Brewing Water Adjustment for Stout

[mildeng]

Hello all - finally picked up Palmer's "Water" and am fully embracing the rabbit hole from a very non-scientific background.

Have used RO for my last couple homebrews and everything turned out great. I believe my local area water would be considered "softer" as a baseline (Alk 85, Cal 35, Chl 33, Mag 9, Sodium 16 per my 2019 Water Report).

Planning on brewing a holiday stout this weekend with the following mash (sourced from right here on HBT):
8.0# 2-row
1.0# Chocolate malt
0.5# Cara Aroma 120L
1.0# Lactose (10min)
0.5# Flaked oats
0.25# Roasted barley
1 oz Nugget (half @60, half @30)
Plus cocoa nibs later in fermentation

I am ignorant (currently) as to proper water additions and (i) how they work in relation to pH/other metrics; and (ii) how they work in combination. Reading would suggest I want a mash pH of ~5.5 for this type of beer. So my question is: should I be using my tap water proper given its profile, or should I start with RO water and make adjustments as necessary? Just want to make sure I'm not starting with RO, but then adding back the very additives that are in my water to begin with.

 

[VikeMan]

With your local water's specs, you could do this either way. And either way, I'd recommend first deciding how much Chloride and Sulfate you want. For a stout, you probably want more Chloride than Sulfate. After that, start building.

Here's a tutorial on water treatment. Slide 9 is particularly applicable to building from distilled/RO, but I'd recommend reading the whole thing.

http://sonsofalchemy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Intro-to-Brewing-Water-Treatment.pdf

What software are you using for water?

 

[mildeng]

With your local water's specs, you could do this either way. And either way, I'd recommend first deciding how much Chloride and Sulfate you want. For a stout, you probably want more Chloride than Sulfate. After that, start building.

Here's a tutorial on water treatment. Slide 9 is particularly applicable to building from distilled/RO, but I'd recommend reading the whole thing.

http://sonsofalchemy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Intro-to-Brewing-Water-Treatment.pdf

What software are you using for water?

Thanks for this. Using Bru’n Water, but am a complete novice with it. Moreso learning as I go through.

 

[cire]

For a simple adjustment to brew a drinkable stout use your local area supply after adding 0.75 gm of calcium chloride dihydrate to all liquor used for brewing.

The alkalinity might be a little high for that recipe, but won't be too far from your pH 5.5 target.

 

[mabrungard]

That water profile is incomplete. The sulfate content is missing. Also, be sure to convert that alkalinity value to it equivalent bicarbonate content for use in Bru'n Water.

The sulfate content can probably be estimated by increasing the sulfate entry in Bru'n Water until the program says the profile is balanced.

I agree that calcium chloride addition will likely be desirable for a stout or porter, but some gypsum might be needed too. It depends on the amount of sulfate already in the water.

 

[mildeng]

That water profile is incomplete. The sulfate content is missing. Also, be sure to convert that alkalinity value to it equivalent bicarbonate content for use in Bru'n Water.

The sulfate content can probably be estimated by increasing the sulfate entry in Bru'n Water until the program says the profile is balanced.

I agree that calcium chloride addition will likely be desirable for a stout or porter, but some gypsum might be needed too. It depends on the amount of sulfate already in the water.

That water profile is incomplete. The sulfate content is missing. Also, be sure to convert that alkalinity value to it equivalent bicarbonate content for use in Bru'n Water.

The sulfate content can probably be estimated by increasing the sulfate entry in Bru'n Water until the program says the profile is balanced.

I agree that calcium chloride addition will likely be desirable for a stout or porter, but some gypsum might be needed too. It depends on the amount of sulfate already in the water.

Thanks Martin, was just taking select metrics. The report I’m looking at has a “sulphate” reading of 24mg/L (Canadian so maybe diff convention). I would post a pic but not sure if that’s permitted.