Check the additions please.

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wildwest450

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I'm revamping this post. How does this look for a California Common (10srm). My pales and ipas have been getting dinged for not being balanced. Does this look like a good solution?

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I would bump your gypsum for a Cal Common, its a slightly hoppy beer. I would get the sulfate a touch higher than the chloride, also it would help get your calcium up closer to 50ppm
 
I would bump your gypsum for a Cal Common, its a slightly hoppy beer. I would get the sulfate a touch higher than the chloride, also it would help get your calcium up closer to 50ppm

Help a fool out! By bump and touch how much do you mean? I'm really new to water chemistry.:mug:

Also chalk and calcium chloride both raise the calcium level. Which is the best to use? And where the heck do you find them? I have no lhbs.
 
I would nix the acids, Sodium Chloride, and Baking soda and just use a combination of Chalk, CaCl, and Epsom. If you added 1.75g Chalk, .375g CaCl, and .625g Epsom to 2.5 gallons you'd have:
Ca 89
Mg 7
as CaCO3 98
Na 3
Cl 23
SO4 28
and the RA would be 30.

Yeast need Magnesium so that's why the Epsom...plus you get Sulphate from it.
 
I would nix the acids, Sodium Chloride, and Baking soda and just use a combination of Chalk, CaCl, and Epsom. If you added 1.75g Chalk, .375g CaCl, and .625g Epsom to 2.5 gallons you'd have:
Ca 89
Mg 7
as CaCO3 98
Na 3
Cl 23
SO4 28
and the RA would be 30.

Yeast need Magnesium so that's why the Epsom...plus you get Sulphate from it.

Thanks! How in the hell do you measure out less than 1 gram, my scale won't do it.
 
Also chalk and calcium chloride both raise the calcium level. Which is the best to use? And where the heck do you find them? I have no lhbs.
Chalk is for increasing alkalinity (i.e. raising RA), which you need. Calcium Chloride is for increasing hardness (i.e. lowering RA), which you also need. Most people only use one or the other but your water is so soft that you actually need both (or at least some way to both increase alkalinity AND increase hardness).

EDIT: For most additions I just try to get close...I work in a Lab where we have scales that are accurate down to the thousanths of a gram (you have to have a 'cover' for them or mere A/C drafts will affect the reading)...but I'd never use those.;)

EDIT2: I'm going from memory so be careful but:
CaCl is 3.4g per tsp
Epsom is 4.5g per tsp
Gypsum is 4g per tsp
I don't use Chalk much but IIRC it's 1.8g per tsp

I'll verify tonight...if I remember...I'm tappin' my Oktoberfest tonight! Your avatar is invited.
 
Epsom at any gardening shop/Home Depot etc. The rest I don't know. I bought 2# of each from online HBS so I should be set for along time. It's cheap.
 
Should I skip the 5.2 on this? I've been told it does have an effect on mineral additions.
 
Great, is there anything easy with water chemistry? Although I was looking at jewelry scales and their very reasonable. This better make my beer world class.
 
I'm pretty sure I could have a tsp. of Gypsum weigh double or half of what it's supposed to weigh depending on how packed it is in the spoon. Mixing up a solution would be way more accurate than using dry volumes. Maybe even a full order of magnitude more accurate.
 
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