1st attempt at water adjustment--Gone in the pisser?

I did a AG brew on Jan 3. An American amber. My water is pretty low in just about everything, so this was my first attempt at water adjustment and I think I went overboard. I will try and post the raw data from what I used, I just don't have it at work. Here is the raw format from the water calculator BobbyM recommends and video logs showing my starting water:

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 15.4
Mg: 2.7
Na: 7.5
Cl: 7.9
SO4: 22
CaCO3: 15
PH is 7.58 out of the tap.

Up until now, my pale ales have been really tasty, and my more maltier beers have lacked something. I decided to jump into water adjustment, as my processes are more or less under control. Mash temps are good, and efficiency is between 68-70% as long as my crush is good.

The American Amber batch I brewed on Jan 3rd I believe to be an awfully inferior grain crush, as my normal LHBS was closed over the holiday and I had to go to the backup LHBS, with no experience with their mill. Nevertheless, I was supposed to get 1.045 as an OG, and only ended up with barely 1.035, even with boiling for 90 minutes. My pre-boil gravity was low too.

I decided to RDWAHAH and let it ride. It spent until Jan 9th in primary, normal fermentation activity. It then was racked to Secondary on Jan 16th. FG at that time was 1.009.

The question? The SG sample smells wierd, and tastes like urine. The smell doesn't say to me that it is a bacterial infection, and my system from when it leaves boil kettle to ready to tap the corny keg is all sanitized and enclosed.

Now, this attempt at water adjustment I put all my additions into the mash and the boil kettle, and (unknowingly, because I didn't read all of the suggestions with the spreadsheet to NOT use 5.2 adjust) added 5.2 adjust as well to the mash.

Did I make a urine specimen with all the junk I added? The batch i brewed last Sunday I only added my adjustment additives to the mash, no 5.2 adjust, and nothing to the boil. I hope I did better.

Anybody know if I should just pitch it? Or rack it and carb it and see if it tastes like urine but cold and carbonated?

Thanks.

You didn't use Simcoe hops by chance did you?

Bobby_M said:

You didn't use Simcoe hops by chance did you?

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Negative.

18lbs Pale
3lbs German Munich
1lb Caramalt
1lb Caramel 10L
.5lb Canadian Honey (Gambrinus)

2oz Willamette 90min Bagged pellet
2oz Cascade 2Min remaining Bagged Pellet

WLP001 California Ale with a 1000mL starter

I have a feeling I put in 1 oz Gypsum, .5 oz Epsom Salt and .5 oz baking soda, but don't quote me on it. That plus the 5.2 I think made it a really screwed up adjustment.

Dumped it last night. Not fun to watch.

Try again next time.

harpo said:

I have a feeling I put in 1 oz Gypsum, .5 oz Epsom Salt and .5 oz baking soda, but don't quote me on it. That plus the 5.2 I think made it a really screwed up adjustment.

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You mentioned you added to both mash and boil kettle. Is the above amounts total and you split the amount into the mash and kettle or is this the amount for the mash addition then you added the same to the kettle? Also, how much water did you mash with and what was your pre boil volume? And one last question because of the english units, did you measure ounces in volume (measuring cup) or weight (scales)?

Lee

LeeF said:

You mentioned you added to both mash and boil kettle. Is the above amounts total and you split the amount into the mash and kettle or is this the amount for the mash addition then you added the same to the kettle? Also, how much water did you mash with and what was your pre boil volume? And one last question because of the english units, did you measure ounces in volume (measuring cup) or weight (scales)?

Lee

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I measured in weight (scale). I added approximately the same amount (the spreadsheet showed a little increased variance) to both mash and boil for this particular (1st) time.

On the batch I did last Sunday, I only added the adjustments to the mash.

I put it in -TH-'s spreadsheet and made some assumptions: 7.35 gals mash (1.25 qt/lb) and sparged with 6 gals.

If you added 1 oz Gypsum(28g), .5 oz(14g) Epsom Salt and .5 oz(14g) baking soda to the mash and the same to the kettle I get:

Na 159 ppm
Cl 8 ppm
SO4 856 ppm

If you added 0.5 oz(14g) Gypsum, .25 oz(7g) Epsom Salt and .25 oz(7g) baking soda to the mash and teh same to the kettle I get:

Na 83
Cl 8
SO4 439


I think you needed more chlorides if you were trying to get a more malt forward beer. I would decrease the CaSO4 and MgSO4 and add some CaCl to get the chlorides more balanced with the sulfates. Plus the CaCl is good for hot break.

I've learned the hard way to add just enough salts to get the mash pH in line and the overall Cl:SO4 where I want it while getting the Ca up to at least 75 ppm.

Also, your mash pH may have been off with your additions which could explain the eff. problem.(I may have used the wrong grains but I got an SRM of 8 using your grain bill in a 10 gallon batch)