A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer

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Yooper

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Another forum member just pointed out that perhaps we should have a simple preface at the top of this post explaining that the information provided by AJ is not simply a dissenting opinion to what has been expressed in previous books, on forums, and in podcasts, but rather an updated and newer way of looking at water. It is a new philosophy supported by most if not all recognized authorities in the brewing world, including Palmer and Jamil. Folks who don't 'know' AJ deLange may be dubious if they've listened to the multiple water shows on Brew Strong or read "How to Brew", and they are hesitant to embrace the primer because it appears as a differing opinion, rather than updated information.


By AJ deLange

One of the first things a beginning brewer is told is that beer is typically 95% water and that, as a consequence of this, getting the water one brews with "correct" for the style is very important. He is also told that most beer styles evolved the way they did because of the nature of the water with which they were originally brewed. Those statements are true enough but the process of understanding what is "correct" and the process of going between the water one has and the "correct" water is, to many, one of the most daunting aspects of brewing.

Many beginning and advanced brewers assume that it is necessary when brewing, for example, a Munich Helles, to duplicate Munich water and there are many places where one can find ion profiles for Munich water and spreadsheets into which one can insert those profiles and details of one's own water and be given advice on what minerals to add to duplicate Munich. There are multiple potential problems with this approach. First, published water reports are very often wrong. Second, it is not enough to know what Munich water is like. You must also know what the brewer did to make the beer with the existing water. In the case of Helles, for example, the water needs to be softened. Finally, the spreadsheets often calculate salt additions based on simplifications of the chemistry involved, consideration of things that are essentially irrelevant (beer color, chloride to sulfate ratio) and reliance on models of things (e.g. effects of dark malt on mash pH) that really can't be modeled very well. When all the approximations are good the result can be fine but when they aren't the result can be salt addition recommendations that can have a detrimental effect on the beer.

In this note we are going to take a very simple approach to brewing water preparation. In tailoring water we seek 2 goals. The first, arguably more important than the second, is to be sure that the water properties are consistent with mash pH in a suitable range (5.1 - 5.5). The second is that, on the one hand, the mineral content not add or cause flavors which the drinker may not like and on the other that minerals which have a positive effect on the beer, be available in adequate quantity, The first goal cannot be achieved by the use of water treatment alone. Acid is usually required. This is traditionally supplied in German brewing by the use of lactic acid in the form of sauermalz (acidulated malt) or sauergut (wort fermented by lactic bacteria) while in British practice a blend of mineral acids is usually empoyed. Thus the recommendations that follow also specify acid additions.

The following recommendations apply to "soft" water. Here we will define soft as meaning RO or distilled water or any water whose lab report indicates alkalinity less than 35 (ppm as CaCO3 – all other numbers to follow mg/L), sulfate less than 20 (as sulfate – Ward Labs reports as sulfur so multiply the SO4-S number by 3 to get as sulfate), chloride less than 20, sodium less than 20, calcium less than 20 and magnesium less than 20. If your water has numbers higher than these, dilute it with RO or DI water. A 1:1 dilution reduces each ion concentration to 1/2, a 2:1 dilution to 1/3 and so on. If your water contains chloramines add 1 crushed campden tablet per 20 gallons (before any dilution).

Baseline: Add 1 tsp of calcium chloride dihydrate (what your LHBS sells) to each 5 gallons of water treated. Add 2% sauermalz to the grist.

Deviate from the baseline as follows:

For soft water beers (i.e Pils, Helles). Use half the baseline amount of calcium chloride and increase the sauermalz to 3%.

For beers that use roast malt (Stout, porter): Skip the sauermalz.

For British beers: Add 1 tsp gypsum as well as 1 tsp calcium chloride.

For very minerally beers (Export, Burton ale): Double the calcium chloride and the gypsum.

These recommendations should get you a good beer if not the best beer. To get the best you should vary the amounts of the added salts noting carefully whether a change benefits or detriments your enjoyment of the beer. Additional sulfate will sharpen the perceived hops bitterness. Additional chloride will round, smooth and sweeten the beer. Add or decrease these in small amounts.

Those serious about getting the best possible results should buy a pH meter and check mash pH increasing or decreasing the amount of sauermalz to get pH around 5.3. Unfortunately the pH strips don't seem to work very well.
 
Thanks for the info, it seems so easy now. Water treatment is the only thing left that I need to work on, and it always confused me. This makes it so simple.
 
In addition to the mash, do you recommend treating the sparge water or wait for the boil?
 
Since the theme here is KISS I just recommend treating the entire volume of water to be used for whatever purpose. If you have some reason for wanting to treat sparge or makeup water separately, by all means do so. If you want to add salts to the kettle for some reason you can of course do that as well.
 
In addition to the mash, do you recommend treating the sparge water or wait for the boil?

ajdelange,

I'm speculating, but I think the concern behind this question is that maybe CaCl2 would not be soluble in plain water (ie, if one were to try and dissolve it directly in the hot liquor tank). In my reading on the subject, I've seen it explicitly stated that "sparge water" portions of the salts should be added directly to the boil instead of the sparge water because they would NOT dissolve in plain water; and would simply fall to the bottom of the vessel.

I actually just tested this theory with CaCl2...it seemed to dissolve just fine in a glass of filtered tap water. So, maybe some of the other salts won't dissolve, but for CaCl2 that seems not to be the case (?)

PS...thanks for this straightforward approach to what you've described as a very complicated subject (brewing water chemistry). So far I've ruined at least 3 batches of beer trying to tinker with my water chemistry while listening to podcasts, reading obsessively on this forum, emailing breweries, etc; though if my beers were perfect in the first place, I probably wouldn't have ventured into the subject to begin with. My current hypothesis is that my sulfate levels have been too high for my tastes. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out with your baseline/primer. Cheers.
 
EvilBrewer,

Calcium chloride is quite soluble. OTOH calcium carbonate (chalk) is quite insoluble. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is not as soluble as calcium chloride but much more soluble that calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate are both less soluble in hot water than cold (which is the reverse of the usual case). I'm guessing that the advice you have probably seen wrt salts not dissolving was probably in sources that recommend adding a lot of chalk to brewing water. We are definitely not recommending that here.
 
and now with this info all in a single, easy-to-find sticky...i'm off to the races!

thanks for shining some reliable light on this.
 
what's the issue with RA? If i brew darker beers will that get me into an acceptable pH range?

We all know that the use of dark malt was a mechanism early brewers adopted to combat high water alkalinity. The use of roast and high color crystal malts lowered mash pH but perhaps not as much as we would like by today's standards. For water with alkalinity this high you doubtless could brew a pretty good dark beer but alkalinty that high would be a real problem for a lighter beer such as a pilsner.

Now if you cut that alkalinity by 10 and try to brew a dark beer you will probably be OK but you really should check mash pH and if it is too low add some chalk to the mash.
 
Is all sauermalz the same? This is where I buy my ingredients from http://craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=808 where they state a 50-55% acid rate. Would I still use 2% of total grist or does that vary depending on the acidity of the malt?

I doubt all sauermalz is the same but that is the same sauermalz I uses and so, within lot variance, should perform about the same. Now note that the 0.1pH/% figure is a "rule of thumb" and that rules of thumb are seldom exact. Again, if there were any way I could convince people that they ought to rely on mash pH measurement I would be a happy camper.
 
So...it's been about three weeks since this thread was started. Enough time for someone to have tried out the method proposed herein and at least have a sense for how it turned out (taste-wise)...

Anyone??? Let's hear it! I'm anxious to give it a shot; probably won't have time for at least another week.
 
So...it's been about three weeks since this thread was started. Enough time for someone to have tried out the method proposed herein and at least have a sense for how it turned out (taste-wise)...

Anyone??? Let's hear it! I'm anxious to give it a shot; probably won't have time for at least another week.
What advice? RO + CaCl? I've scored in the 40s on a couple of beers made that way. The general advice to measure and control mash pH rather than trying to predict? Same, only more than a couple.

The ph meter is the single best hot side investment I have made (and useful on the cold side as well).
 
So...it's been about three weeks since this thread was started. Enough time for someone to have tried out the method proposed herein and at least have a sense for how it turned out (taste-wise)...

Anyone??? Let's hear it! I'm anxious to give it a shot; probably won't have time for at least another week.

Still in the primary. Only thing I noticed was a very tame ferment, but this was the first time with this recipe.
 
What advice? RO + CaCl? I've scored in the 40s on a couple of beers made that way. The general advice to measure and control mash pH rather than trying to predict? Same, only more than a couple.

The ph meter is the single best hot side investment I have made (and useful on the cold side as well).

The advice I'm referring to is in the first post in this thread...specifically, the part about CaCl2 + RO, and using Sauermalz for the acid.

And also, about generally brewing without Sulfates...except in very small amounts via Gypsum.

That's great to hear about your success! What pH meter do you use? I bought a Hanna Checker at my LHBS...but I'm kind of questioning its accuracy...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WTELF4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Can anyone elaborate on the use of 5.2 Stabilizer in the mash? How does that affect the need to adjust mash PH with acids? Thanks, great info!
 
Can anyone elaborate on the use of 5.2 Stabilizer in the mash? How does that affect the need to adjust mash PH with acids? Thanks, great info!

From what i've heard, it's pretty much a fraud. I haven't used since I bought a ph meter.
 
5.2 is just a buffer. It provides sufficient ions to the solution to maintain the pH at 5.2. But I just cannot see how it doesn't effect the taste to some degree.

I have never used it, but it is just buffer. I'm sure there are many cases where it doesn't properly maintain the advertised pH because of all the water chemistry variables in brewing (water hardness, Ca conc., diff. malts, etc.)
 
I've been using the 5.2 buffer in most of my beers. I have a whole house filter on my brew rig. I fill the Blinchmann with appropriate volume, add 1-2 T of the buffer and start brewing. Just before mashing I test mash water with pH strips and it is always 5.1-5.3 .....the manufacturer claims it adds no taste. I haven't noticed a consistent weird or off flavor.
 
Can someone chime in on using something besides sauermalz to add acid to the mash? What type of additive could I use? Lactic acid? Citric acid?
 
5.2 is just a buffer. It provides sufficient ions to the solution to maintain the pH at 5.2. But I just cannot see how it doesn't effect the taste to some degree.

It is indeed a buffer made up mostly of monobasic sodium phosphate with about 3% dibasic sodium phosphate. This, in distilled water, produces a buffer of pH 5.7. I think the theory is that the malt is supposed to supply enough additional monobasic phosphate to get the pH down to 5.2. But even if that's what happens, a buffer shouldn't be designed for a pH more that 1 from one of the pK's of the acid (phosphoric) involved. The relevant pK's for phosphoric acid are 2.1 and 7.4. Phosphoric acid salts are a poor choice for a buffer designed for pH 5.2. Little buffering capacity (resistance to movement away from the design pH) is to be expected and indeed this product exhibits little buffering capacity.

As a wag noted (here I think) it works great unless you have a pH meter.

Then there's the sodium.
 
Can someone chime in on using something besides sauermalz to add acid to the mash? What type of additive could I use? Lactic acid? Citric acid?

Lactic is a fine choice - that's what's in sauermalz. There is a little bother calculating the amount of lactic acid. The rule of thumb is 1% of grist should be sauermalz per 0.1 unit pH reduction desired. If you know that sauermalz is 1 - 2% lactic acid by weight you can work that around to the equivalent weight of lactic acid required taking into account that most lactic acid in home brew shops is an 88% solution.

I was just looking back in some old (and I do mean old) homebrewing books and apparently citric acid was quite popular in those early days though it seems to have fallen out of favor.

In either case the ultimate determination of the amount required has to be arrived at by experimentation.
 
In either case the ultimate determination of the amount required has to be arrived at by experimentation.
And will vary with every grain bill. You need a pH meter if you really think you are having problems with mash pH. pH strips at the very least, but cool the wort down before testing the pH.
 
"Start with 100% RO water"
"Hoppy Light beer: 1 tsp foobar, 1 tsp lactic acid (88%)"
"Dark Malty Beer: 2 tsp gypsumite sulfate, 1/2 tsp calcium something-or-other"
"Dark Hoppy Beer: eye of newt, 1 tsp calcium chloride"

See the first post of this thread.

I've noticed in reading Gordon Strong's published recipes that what he does to his water is very close to what AJ would recommend (RO + CaCl for hefeweizen, RO + CaCl and gypsum for barleywine, etc).

Gordon won the AHA Ninkasi award the last three years. Hopefully he talks about water in his upcoming book on advanced brewing.
 
Yooper - I've read elsewhere that your water is hard and alkaline. For these recommendations, did you dilute your water with RO water or use 100% RO?


Just wondering from a comparative point-of-view.
 
Yooper - I've read elsewhere that your water is hard and alkaline. For these recommendations, did you dilute your water with RO water or use 100% RO?


Just wondering from a comparative point-of-view.

I dilute with RO, generally. For some beers, like pilsners, I use 100% RO to start. For stouts, I use 100% tap water.

For everything else, I use about 35% RO and my tap water and add CaCl2 always, and CaSO4 sometimes. It depends on the beer I'm making.
 
ajdelange - I will read your post later (too busy), but thanks for taking the time to explain. So, "RA" is a brewing "chemistry" term and not a general chemistry theory?

Yes but alkalinity and acidity are more general. At least they are widely used in the water industry.

That's cool, it just didn't make sense for me in theory. Mathematical of course it does, but math isn't theory or reality, its a tool.
And that's exactly what RA is.
 
It would not be impossible to provide a list of additions for each entry in the BJCP style guidelines but if someone were to do that

1. There would be conflicts because, for example, the Belgian Abbey beers are made with water ranging from very soft to very hard. Weizens are brewed all over Germany and Austria with water which is quite diverse.

2. You wouldn't learn anything if someone just laid it out for you

3. Within a given style there can be a fair amount of variation.

4. What suits your palate within a given style may not suit mine.

The guidelines were never intended to replace a cookbook nor to cover every situation. As they make quite clear they represent a starting point. You must tweak the recommendations until you are happy with the result.

If the problem is not understanding what to do with a Weizen, for example, because it is not specifically mentioned in the sticky you might try the following approach. Go to http://www.pbase.com/agamid/image/57446374 and find a city where Weizen is brewed. Munich is an obvious choice but so is Vienna and they probably brew it around Dortmund and Köln too. Identify the style that is in the sticky that is brewed in one of those cities. In this case, most are lager cities (clearly excepting Köln). Start out with the lager profile. You should also research the beer you are brewing. Though many of the AHA monographs are short on water information (in Warner's Weizen for example it isn't even mentioned). A great source is Ray Daniels "Designing Great Beers" (I think it is). And of course you can also garner information by posting questions like "I'm contemplating brewing a Weizen. How do you all treat your water for this style?" to forums like this one.
 
Thanks for the info!

Regarding the learning aspect... I learn much easier when I have the basics laid out... At least when I start out. It will give me and a lot of other folks a great foundation to start experimenting from.

I would personally be happy with with a short list, maybe 'ipa, light ale, porter and hefe'. I/we are not asking for a final answer on this... Just a starting point so we don't make 10 'dumpers' right of the bat. :)

The point of the original post is that he offers a starting point, and if you think about it a bit, you can see that the short list offers quite a bit of info. It covers from a 'malt forward' style to an 'assertive hops' style. To 'style or to 'taste' is your option.
 
I would personally be happy with with a short list, maybe 'ipa, light ale, porter and hefe'.

Hefeweizen: Baseline

Baseline: Add 1 tsp of calcium chloride dihydrate (what your LHBS sells) to each 5 gallons of water treated. Add 2% sauermalz to the grist.

Deviate from the baseline as follows:


Hefeweizen: For soft water beers (i.e Pils, Helles). Use half the baseline amount of calcium chloride and increase the sauermalz to 3% (you can make great Hefe with soft water too).

Porter: For beers that use roast malt (Stout, porter): Skip the sauermalz.

Light Ale: For British beers: Add 1 tsp gypsum as well as 1 tsp calcium chloride

IPA: For very minerally beers (Export, Burton ale): Double the calcium chloride and the gypsum.

I/we are not asking for a final answer on this... Just a starting point so we don't make 10 'dumpers' right of the bat. :)

If you follow just the baseline without any of the deviations you won't make a 'dumper'. That's the whole idea behind the primer. Should get you a decent beer whatever the style.
 
There's your problem right there. DOn't use 100% RO water with just a small dose of CaCl2. The mineral profile for your beer is going to be waaaaaay off (not enough minerals) from what it should be (and way off from any beer that is brewed).

A couple of comments on this.

1. Several beers, notably the Bohemian Pilsners are brewed with water that is very soft. "Very" is, of course, subject to interpretation.

2. Malt contains quite a bit of mineral - certainly enough to supply co-factor needs for enzymes if not enough to lower pH into the optimum regions.

3. When measuring a malt's extract a Congress Mash using distilled water is employed. Efficiency is calculated relative to the extract obtained from the Congress Mash. As no efficiency tops 100% it's clear that we cannot obtain in our own brewing efficiency as good as is obtained with distilled water. Conclusion: using very soft water doesn't have much of a detrimental effect on mash efficiency.
4. Most RO systems have rejections in the 90's. Thus if water has a nominal alkalinity of 100, hardness of 100, chloride of 7... the permeate could be expected to have (assuming 98%) alkalinity of 2, hardness of 2, chloride of 0.14 etc.

5. I am finding that the softer the water I brew with the better the beer turns out. I haven't formally gone public with this finding because I want to continue this line of experimentation further and I am a lager lout. IOW I don't brew many ales other than Kölsch and Weizen. It seems to work for them but I really don't know how traditional British ales would be perceived if I cut way back on the sulfate in them.
 
AJ - I like the info, but no one is talking about mash eff. here. And regardless, mash eff. has little to do with the taste of the beer (unless you are at extremes), which is the point of the water chemistry primer: to improve the taste of your beer.

I am finding that the softer the water I brew with
This is a relative statement, with the relative part left out. What is "softer"? What is the water profile of said "softer" water? This is also subjective you lager-loving, fool. :)

"Very" is, of course, subject to interpretation.
The only interpretation needed is a water profile analysis sheet.
Very soft water still has more mineral than RO water does (but I guess that RO water has a bit of a range of mineral content based on the eff. of the RO process).

I wouldn't brew any beer with 100% RO water. But you could if you dosed it with the right amount of salts/minerals (but this seems unnecessary)
 
The sticky doesn't say "for lager add CaCl2 to the softest water you can get" because I'm not ready to conclude that does make the best lager at this point though it looks as if I might come to that conclusion eventually.

I have been using RO water with a bit of tap water (pretty nominal stuff) and reducing the tap water over time. The beers just seem to be getting smoother and smoother and richer in flavor but I have not done 100% RO water yet. I do add enough CaCl2 to get to about 25 ppm or so whatever the dilution.

What "soft" means here seems to depend on the mood my RO system is in. I'm almost serious but I really think it has to do with temperature. My feed water seldom exhibits TDS above 160 and the permeate usually runs 3-4 but can read as low as 0 (I don't believe it - it's instrument noise/quantization) or as high as 5 i.e. pretty soft.
 
If I take a mash PH reading, and it is too high, ho0w much lactic acid would I need to add in order to get it into range? Is there a formula or equation?
 
If I take a mash PH reading, and it is too high, ho0w much lactic acid would I need to add in order to get it into range? Is there a formula or equation?

Depends on a number of factors and can't be predicted exactly.

With acid malt, 1% of the grist is supposed to reduce pH by a 0.1 and it's reasonably close to that in my brewery.

On the brewing network forum AJ started from there and the fact that the lactic acid content of acid malt is known and calculated that 0.875 ml of 88% lactic acid solution (what hombrew shops carry) should decrease pH by 0.1 approximately for 10 lbs of grain.

Since this is all very approximate, it may be worth measuring out the amount that should give you half of your desired pH shift, wait a few minutes, measure pH and then add part, all or more than all of the other half based on how much shift you got out of the first addition.

On brewday I would rather measure out 4 oz of acid malt than a fractional ml of acid so I just use the malt. Buying the acid is quite a bit cheaper but I am using maybe 10 lbs of acid malt a year and in most cases I can predict when I need it so I am replacing base malt with it anyway (in the case that I measure and then add it, a few ounces in 5 gallons doesn't materially affect the gravity). So, at the end of the day, I don't see the downside of the acid malt.
 
By Ajdelange

For British beers: Add 1 tsp gypsum as well as 1 tsp calcium chloride

For very minerally beers (Export, Burton ale): Double the calcium chloride and the gypsum.

This would be for each 5 gallons treated right? So if I want to treat 10 gallons at once for an english pale I'd add a grand total of 4 tsp calcium chloride and 2 tsp gypsum?
 
So the difference between RO and distilled (for brewing purposes) is just that distilled has fewer minerals?
 
In essence, yes. RO water will contain ions at a level 95-99% lower than the feed water. Distilled or otherwise deionized water will have ion content even less than that - down to 10^-7 moles/L H+ and 10^-7 moles/L OH- for the really pure (18 Meg-ohm) DI water.
 
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