Hi guys,
Drawn to the forum with all the great info you have re Water. Its a brand new area for me but one that seems to have great info and input from regulars on here - Martin, AJ and Kai that regularly share their knowledge with us mere mortals (A Big thank you for that gents)
After all this reading I hope I am on the right track and being my first attempt to alter my Water chem I was hoping to get some feedback from those who have "been there and done that."
First up I have been BIAB AG for 2 years now having graduated from Kits. All was Ok with APA's IPA's however I could not crack a decent Hefeweizen to save myself. 4 fails from 4 attempts, with all similar results so I started to ask why.
I started to dig deeper as to why I was constantly getting poor efficiency, and a thin poor tasting Hefe.
I tracked down my local Water report and found it's considered a very hard profile. That hard profile combined with (from what I can tell) you just can not get a Hefe mash pH in the right range without using Acid or Acidulated Malt (which I had never used). The various water Calculators tell me my Mash pH ranges to date have been above 6. (I don't have access to a pH meter so am relying on calculated pH from the spreadsheets)
Anyway my Tap water analysis reads
Ca - 23ppm, Mg 8ppm, Na 125ppm Cl 180 ppm, S04 23 ppm and Alkalinity CaCO3 at 120ppm.
Based on that profile and my grain bill below my calculated pH for the brews I have completed already came out at 6.05 !
After playing with BrunWater, EZWater Calc and BrewersFriend Calcs I've come to the conclusion to get things half reasonable I need to dilute my Tap water significantly. I plan to do this with Rainwater which I read can be treated like distilled or RO water (??) and I have ready acesss to. (RO and distilled are too expensive in my neck of the woods)
Planned Grain bill is 2.5kg of Wheat Malt and 2.5kg of Pilsener Malt in a Full volume mash of 35 litres of water. (Diluted Tap with Rain water to at a ratio of 70% rainwater)
As far as additions go I plan -
3grams CaSO4
3grams CaCl2
3 Grams MgSO4
5mls of 88% Lactic Acid
Ezywater Calc (and BrunWater) tools tell me with these changes I will end up with approx
Ca - 50ppm, Mg 10ppm, Na 38ppm Cl 95 ppm, S04 88 ppm Residual Alkalinity at -173 for a mash pH of 5.53
From my reading I know I could possibly aim for lower figures than above but for my first time I just aimed to get everything in the recommended "ranges" to start wit. I think it is certainly better than where I started.
I'd greatly appreciate if anyone can take a look over to see if I have made any glaring mistakes, or should change anything from my above plan.
I am at the stage if this water chem doesn't work I am at the point to give up on brewing Wheat beers altogether. It's getting too expensive to keep throwing them down the drain!
Drawn to the forum with all the great info you have re Water. Its a brand new area for me but one that seems to have great info and input from regulars on here - Martin, AJ and Kai that regularly share their knowledge with us mere mortals (A Big thank you for that gents)
After all this reading I hope I am on the right track and being my first attempt to alter my Water chem I was hoping to get some feedback from those who have "been there and done that."
First up I have been BIAB AG for 2 years now having graduated from Kits. All was Ok with APA's IPA's however I could not crack a decent Hefeweizen to save myself. 4 fails from 4 attempts, with all similar results so I started to ask why.
I started to dig deeper as to why I was constantly getting poor efficiency, and a thin poor tasting Hefe.
I tracked down my local Water report and found it's considered a very hard profile. That hard profile combined with (from what I can tell) you just can not get a Hefe mash pH in the right range without using Acid or Acidulated Malt (which I had never used). The various water Calculators tell me my Mash pH ranges to date have been above 6. (I don't have access to a pH meter so am relying on calculated pH from the spreadsheets)
Anyway my Tap water analysis reads
Ca - 23ppm, Mg 8ppm, Na 125ppm Cl 180 ppm, S04 23 ppm and Alkalinity CaCO3 at 120ppm.
Based on that profile and my grain bill below my calculated pH for the brews I have completed already came out at 6.05 !
After playing with BrunWater, EZWater Calc and BrewersFriend Calcs I've come to the conclusion to get things half reasonable I need to dilute my Tap water significantly. I plan to do this with Rainwater which I read can be treated like distilled or RO water (??) and I have ready acesss to. (RO and distilled are too expensive in my neck of the woods)
Planned Grain bill is 2.5kg of Wheat Malt and 2.5kg of Pilsener Malt in a Full volume mash of 35 litres of water. (Diluted Tap with Rain water to at a ratio of 70% rainwater)
As far as additions go I plan -
3grams CaSO4
3grams CaCl2
3 Grams MgSO4
5mls of 88% Lactic Acid
Ezywater Calc (and BrunWater) tools tell me with these changes I will end up with approx
Ca - 50ppm, Mg 10ppm, Na 38ppm Cl 95 ppm, S04 88 ppm Residual Alkalinity at -173 for a mash pH of 5.53
From my reading I know I could possibly aim for lower figures than above but for my first time I just aimed to get everything in the recommended "ranges" to start wit. I think it is certainly better than where I started.
I'd greatly appreciate if anyone can take a look over to see if I have made any glaring mistakes, or should change anything from my above plan.
I am at the stage if this water chem doesn't work I am at the point to give up on brewing Wheat beers altogether. It's getting too expensive to keep throwing them down the drain!
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