Alright. After so many years of brewing I'm ready to do it. I'm going to attempt to "build" my water. I've always used my tap water (325+ ppm hardness) and had some really great success, although my lighter beers are always a little off. My last batch (a wit), I used straight R/O water and it turned out great, but I understand that's not a good brewing practice either.
Generally I understand most of the brewing science, but water chemistry makes my head hurt. So here are my questions:
1. What should I expect from using "better" water? Better flavor? Better efficiency? Better fermentation? I would like to get better hop flavor. I always have problems with that...
2. Is there a good starting point, a sort of basic brewing water that can be built with salt additions from R/O Water? I have the morebeer calculator, but I'm not sure what to build my water too. I'd like a water that I can use generally for light beers, one for dark beers, and one for hoppy beers (I'm trying to start simple, for my simple mind )
3. This is a total noob one; Do I need to heat (boil?) the water to make the additions?
I'm looking to take my good beer and turn it into great beer, without going nuts to begin with. I'm not looking to "recreate" any particular location since I've never tasted anything from Burton-on-Trent, or Munich, etc. I just want that "next level" of brewing.
Please help, I'm sure this is a redundant post, but I couldn't find much basic stuff anywhere.
Generally I understand most of the brewing science, but water chemistry makes my head hurt. So here are my questions:
1. What should I expect from using "better" water? Better flavor? Better efficiency? Better fermentation? I would like to get better hop flavor. I always have problems with that...
2. Is there a good starting point, a sort of basic brewing water that can be built with salt additions from R/O Water? I have the morebeer calculator, but I'm not sure what to build my water too. I'd like a water that I can use generally for light beers, one for dark beers, and one for hoppy beers (I'm trying to start simple, for my simple mind )
3. This is a total noob one; Do I need to heat (boil?) the water to make the additions?
I'm looking to take my good beer and turn it into great beer, without going nuts to begin with. I'm not looking to "recreate" any particular location since I've never tasted anything from Burton-on-Trent, or Munich, etc. I just want that "next level" of brewing.
Please help, I'm sure this is a redundant post, but I couldn't find much basic stuff anywhere.