My beer comes out way too bitter

That alkalinity of 331 is off the charts, and I suspect the root of your problem. I would not use that water to brew with, at least not without cutting it significantly with RO water.

chickypad said:

That alkalinity of 331 is off the charts, and I suspect the root of your problem. I would not use that water to brew with, at least not without cutting it significantly with RO water.

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Thanks for taking the time to look. Someone else here said my alkalinity is fine, but in another forum they said I had too much bicarbonate and calcium carbonate, which would back up what you're saying. It's very confusing and I'm trying to teach myself water chemistry so I can make my own opinions as well.

Anyway, in another forum, I was given the advice to boil half the mash water as this will get rid of a lot of carbonate/bicarbonate and add in the other half. Is there something I can add to the water/mash to neutralise it?

jceg316 said:

Thanks for taking the time to look. Someone else here said my alkalinity is fine, but in another forum they said I had too much bicarbonate and calcium carbonate, which would back up what you're saying. It's very confusing and I'm trying to teach myself water chemistry so I can make my own opinions as well.

Anyway, in another forum, I was given the advice to boil half the mash water as this will get rid of a lot of carbonate/bicarbonate and add in the other half. Is there something I can add to the water/mash to neutralise it?

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You should boil all of it, and then siphon off of the precipitate.

There are other things you can do, like add acid, to help out. Your best bet is probably lime softening.

My alkalinity is 228, and I ended up just buying my own RO system because it's a pain to do that each brew day.

There is a lot of water information in the Brew Science area of this forum, and I think that you'd find that very helpful.

Yooper said:

You should boil all of it, and then siphon off of the precipitate.

There are other things you can do, like add acid, to help out. Your best bet is probably lime softening.

My alkalinity is 228, and I ended up just buying my own RO system because it's a pain to do that each brew day.

There is a lot of water information in the Brew Science area of this forum, and I think that you'd find that very helpful.

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I think adding some sort of acidic substance would work best at this stage. I just need to work out how much of what.

I'll check out that area of the site, thanks.

I would also check out the Bru'n water knowledge site. Lots of good info and you can also download the Bru'n water program. Martin is a water expert who frequents this forum, especially the brew science area that Yooper mentioned.

So, after months of trying to make a decent IPA i can finally put this to sleep! I did 2 batches side by side: same recipe bit different water. One was using water I conditioned from a calculator, the other using Asda Smart Price water which I read is great water for IPAs (and at 9.5p per litre it's not exactly breaking the bank).

They both came out amazing! I was so happy. The Asda water had a slightly bolder hop character but it could be because that was dry hopped in a plastic bucket, and the conditioned water was in a glass demi, meaning the former had more surface area to the hops.

If anyone is interested I can post specifics, water profiles, calculators used etc.

Thanks everyone for the help.

So, after months of trying to make a decent IPA i can finally put this to sleep! I did 2 batches side by side: same recipe bit different water. One was using water I conditioned from a calculator, the other using Asda Smart Price water which I read is great water for IPAs (and at 9.5p per litre it's not exactly breaking the bank).

They both came out amazing! I was so happy. The Asda water had a slightly bolder hop character but it could be because that was dry hopped in a plastic bucket, and the conditioned water was in a glass demi, meaning the former had more surface area to the hops.

If anyone is interested I can post specifics, water profiles, calculators used etc.

Thanks everyone for the help.

So, after months of trying to make a decent IPA i can finally put this to sleep! I did 2 batches side by side: same recipe bit different water. One was using water I conditioned from a calculator, the other using Asda Smart Price water which I read is great water for IPAs (and at 9.5p per litre it's not exactly breaking the bank).

They both came out amazing! I was so happy. The Asda water had a slightly bolder hop character but it could be because that was dry hopped in a plastic bucket, and the conditioned water was in a glass demi, meaning the former had more surface area to the hops.

If anyone is interested I can post specifics, water profiles, calculators used etc.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Congratulations and thanks for the followup. I'd come to sample and help you critique the product but I'm not a real fan of IPA's so I'll let someone else do that chore.

RM-MN said:

Congratulations and thanks for the followup. I'd come to sample and help you critique the product but I'm not a real fan of IPA's so I'll let someone else do that chore.

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Cheers. Not to worry about it, there are dozens of people here willing to sample it, more for us! It's usually the first thing people say when I tell them I brew.