Are there any AG Brewers in the Phoenix Valley?

Hi,
I am about to embark on my first all grain brew.
Question, What do you guys do about mash water?
As others may or may not know, our tap water is extremely hard and tastes terrible.
Palmer tells me not to use RO water for the mash.
Do you build your own water from RO or DI? If so, would you give me a clue or recipe?
Do you buy spring water?
Do you use that 5.2 Ph buffer?

Thank You in advance.
-David

tipicreeper said:

Hi,
I am about to embark on my first all grain brew.
Question, What do you guys do about mash water?
As others may or may not know, our tap water is extremely hard and tastes terrible.
Palmer tells me not to use RO water for the mash.
Do you build your own water from RO or DI? If so, would you give me a clue or recipe?
Do you buy spring water?
Do you use that 5.2 Ph buffer?

Thank You in advance.
-David

Click to expand...

What part of town are you in? Give Chuck a call, or go visit him at What Ale's Ya in Glendale. Super cool guy and very helpful. I believe he uses store bought drinking water to brew with, as yes, Phx water sucks.

I use 5.2 for conversion.
My water tastes OK.

It doesn't solve the hardness problem but you should be OK for darker beers.
Water adjustments are on the docket for 2009.

As noted above, Chuck is a good resource.

Chuck @ What Ale's Ya is a great person, sometimes though he can go on and on with other customers as you stand around forever to check out with your stuff. I never make a quick run to that store, just doesn't happen, but Chuck and his helpers are passionate, knowledgable and helpful in person or over the phone. I'm still wanted to nail down extract / steeping recipies to my satisfaction, before I move to AG myself, so probably will be a year or so to get that under the belt. Good luck!

Thank you all.
I'm sure that I will meet Chuck along the way but, I'm way out in the east valley and don't get up to Glendale all that much.
I've seem to have a line of lighter colored brews that have caught my eye. (or taste buds)

oIIIIIo,
Do you mix that 5.2 in with the strike? IIRC, The instuctions say to ad to the grain bed. How is that working for you? Also, what would you do differently for lighter beers?

Thanks again.

-David

Mix the 5.2 with your mash. The ph buffer only helps with the conversion so you don't need it tin the sparge.

Right now, I'm just going with the tap water filtered thru a charcoal filter and adding campden tablets in case there are chloramines present.

My only judged light beer was a hatch cream ale and I got a silver, so it's not as adverse a problem as you might think... but yes, I'd like to fix the water in the future.