City Water Report Questions

I brewed a beer intending on hitting the northern england brown ale style (11C from 2008 BJCP).

The beer tasted great, but i was curious if i had started with a water that was even close to correct for the style. I am going to brew it again, but i wanted to know if i should adjust the water this time.

I looked at the Burton On Trent water profile that Beersmith has posted and tried to compare that to the water report from the city i live in. Of course not all the parameters brewers are interested in are shown on the report, but i was wondering if those values could be extracted from the hardness/alkalinity values.

For example, the water we are using was last tested by the city to have:

sodium level: 33 ppm
Sulfate level: 50 ppm
Alkalinity: 20.6 ppm
Hardness: 22.0 ppm
ph: 8.44

The Burton On Trent water profile shows this:

Calcium
295.0 ppm

Magnesium
45.0 ppm

Sodium
55.0 ppm

Sulfate
725.0 ppm

Chloride
25.0 ppm

Bicarbonate
300.0 ppm

Im thinking i need to drop the ph in the mash next time for sure at minimum, but im thinking i may also need to make the water much harder to be true to style.

What adjustments should i make to get close to the English water? Better to just start from distilled water and add compounds to it?

moparx12 said:

The beer tasted great, but<snip> i wanted to know if i should adjust the water this time.

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Not sure why you wrote that and didn't stop and decide not to post. Seriously.

moparx12 said:

Im thinking i need to drop the ph in the mash next time for sure at minimum,

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How did you measure the mash pH and what was it?

I didn't measure the mash pH but I think I read a John palmer article or maybe saw a video where he says higher than 8.0 will require an adjustment.

Hermit said:

Not sure why you wrote that and didn't stop and decide not to post. Seriously.

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You're too funny!

Forgot to add that this was entered into competition and needed to hit the style as close as possible. I actually ended up scoring in the "very good" range but not good enough to win. I think it needs to be "wicked good" to get a medal.

moparx12 said:

I didn't measure the mash pH but I think I read a John palmer article or maybe saw a video where he says higher than 8.0 will require an adjustment.

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You are confusing the pH of the water which is of little importance in determining mash pH with the pH of the mash which is most important. What is significant in this water is that the alkalinity is very low at 20. This implies that proper mash pH can be attained with only a small acid addition e.g. about a 1% addition of sauermalz to the grist or the equivalent in lactic or phosphoric acid. It is, of course, best to actually measure mash pH with a meter but the home brewing community has collectively gotten pretty good at estimating mash pH given knowledge of the water and grain bill.

As for tweaking the water treatment in this case: addition of some acid will probably improve the beer as lower pH brings out the flavors we seek. Tweaking sulfate and chloride levels must be done by experiment. You can do this in the glass and apply your findings on the finished beer to the water used for brewing. The starting levels in this water are fine.

Whoa! "English" water varies in its composition, wildly across the country. I can assure you that emulating a single location's water profile is not a wise choice for applying to your brewing water. English water varies from near rainwater to chalky excess.

Oh, Burton water is nothing like Newcastle water.

moparx12 said:

You're too funny!

Forgot to add that this was entered into competition and needed to hit the style as close as possible. I actually ended up scoring in the "very good" range but not good enough to win. I think it needs to be "wicked good" to get a medal.

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It needs to be to the judges taste and that will vary with each competion. I have a handful of people whose palates I trust and know will give me an honest opinion. I'm not paying anyone to drink my best beers. I've judged competitions and some have some pretty sorry judges to be honest.

It depends on what they dinged you on as to whether it was even a style issue. For me, if I'm brewing to something other than my taste, I'm doing it wrong.