I am little confused on my water report.

[Vtdrinker]

Hi Everyone,

I have been brewing very drinkable beer the last couple of years. I started with extract and moved to all grain 2 years ago. I have been trying over the past year to make better quality beer. The next step for me is adding adjustment to the water to create the beer style I am looking to make. So I had our well water tested. It has a lot iron in it so we have a sand filter to remove it. There are no other filters on the water system. After looking at the water report I think my water it best suited for light and amber beers. I have tried to use brun water spread sheet and haven't completely figured it out yet. In the past when I tried to measure mash ph it was off the scale of the strips on the high side(they only go to 6.2). It looks like I need to add gypsum to my mash to bring the ph down.

So to sum it up, how does my report look, what would be my best step for adding adjustments and what am I missing. Here is the report from wards Lab.


pH 7.5
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 117
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.19
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.1 / 2.0


This is ppm
Sodium, Na 5
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 16
Magnesium, Mg 13
Total Hardness, CaCO3 94
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 6
Chloride, Cl 2
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 100
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 82
Total Phosphorus, P 0.04
Total Iron, Fe 0.02
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

Thanks for looking, Cheer

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I assume your test report is for water pre the greensand filter, so iron isn't really an issue. Your water has very low mineral levels, and high alkalinity. With added mineralization (calcium chloride and calcium sulfate) you will have water suitable for robust porters and robust stouts. For anything else you will need both mineralization and acidification of the strike water. In all cases you will need to acidify your sparge water.

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/

 

[ajdelange]

This is actually pretty good water. We like to see the alkalinity below 1 mEq/L (50ppm) and you are a bit above this so that's something that will have to be attended to. Don't attempt to control mash pH by adding calcium and magnesium salts according to the directions of the various spreadsheets out there. They overestimate the effects of these ions in most cases by a factor that we think may be as much as two but no one really knows. What we do know is that their calculations are based on Kohlbachs observations at knockout and as there is further calcium/malt extract interraction in the kettle we can only assume that the effect in the mash tun is less than the effect in the kettle.

Do control mash pH with additions of sauermalz, sauergut, or bottled acid. You won't need much as your alkalinity is modest.

If you want to augment calcium you have plenty of latitude to do that as your sulfate level is low at 18 mg/L (as sulfate) and chloride practically non existent. I think you will find with a chloride level that low that you will want to add some calcium chloride in order to get the chloride level up to keep the beer from being thin bodied (unless that's what you want).

See the Primer but use half the amounts in the original post. Skip gypsum until you have demonstrated to yourself that you like sulfate in your beers. Bottom line is that 1/2 to 1 gram of CaCl2 per gallon of your water and 3% sauermalz in your grist should get you going.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

... Don't attempt to control mash pH by adding calcium and magnesium salts according to the directions of the various spreadsheets out there. They overestimate the effects of these ions in most cases by a factor that we think may be as much as two but no one really knows. What we do know is that their calculations are based on Kohlbachs observations at knockout and as there is further calcium/malt extract interraction in the kettle we can only assume that the effect in the mash tun is less than the effect in the kettle.

My quite new 'Mash Made Easy' spreadsheet has made an effort to alleviate this known problem issue (thanks to you A.J., as well as thanks to one of my Beta Testers, who had actually notified me in advance of your recent forum revelations in regard to this issue that he was not directly measuring mineral induced pH reduction at levels commensurate with those present within a popular spreadsheet that he was currently using). Mash Made Easy starts out by initially not being as aggressive in its pH reduction via calcium and magnesium mineralization to begin with (in recognition that Kolbach measured the impact well downstream at knock-out, and not relatively early in the mash process as we do today), and then it makes their mash pH reducing impact a variable which is easily adjusted by the end user, in that it permits the end user to select each unique grists (recipes) buffering capacity factor and thereby modify calcium and magnesium mineralizations impact upon mash pH reduction. The spreadsheet thus offers the end user a fair degree of latitude for control, aiding the end user in resolving this problem issue via dialing in the mineralization induced pH reduction impact of the spreadsheet to more closely mirror their actual "real world" measured pH reduction results. It is by no means perfect, but I believe it represents a serious step in the right direction with regard to this issue.

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/

 

[ajdelange]

Yes, I had forgotten those discussions (happens a lot these days). Definitely a step in the right direction.

 

[Vtdrinker]

Thanks for the replies guys. Looks like I will be picking up some minerals and a PH meter. Silver is Money I will try your spreadsheet and see how it compares to Brun water.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Thanks for the replies guys. Looks like I will be picking up some minerals and a PH meter. Silver is Money I will try your spreadsheet and see how it compares to Brun water.

Thank you! But in truth, that will be a mistake. Mash Made Easy was clearly not designed or intended to mimic the output of the software you make reference to above. The far better choice would be to see how well MME compares to your actual pH measurements.

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/