Another water report thread

Hey guys, been lurking the forums for a while, first post. I'll be doing my second AG brew this weekend and I need some help with water. I am cool with the rest of my brewing process aside from learning my setup. My plan is to brew Denny's Wry Smile IPA and I'd like to set my water up, if needed, to best suit the beer. I feel like I try to do too much at once and want it to be the most perfect water profile ever when I probably only need a couple of adjustments, which brings me here to ask for some advice.

Here is my profile that I just got today from Wardlabs. I entered my grain bill into bru'n water and I understand adjusting the ph but where I get confused is trying to match my profile up to the pale ale profile. Any tips, guys? I have been trying to read up on water chem but it's a daunting task to say the least.:smack:



pH 7.3
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 290
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.48
Cations / Anions, me/L 4.5 / 4.2
ppm
Sodium, Na 41
Potassium, K 3
Calcium, Ca 35
Magnesium, Mg 12
Total Hardness, CaCO3 138
Nitrate, NO3-N 1.7 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 11
Chloride, Cl 80
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 69
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 57

Yeah, your hardness doesn't look too bad, and should be manageable for most beers you'll brew. I've read somewhere (maybe the Yeast book) that the yeast will need at least 50ppm Ca for proper fermentation and flocculation, plus the added calcium will help with any pH changes you'll make. Since you're going for an IPA, the next set of minerals I'd look at is the SO4 and Cl ratio. Normally for pale ales you want more SO4 than Cl to accent the hops, so if you're adding Ca anyways, I'd add it in the form of gypsum (CaSO4). If you get the sulfate up to 100 or so, that should help to accentuate the hops pretty nicely, although you could even go higher than that if you've got a pretty big IPA planned. I've got the water chapter from How to Brew bookmarked and tend to reference it for all my water stuff, hopefully it helps!