somedudefromguam
Well-Known Member
Okay, brewing just seemed to get way more complicated for me...
I am reading up on water adjustments, I would like to adjust my water to have a more mineral-y profile similar to Burton on Trent. I use well water that I think is considered hard, but I have no real evidence to support that. It has a nice clean flavor, not like minerals, just clean.
So I was re-reading the third edition of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and Charlie states "caution and knowledge of water chemistry should be pursued by the homebrewer before adding any chemical to water used for consumption. " I don't understand if he is saying "don't be an idiot and add a bunch of stuff you found at the fertilizer store to your brewing water" or if he is saying "you can add too much calcium carbonate and can poison yourself"...
Anyway, I added 1.5 grams of Calcium carbonate, .1 grams of sodium chloride, .1 grams sodium bicarbonate, and .6 grams of gypsum to my mash water. (2 gallon batch by the way) I mashed in minutes ago and am waiting for a negative starch test. I should also say that my mash water started at 5.2 according to the PH strips that I use, after the additions the strips started to change a purple color that is not described in the PH strip kit (only measures 4.6-6). I hope I didn't smurf everything up by adjusting the water profile before the mash. I did this because it sounds like calcium carbonate and gypsum wont dissolve very well in boiling wort, so I added everything before I heated the mash water...
I am reading up on water adjustments, I would like to adjust my water to have a more mineral-y profile similar to Burton on Trent. I use well water that I think is considered hard, but I have no real evidence to support that. It has a nice clean flavor, not like minerals, just clean.
So I was re-reading the third edition of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and Charlie states "caution and knowledge of water chemistry should be pursued by the homebrewer before adding any chemical to water used for consumption. " I don't understand if he is saying "don't be an idiot and add a bunch of stuff you found at the fertilizer store to your brewing water" or if he is saying "you can add too much calcium carbonate and can poison yourself"...
Anyway, I added 1.5 grams of Calcium carbonate, .1 grams of sodium chloride, .1 grams sodium bicarbonate, and .6 grams of gypsum to my mash water. (2 gallon batch by the way) I mashed in minutes ago and am waiting for a negative starch test. I should also say that my mash water started at 5.2 according to the PH strips that I use, after the additions the strips started to change a purple color that is not described in the PH strip kit (only measures 4.6-6). I hope I didn't smurf everything up by adjusting the water profile before the mash. I did this because it sounds like calcium carbonate and gypsum wont dissolve very well in boiling wort, so I added everything before I heated the mash water...