water adjustment

im new to water adjustment and im having some trouble. im brewing a stout(srm 35) and my water is soft(ca 20 mg 5) and alkaline(ph 8.3 and bicarb 180). im needing some help in which direction i should go. ive tried palmer residual alkalinity sheet and in reading other sources im getting conflicting recs. do i just need to acidify?

Water pH doesn't matter, mash pH does. Get some calcium chloride when you are at the LHBS, dough in, and measure the pH with test strips after 10 minutes. If it reads 5.2 to 5.6 you are good. Otherwise add a tsp of calcium chloride, stir well, re-measure, and repeat. Take notes, and next time you will know what to do. Or you could use Five Star 5.2 stabilizer and run on auto-pilot.

Your bicarbonates are suitable for brewing anything but light beers, for lighter stuff I recommend diluting with RO water. You probably won't need much calcium, if any, for a darker brew. My water is similar to yours and I don't have pH problems anymore, ever since we switched to surface water from aquifer water (that stuff was hard as nails.. quickerNu and Lil' Sparky will envy me now).

positiverpr said:

im new to water adjustment and im having some trouble. im brewing a stout(srm 35) and my water is soft(ca 20 mg 5) and alkaline(ph 8.3 and bicarb 180). im needing some help in which direction i should go. ive tried palmer residual alkalinity sheet and in reading other sources im getting conflicting recs. do i just need to acidify?

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Have a good old read of this

JIM'S BEER KIT: HOMEBREW FORUM • View topic - Treating Water With a High Alkalinity for Brewing