I'm giving it a shot

Tomorrow I'm making first batch with all RO water.. I've decided to go with this water profile CA 75, MA 5, NA 10, CL 50, SO4 150, HCO 0. It seems simple enough and looks like a good place to start. I'll be adding 9g gyp, 2g Epsom, 1 g kosher salt and 2.5g calcium chloride. Mash ph is 5.43
Does this seem like a good starting point

grain bill
9.20 gal RO Water Water 1 -
9.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
2.50 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
2.00 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 4 -
1.00 g Salt (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 5 -
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2-Row) Canadian Malting Co (2.0 SRM) Grain 6 87.5 %
12.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L (Cargill) (40.0 SRM) Grain 7 6.3 %
12.0 oz Munich (Cargill) (9.5 SRM) Grain 8 6.3 %
0.25 oz Horizon [11.10 %] - Boil 65.0 min Hop 9 8.5 IBUs
0.25 oz Citra pellet [14.10 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10 6.4 IBUs
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 11 6.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra pellet [14.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 12 10.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 13 11.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra pellet [14.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 14 7.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 15 8.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra pellet [14.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 16 8.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 17 9.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 18 -
1.00 oz Citra pellet [14.10 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days
Est Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 %
Bitterness: 77.0 IBUs
Est Color: 6.7 SRM

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Mash In Add 4.50 gal of water at 161.7 F 152.0 F 60 min

Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.68gal) of 180.0 F water

That seems fine! The Hco3 wouldn't be 0 in RO water, but that's close enough I guess. I'm no water expert, but my RO water now has a HCO3 level of something like 17, via aquarium test kits.

Anyway, that looks good to me for what it's worth.

Not that it matters that much but he could have bicarbonate pretty close to 0. As an example my well in VA runs at most 80 ppm as CaCO3 alkalinity. At its pH that amounts to a bicarbonate level of about 88 mg/L. Given that my RO unit seems to take out about 98% of everything (or at least it did when it was new) that would leave only about 1.8 mg/L bicarbonate.

ajdelange said:

Not that it matters that much but he could have bicarbonate pretty close to 0. As an example my well in VA runs at most 80 ppm as CaCO3 alkalinity. At its pH that amounts to a bicarbonate level of about 88 mg/L. Given that my RO unit seems to take out about 98% of everything (or at least it did when it was new) that would leave only about 1.8 mg/L bicarbonate.

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You're probably right AJ- I may be mixing him up with another forum member who is using RO water due to their high bicarb level and was assuming that the RO water was from that. Sorry about that!

Because i don't know what the ppm on any of my minerals are in my store bought ro water i chose to set it at 0 across the board except for ph which is 8. I figured I couldn't be to far off and it had to be better then my tap water. The brewing profile came from brewers friend. Its the light colored and hoppy profile. I plan on brewing this tomorrow and we will see if this removes the underlying flavor im getting that i don't care for. If it doesn't then it may be time for me to consider knitting.

I had sent a sample of my water pre RO filter and after RO filter into ward labs. RO water came back with <1 or below threshold for bicarbonate.

mors said:

I had sent a sample of my water pre RO filter and after RO filter into ward labs. RO water came back with <1 or below threshold for bicarbonate.

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It's pretty much a waste of money to send RO samples off to Ward. For about the same money you can buy a simple TDS tester. If your system is working TDS should be below say 20. If TDS is below 20 (it's not really measuring TDS but rather the electrical conductivity of the sample) then all the individual ion contents are roughly 0.

I do have the simple TDS meter as well. I realize it wasn't necessary but was interested non the less.

Well today's session went well. I hit all my numbers and had a 80.5% mash eff with a 74% brewhouse and didn't have to use a stabilizer to do it. The only mistake i made was accidentally boiling my aroma steep addition for 5 min which turned my APA into a low gravity IPA. Se la vie