I'm new to water adjustments and have read the primer and it has worked well in my brews so far. However, I'm trying to understand more about water adjustments.
Palmer seems to advocate that Residual Alkalinity (RA) makes a big difference in your results and should be adjusted for in different beer styles, particularly light colored hoppy beers and dark malty beers.
My water is very soft, quite similar to a Pilsen water profile. Here is my local water profile:
pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 59
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.10
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.7 / 0.7
Sodium, Na 5
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 7
Magnesium, Mg 2
Total Hardness, CaCO3 26
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S < 1
Chloride, Cl 8
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 28
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 23
Total Phosphorus, P 0.94
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
If I add enough slaked lime, baking soda, or chalk to get my RA up into the suggested ranges for a dark beer, it jacks (according to EZ Water calc, which I've found to be fairly accurate when I test with a meter) my pH up and requires acid addition to get it back down.... which lowers my RA.
Palmer's spreadsheet doesn't seem to worry about mash pH at all.
So, I can't raise my RA without dealing with a mash pH that is too high.
Should I forget about RA and just worry about mash pH and the Chloride/Sulfate ratio?
Thanks for any pointers
Palmer seems to advocate that Residual Alkalinity (RA) makes a big difference in your results and should be adjusted for in different beer styles, particularly light colored hoppy beers and dark malty beers.
My water is very soft, quite similar to a Pilsen water profile. Here is my local water profile:
pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 59
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.10
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.7 / 0.7
Sodium, Na 5
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 7
Magnesium, Mg 2
Total Hardness, CaCO3 26
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S < 1
Chloride, Cl 8
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 28
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 23
Total Phosphorus, P 0.94
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
If I add enough slaked lime, baking soda, or chalk to get my RA up into the suggested ranges for a dark beer, it jacks (according to EZ Water calc, which I've found to be fairly accurate when I test with a meter) my pH up and requires acid addition to get it back down.... which lowers my RA.
Palmer's spreadsheet doesn't seem to worry about mash pH at all.
So, I can't raise my RA without dealing with a mash pH that is too high.
Should I forget about RA and just worry about mash pH and the Chloride/Sulfate ratio?
Thanks for any pointers