have further details on the RO water? and what spreadsheet you are using?
Whats the starting #s for RO?
ANd where did you find the target profiles?
About what are the additions you are doing?
I'm getting my RO water from a shop down the street that only sells water. He has a filtration system the size of my living room and the water is close to 0ppm across the board with almost no alkalinity.
I'm using the EZ water spreadsheet for additions and predicted mash pH.
I'm using Breuin water to get a general idea of the profile I want.
I'm adding gypsum and calcium chloride for my hoppy beers in a 6:1 ratio or about 300ppm sulphates to 50 ppm chloride. And for my not as hoppy beers I'm doing a 1:1 ratio. I did the 1:1 ratio for a stout I made with RO water and it made the hops pop a little more than I'd like so I will just go straight calcium chloride on that recipe next time.
I also add a little acidulated malt on the beers without roasted malts to try and get the mash pH around 5.4. Don't have a pH meter yet but have been having good results just by using the spreadsheet calculations.
The only problem I have now is I don't even want to drink the beers that I made with tap water because they all have slight off flavors (chlorophenols) which are way more evident now that the last 4 beers I've made have come out extremely clean with no detectible off flavors.
I was also carbing my kegs with the regulator set to 12 or 13 psi because I felt like the carbonation made my beers taste better, but now I know that the carbonation bite was really covering up the flavors of the beer and sharpening the perceived bitterness. I've recently been trying more commercial and local beers and paying close attention to carb levels and now that I'm setting to 9 or 10 psi I'm getting the nice deep warming lingering bitterness I was after.
Anyway, I'm getting to the point where I'm actually somewhat satisfied with my process and results. The last frontier for me is getting a pH meter and mastering mash pH, but like I said, I'm getting good results now so I'm not in a huge rush for that yet.
I would recommend brewing with RO water to anyone who is not satisfied with the way their beers are tasting. Water additions are not that difficult to understand if you do a little reading and AJ's water primer is a great place to start.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
