Building up from distilled water

So I'm getting ready to brew an IPA and going to give a first shot at building my own water up from distilled. I have sent in to get a water report of my house water, but have not heard back yet.

I used the EZ Water Calculator spreadsheet to build up to the water that Tasty Mcdole uses (with the exception of the SO4 to CL ratio).

At any rate, the additions that the spreadsheet is telling me to add seem like A LOT.

Does this look right?

I just brewed from distilled water the other day. Mind you, this is my first time messing with water chemistry, but my calculations gave me similar amounts in grams. You're going to end up putting in your salt additions in teaspoons or less, which as you can imagine for a 5 gallon batch doesn't actually add up to a huge portion of the volume.

I'd probably wait for some more experienced input before moving forward though.

yea. the epsome salt is the one this that makes me nervous. seems like a lot of salt. According to Palmer, 1 teaspoon of Epsome Salt is about 4.5 grams. Right now I have a little more than a teaspoon.

I wouldn't be worried about it. You seem to be under the threshold for Magnesium and I'm guessing the roughly 1:3 Cl to SO4 ratio is based on your recipe looking for a pretty bitter and clean IPA.

Do you have a link to that calculator?

has been super helpful and helped me learn a lot about water.

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com


also, reading this helped too.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

sgraham602 said:

has been super helpful and helped me learn a lot about water.

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com

also, reading this helped too.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

Click to expand...

Thanks. I have How To Brew. Great book. I'm not really bearing down on water yet. I just didn't want that calculator to slip away from me.

I'd shoot for a little lower pH personally. You could skip some baking soda, I try to avoid adding alkalinity. Regardless, for a 5 gal batch it seems about Right.

I would avoid epsom salt and increase gypsum and CaCl2 to get proper pH.. same for baking soda..
it depends on style, but generally you don't want large amount of magnesium and sodium in you beer.

I'm guessing you're making Janet's Brown. To simplify you could add 1-1.5 tsp (4-6g) of CaCl and about 1/2 tsp (2g) of gypsum. If your pH isn't low enough, add either lactic acid or acid malt to lower it without changing the mineral composition of the mash. When I brewed it, I used equal amounts of gypsum and CaCl and it lost some of it's malt backbone, which I think is key to the balance of the beer. I added a little CaCl to the keg after I had carbed it, and it made all the difference.

I have recently started brewing with R/O water using the same spreadsheet. I second not adding any baking soda. I add small amounts of Epsom salts like you have listed and similar amounts of Gypsum and CaCl2. If I need to bring my PH down I add acidulated malt to to the mash. So far my beers have come out very good but I still need to get a Ph meter to make sure things are truly in line.