Yet another water question

Iv entered these number into EZ-Water but unable to lower my PH.
Looking to brew a Centennial Blond this weekend.

Starting water PPM
Ca: 39.6
Mg: 22.4
Na: 2.03
Cl: 2.84
SO4: 4.3
CaCO3: 169

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 10.9 / 8.05
RO or distilled %: 0% / 0%

Total Grain (lb): 17.3

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 4 / 2.95412844
CaCl2: 3 / 2.21559633
MgSO4: 2 / 1.47706422
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 0
Sauermalz (oz): 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 81 / 81
Mg: 27 / 27
Na: 2 / 2
Cl: 38 / 38
SO4: 77 / 77
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.49 / 0.49

Alkalinity (CaCO3): 169
RA: 95
Estimated pH: 5.82
(room temp)


Any help would be much appreciated.

The Mg is already high enough and no more is needed or desirable. The alkalinity is fairly high and needs to be neutralized. Adding acid malt or lactic or phosphoric will be needed for the mash. More importantly, you must acidify the tap water for use as sparging water. I don't think that EZ can provide that info. You need to use Bru'n Water if you are going to use that tap water for sparging. It has the calculator to figure out the acid needed in the sparge.

+1 on Acid malt or lactic acid. That seems like a lot of salt to be adding to a light beer. Forget about using MgSO4. At 22ppm that's plenty of magnesium. Magnesium, especially with high sulfate concentration, tastes astringent and metallic. Also the chlorine and so4 are high. Choose one and boost that to enhance sweet or bitter. 1/2 tsp of CaCl to boost the sweet, or 1/2 tsp of CaSO4 to boost the bitter. (For a 5 gallon batch with water that has a lower mineral content like yours)

Thank you for your suggestions. I added 4 grams gypsum, 4 grams calc chloride and 5 ml lactic acid. Any thoughts?
Matt

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 39.6
Mg: 22.4
Na: 2.03
Cl: 2.84
SO4: 4.3
CaCO3: 169

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 10.9 / 8.05
RO or distilled %: 0% / 0%

Total Grain (lb): 8.8

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 4 / 2.95412844
CaCl2: 4 / 2.95412844
MgSO4: 0 / 0
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 5
Sauermalz (oz): 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 88 / 88
Mg: 22 / 22
Na: 2 / 2
Cl: 50 / 50
SO4: 58 / 58
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.85 / 0.85

Alkalinity (CaCO3): 27
RA: -49
Estimated pH: 5.52
(room temp)

You can add both if you want a big bold blond. Personally, I would add one or the other, but not both to a blonde. If you want the hops to be showcased, add the gypsum. If you want the malt on center stage add the CaCl. If you want balance I wouldn't add either to a blond. It will taste more clean with less salt.

Guess I need to read more about water profiles. According to ez-water when I remove CaCl and gypusm my Calcium drops to 4ppm and sulfate to 40 ppm. Should I "not" worry about these numbers?

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 39.6
Mg: 22.4
Na: 2.03
Cl: 2.84
SO4: 4.3
CaCO3: 169

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 10.9 / 8.05
RO or distilled %: 0% / 0%

Total Grain (lb): 8.8

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 0 / 0
CaCl2: 0 / 0
MgSO4: 0 / 0
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 6
Sauermalz (oz): 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 40 / 40
Mg: 22 / 22
Na: 2 / 2
Cl: 3 / 3
SO4: 4 / 4
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.66 / 0.66

Alkalinity (CaCO3): -2
RA: -43
Estimated pH: 5.54
(room temp)

You have 39.6 mg/L in your starting water and aren't diluting with RO/DI so that calcium will be there.

More calcium is better for mash function, but more salt in a light beer is bad. Maybe it wasn't clear in my last post, but I do recommend adding a little salt, but only one or the other. Forget the so4:cl ratio. It's not about the balance of the two so much as the presence at low salt levels.
Your water, just how it is with no additions, is the envy of many brewers. You could make a very nice Pilsner with it.

Woodlandbrew,
Thanks for clarifying original post. I'm having a hard time getting my head around the water profile concept and I appreciate any and all help.

The best write up I have seen on brewing salts is here:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/08/24/brewing-water-hard-or-soft/

And this calculator is nice as well.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/

WoodlandBrew said:

The best write up I have seen on brewing salts is here:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/08/24/brewing-water-hard-or-soft/

Click to expand...

Well there are a number of errors in that write up, so I caution against relying on that summary. A better summary is at the Water Knowledge page of the Bru'n Water site.

The Beersmith blog posts tend to be full of errors and misrepresentations of facts or mechanisms.

Kai