Help me figure out my water report please.

I just started all grain brewing, and although I'm sure my water will be fine, I'm trying to figure out what styles would be best with my local municipal water and how I should adjust the water for different styles. Normally I would search for stuff like this, but since everyone's water is different I'd like to hear your thoughts.

The numbers are:

Ca: 32 mg/l
Mg: 12 mg/l
Na: 7 mg/l
SO4: 28 mg/l
Cl: 12 mg/l
CaCo3: 130 mg/l

I filter my water through a whole-house activated charcoal filter and it removes all traces of chlorine as far as I can tell, my I don't believe my water contains added chloramine. I do still add a campden tablet the filtered water just in case.

I'm in the process of reading Designing Great Beers and trying to get this all figured out. Thanks in advance.

You might checkout the nomograph on Palmer's page: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html. Having eyeballed the nomograph with your numbers, it looks like something in the brown ale SRM range will probably be ideal (around 20 SRM). You can also try recipes with the Easy Water spreadsheet: http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

Thanks, this is helpful. I've never seen that page before.

OK, it's starting to make some sense. I have noticed that all of my beers made so far are way more bitter than their IBU numbers call for. Using the EZ Water Calculator, my water profile leaves me with a low Cl/SO4 ratio which it says results in a very bitter profile. My mash ph also ends up being like 5.74.

So I'm thinking that I could add 2.5 grams of calcium chloride and 2 grams of epsom salt to the mash to fix the chloride to sulfate ratio and make a less bitter beer. I would then use a spoonful of 5.2 stabilizer to bring the mash ph down to 5.2 and hopefully increase efficiency which was low despite a good crush at 0.035".

I am thinking about this correctly?

Yeah, it sounds like you get it. I think I heard on one of the Brew Strong (www.thebrewingnetwork.com) shows that higher sodium levels (5.2 has a fair bit of sodium) can have a negative effect on high hop beers, but I can't remember what it was. You could also cut your water with distilled (The spreadsheet allows you to specify a percentage of distilled water) instead of using 5.2. I don't know if you're brewing a hop forward beer though.

Yeah, I do brew mostly IPA's and hoppy beers.

sudsmcgee said:

OK, it's starting to make some sense. I have noticed that all of my beers made so far are way more bitter than their IBU numbers call for.

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We're not too far apart. My water report is pretty darn close to yours;

Ca = 35
Mg = 11
Na = 10
Cl = 13
SO4 = 17
CaCO3 = 110

I brew all ales of the belgian, american and british sort, don't treat or filter my water a lick, and I don't think my beers come out crazy bitter. I typically shoot for an IBU in BJCP range and I find my beers are pretty representative of the style in terms of balance. It might be something else causing your bitterness, or your perception of bitterness. For example, your carb levels, or astringincy caused by excessive tannins, or even the formula you're using to calculate bitterness to begin with.

Point being, if your beers really aren't enjoyable on the bittering front, it's probably not your water causing it.

All that said, I'm no expert on water chemistry at all. I'm not even a novice. I'm just a guy who brews with the same water you got (so it seems to me) and find my beers turning out just fine.

I'm going to start to get into munich style lagers and some pilsners soon here, and I think I will want to soften my water. How I should go about doing so still leaves me scratching my head. I've got my own thread on Chicago water where I make a plea in my final post for someone with similar water and lager experience to simply tell me what to do.

All of my beers have been very good, just more bitter than they should be.

I just made my first ag brew though and have not tried it yet, so I can't really say that I have a problem with my mash yet. My biggest concern was my low efficiency (67%) and the 5.74 estimated mash ph using ez water calculator.

I got the help I needed by posting water chemistry questions in the "Brew Science" forum. You might too.

sudsmcgee said:

All of my beers have been very good, just more bitter than they should be.

I just made my first ag brew though and have not tried it yet, so I can't really say that I have a problem with my mash yet. My biggest concern was my low efficiency (67%) and the 5.74 estimated mash ph using ez water calculator.

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It's possible that the lower efficiency could be caused by the higher pH. However, if you used 5.2, it was probably in close the the optimal (5.2-5.4) range. The efficiency could also be caused by poor lauter efficiency (rinsing the sugar from the grains in to the kettle). You might be interested in reading Kai's page on efficiency: http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Understanding_Efficiency