Palmers ideas on water

I have read John Palmers books and have just finished watching a great video c/o northern brewer on you tube...
youtube.com/watch?v=zJj__jEkFUE&feature=player_embedded

I have some questions that hopefully some fellow brewers can answer....

I currently use TH 's wonderful 3.o spreadsheet on water calculations and have been sticking to it like the bible.... always trying to balance the Chloride / Sulfate ratios between .77 and 1.3...

Then I watched John's above video and he "seems to imply" that for hoppier beers to go below .77 and for maltier beers to go above 1.3 Has anyone watched this and gotten the same thing from his talk?

I have always shot for a balance...
Should I follow that old method or start changing the ratios above and below the suggested balance??

Help!

The chloride/sulfate rario way of thinking has kinda been shot down in the last couple years. Martin Brungard, a professional water engineer who does work for breweries, has some great info here...https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ . Check it out.

Denny said:

The chloride/sulfate rario way of thinking has kinda been shot down in the last couple years.

Click to expand...

That part jumped out at me..
And who this Colins..? guy he mentioned..In up coming book
Still,its great to hear someone talk about brew water.
Seems to be a pretty big hurdle..but sooner or later we'll get both feet over.:rockin:

Double-R said:

That part jumped out at me..
And who this Colins..? guy he mentioned..In up coming book
Still,its great to hear someone talk about brew water.
Seems to be a pretty big hurdle..but sooner or later we'll get both feet over.:rockin:

Click to expand...

Colin Kaminski, co author of a soon to be released water book. At Nhc, we're having a water panel moderated by John, with Kaminski, Brungard and AJ deLange. Should be a killer.

Seriously, take a look at Martin's website and download his water program. Tons of great info and my beer has definitely improved since using his spreadsheet.

Well, the sulfate/chloride ratio has SOME merit. The problem is that some brewers take it as gospel. The problem is that there are situations when the sulfate or chloride concentrations are very low or very high and the ratio falls apart.

My opinion is that the ratio should only be considered valid when the chloride concentration is between about 25 and 100 ppm. Since sulfate can vary considerably for various beer styles, I don't think we can use sulfate as the bell-weather of when the ratio is applicable. But chloride concentration generally falls in a much narrower range. Therefore, the chloride level is more applicable for telling the brewer that using the ratio is or isn't applicable.

Words from the man, himself! Thanks for weighing in, Martin.

Thanks for all the input... I have to say I'm more confused now than I was a few hours ago ... Looks like I'm going to Martins site to do more reading!!