Water profile for US Pale Ale

Hi all,

I am brewing a American Pale Ale and find the Bitterness is a little harsh.
I have gone through all of the factors (hop variety, boil time etc) and the last thing I want to go over is the water profile, I am yet to actually attempt a brew with adjusted water.

I am using rain water, below is my wate profile and how I thought it may be ajdusted.

Existing Water (Adjusted water)
Calcium 3.0 (55.4)
Magnesium 2.0 (2.0)
Sodium 10.0 (10.0)
Sulfate 8.0 (75.0)
Chloride 10.0 (53.4)
Bicarbonate 2.0 (2.0)
Total Hardness 16 (147)
Alkalinity 2 (2)
RA -2 (-39)
SO4/Cl Ratio 0.8 (1.4)

First place to start would probably be your sulfate levels. Sulfates enhance hop bitterness. If you don't like the bitterness, try adding less (or no) sulfates.

Thanks JJ

My thoughts now are add no salts, but add 2ml of 88% lactic acid into the mash (batch size 45L/11gal) to bring the residual alkalinity down, therefore producing a cleaner beitterness.Which brings me to my next question, how much lactic acid is too much?
Will it make the beer sour?
Palmer reccomends to keep additions low, but how low is low?

Those water adjustments seem reasonable and fairly modest. If that is the water used in previous brewing, its not too likely that the water was the culprit in harshness. The low alkalinity and modest calcium addition produce an acceptably low RA that is likely to produce an acceptable mash pH. Lactic acid should not be required.

You have not discussed the type of hops used and hopping schedule, but that would be more a concern based on what is presented here.

Try keeping your Calcium and Chloride levels the same and reduce the sulfate (maybe skip gypsum and only add CaCl). Regarding acid - I've had good luck using 2-3% aciduated malt to recipes.


Reference: Water Primer