Water profile for a Rye IPA?

Hello I'm brewing Edworts Rye IPA in a few days and am wondering what water profile to use. This will be the first time that I alter my water and I'm not sure what goes well with this style of beer. I was thinking either Moshers Ideal Pale Ale or Burton On Trent. Which would you prefer?

Also I read somewhere that you can get away with just adjusting the mash water and not the sparge water. Being that its my first time I would prefer this simpler process. Can I get away with just adjusting the mash water and sparging with unaltered distilled water? If I can do this, do I adjust only the 4.6 gallon mash, or do I adjust the 4.6 gallon mash for a 6.5 gallon preboil volume? thanks for helping with these rookie questions, I'm trying to complete my crash course on water chemistry with only a few days before I brew.

I think your mineral additions really depend a lot on your water's initial profile.

If you can get a water quality report from you municipal district that may give you a good place to start. I have mashed with and without adjusting my sparge water and have yet to notice a difference, but that is my situation.

Either way I wish you luck and keep us posted on the results!

I'll be using distilled water w/ minerals. My house water is horrible, lol. When you only adjusted your mash water, did you only adjust based on the volume of mash, or did you adjust for preboil volume? thanks

Have you brewed with this water before? If so, what did/didn't you like about it? My water is horrible as well and I use bottled spring water with no adjustments in my beers.

I use spring water too for my beers, but now that I'm starting to adjust water, I want to use a blank slate distilled water with my minerals.

JBrady said:

I'll be using distilled water w/ minerals. My house water is horrible, lol. When you only adjusted your mash water, did you only adjust based on the volume of mash, or did you adjust for preboil volume? thanks

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I have done both but last batch I adjusted for total volume (mash and sparge). I do not think it makes a lot of difference for me cause I like a full malty profile so I usually adjust for the high end of maltiness. If that makes any sense.

I use brewersfriend.com and beersmith to make adjustments for my beers and so far so good!

KevinW said:

I have done both but last batch I adjusted for total volume (mash and sparge). I do not think it makes a lot of difference for me cause I like a full malty profile so I usually adjust for the high end of maltiness. If that makes any sense.

I use brewersfriend.com and beersmith to make adjustments for my beers and so far so good!

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Thanks, I also use the combo of brewersfriend and beersmith for calculations. I think for my first adjusted water batch I'm going to adjust only the 4.6 gallon mash and then sparge with regular old distilled water. Hopefully that will be a good jumping off point. I guessing I'll use Moshers Ideal Pale Ale profile for the IPA. thanks again for all the good info

I've never tried Mosher's profile, but I have tried a Burton profile from Promash. The Burton profile was not good.
I now use something similar to the profiles recommended by Terry Foster in Pale Ale, and have been satisfied with the results.
For the Rye IPA, this would come out at something like Ca 100 ppm, SO4 200 ppm, and Cl 30 ppm, and you could increase the Ca and SO4 by up to 50% without any problems.

-a.

Where can I find Terry Fosters profiles?

Buy the book.

-a.