Does this seem like a lot of gypsum?

[hokieengr]

Just dug into water chemistry a bit to try to improve my less than stellar ordinary bitters. I used the nemograph in the back of Palmer's book to arrive at the need to add 3.5 to 5 tsp of gypsum to 5 gallons to get in the ballpark. Seems like a lot.

Comments?

 

[BrewerinBR]

Yes that seems like a lot try this link to download Bru-n-water
http://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/home/files

 

[logdrum]

Are you trying to lower your ph? Use acid malt in the mash, or phosphoric acid in the brewing liquor. Save the gypsum for a flavor salt in the boil.

d

 

[BigEd]

It seems like a lot but there is no way to tell for sure without knowing what the ion profile is of your water and what is the target of the water you are trying to hit.

 

[WHYB]

Have you gotten a water report for your water?

 

[ajf]

Yes, that does seem like a lot of Gypsum.
I have fairly soft water and need to add gypsum to boost the Ca and SO4 for my bitters.
I start with Ca 16.2 ppm, and SO4 12.4 ppm.
For an ordinary bitter, I want to boost the Ca to 50 - 100 ppm, ans SO4 to 100 - 200 ppm. These are the recommendations from Terry Foster (Pale Ales).
Treating 8g water (which is what I need to achieve a 5g batch), I need 7.2 grams of gypsum, which using Palmers estimate of 4g per tsp (I just measured it, and 1 tsp gypsum weighed 3.71g), means a little less than 2 tsp.

-a.

 

[WHYB]

To be fair, water should be the last thing you look at in your brewing arsenal.
If you haven't nailed down things like mash efficiency, PH, AA%, yeast cell count, fermentation temp, water should maybe take a back burner. Are you hitting expectations with everything else in your brew day? If you are and want to play around with your water the first step should really be getting a water report. Once you have that, it's fair to start trying to make adjustments; otherwise you'll be throwing darts with a blind fold.

 

[certaut]

I put 1 tsp of gypsum per 5 gal RO water

 

[wildwest450]

Maybe you're confusing grams for teaspoons?


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