0.666666667
CaSO4: 5.5 / 7.333333333
CaCl2: 1 / 1.333333333
MgSO4: 2.3 / 3.066666667
NaHCO3: 1.8 / 0
NaCl: 0.6 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 121 / 121
Mg: 15 / 15
Na: 51 / 22
Cl: 60 / 45
SO4: 279 / 279
CaCO3: 93 / 50

RA (mash only): -3 (5 to 10 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.16 (Very Bitter)

I like Vista, CA's water profile, home to Green Flash. I use it a lot with pale ales and find it very good and prefer it over Mosher's. This is what I use:

Ca=57
SO4=136
Mg=22
Na=71
Cl=88
Carb=147
Hard=233
Alk=122

HarkinBanks said:

...prefer it over Mosher's...

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Any specific reason you like it better? I plugged your numbers into my EZ Water Calculator spreadsheet and it looks like the Cl/SO4 ratio leans more toward "bitter/balanced" than Moshers (which was well within the "very bitter" range).

I used Mosher's with my current batch and it seems way too bitter, so I'm kind of HOPING that you felt the same way about Mosher's and decided to use Vista, CA instead and it solved your problem...but please don't let that influence your answer! Thanks in advance!

Exactly. I find it less bitter and that's why I like it over moshers. It's a great water profile for a lot of beers I often brew. I would suggest getting your local water report and build your water from the tap, no need to spend money on distilled water.

HarkinBanks said:

...I would suggest getting your local water report and build your water from the tap, no need to spend money on distilled water...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I hear you...I actually have my water report. I sent in a sample to Ward Labs a couple of months back. I'm still relatively new to water chemistry so I've been using distilled to give me a 'blank canvas' upon which to add the proper minerals--this last batch was only my 4th batch using an altered water profile. My plan is to use my (filtered) tap water as the base once I get the hang of it.

Thanks for the advice and for the water profile...I'll look into using that for my next attempt at an American Pale Ale.

It's funny...out of all the beers I've brewed, this is the only style that's given me trouble (APA, AIPAs). They ALWAYS turn out way too bitter, and I suspect it's because of the water.

Not sure if you use it already, but check out Brewater 3.0. It makes building water very easy and converts everything to grams or tsps.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/

HarkinBanks said:

Not sure if you use it already, but check out Brewater 3.0. It makes building water very easy and converts everything to grams or tsps.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/

Click to expand...

Thanks...yeah, I use Brewater to calculate the measurements needed to get a certain water profile, and then I plug the numbers into the EZ Water Spreadsheet to tweek the residual alkalinity, etc