I'm going to take you up on offering assistance in building the correct water for a beer style. I plan on brewing a Special Bitter next and according to this discussion, my water is not suited towards this beer style.
I definitely get too much harsh bitterness at the end with these types of beers. So if anyone (Mattholdingsworth) would help me figure out the spreadsheet for my first time, I think I could take it from there.
So my water profile is listed in the post above but they couldn't supply me with the magnesium number. What I do know is that the water here is extremely hard. So the magnesium number must be pretty big too.
So how would you go about changing my water for this brew?
Special Bitter
OG: 1.047
FS: 1.012
IBU: 30
Color: 11 SRM
4.6% ABV
Pre Boil Volume 7 Gallons
9.5 pounds of marris otter, .5lb aromatic, .5lb crystal 20, .25lb special roast
So how would you cut this with distilled water? And do you use the distilled just for the mash or also the sparge??
A quick primer for my first time adjusting water would be SO appreciated.
Thanks!
Well, not sure exactly what your harshness is coming from. Your chloride/sulfate ratio looks fine. Could be some grain based harshness from bicarbonate. Dunno. I'm no guru. But here's what I think:
My water is super hard and my magnesium is 27. I wouldn't assume yours is super high or anything. I put it as 20 for no particular reason.
Read this page:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-1.html
I'd aim to get calcium 50-150, magnesium I'd leave alone, I'd try to get the sulfate at 50-150 and my chloride to sulfate ratio as bitter. If you want to match a specific beer from a specific area, you'll have to do that research. I've been brewing American styles and can't really guide you there.
So, anyway, on that spreadsheet that I attached, plug in your color number, which you list as 11. You'll see that gives you an average RA of 41. Aim for that.
If I put mash water at 4 gallons and dilute with 46% distilled water, then add 1 gram each of gypsum and calcium chloride, then the water comes out like this:
Ca 77, Mg 11, Alkalinity as CaCO3 103, sodium 11, chloride 48, sulfate 64, RA as 41 and chloride to sulfate ratio as bitter.
If I want more sulfate and chloride, maybe I'd try this instead:
Dilution 23%, 2 grams gyspum, 2 grams calcium chloride, 1 gram epsom salt, which yields:
Ca 129, Mg 22, alkalinity as CaCO3 146, sodium 15, chloride 87, sulfate 138, RA 41, chloride to sulfate ratio as bitter.
The attached spreadsheet I gave you earlier already has your water numbers input. So, to do this yourself, you need to open that up. Change the target color to 11, then you'll see an average RA of 41. Then go to step 3 and enter a dilution rate. You'll see the numbers on the right change, but don't look there to nail this number. If you JUST enter a dilution of 65%, you'll see your RA go to 42. But then your minerals are really low, especially the calcium. You want to enter a number for dilution to just get you started, then go to the next steps and you'll look for your numbers after you add salts.
So, now go down to step 4 and put in your mash water volume. Then go to step 5 and add some salts. I skip the acid and go to step 7. Look at your numbers here. Then you go back and forth from your dilution rate and your salts to get these numbers listed in step 7 to how you want them. It usually takes just a few minutes. It's not difficult, it's just a matter of going back and forth a few times to get it in the right spot. Make sense?
Hope this helps. But the main thing here now, is you'll have to do this yourself so you learn how this works. The basic concept is that calcium sulfate, calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate lower your pH and your RA. Carbonates raise it. Diluting your hard water will lower your RA too. So it's just a balancing act between these, but you need to also get your minerals in the desired range for the reasons listed on that Palmer linked page above.