I've been having some problem with my dark beers lately, and would love to some input on the changes i've made.
Basically, i live in a very soft water area:
Total hardness as CaCO3: 32 --all in ppm
Calcium : 8.82
Magnesium : 2.43
Chloride : 11.59
Sulphate : 15.86
Alkalinity as CaCO3 : 33
I've been using the excellent bru'n water spreadsheet to great effect on my pale beers, but that was always going to be relatively easy with my water to be honest.
My recent dark beers have all been awful and i think i finally found out why. I'd been idiotically using Sodium Carbonate by mistake instead of Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) to increase the alkalinity of my mash. I carried out a small experiment where i added the same amount of Baking Soda and Sodium Carbonate to 2 seperate pints of water and found that the Sodium Carbonate pint tasted absolutely awful, making me retch. I actually found out that its often referred to as Soda Ash and is often used in the manufacturing process of washing poweder for clothes? The Baking Soda sample was merely a bit weird and salty. Basically my Stouts brewed with Sodium Carbonate would have massively muted flavours, awful head retention and deteriorate over time as opposed to improve. I'm 90% sure this is why my Stouts suck, does this seem like what's likely caused it?
Right, now on to the changes i've made. Obviously i've changed the Sodium Carbonate for Sodium Bicarbonate (so embarassing). I've elected to target a water profile similar to London but with added CaCl2:
Ca:68
Mg:2
Na:65
Cl:95
SO4:45
HCO3:278
Heres the grist:
Maris Otter 3L : 1.85kg (62.4%)
Flaked Oats 2.2L : 372g (12.5%)
Extra Dark Crystal Malt 160L : 268g (9%)
Chocolate Malt 357L : 238g (8%)
Brown Malt 65L : 134g (4.5%)
Black Patent Malt 525L : (3.5%)
I use a grainfather and the calculator recommended 11.5L for the mash and 7L for the fly sparge. (11L Batch Size)
I used 4.4g Baking Soda and nailed my mash pH of 5.5 exactly(i was doing that with the Sodium Carbonate too though....)
Basically i'd just love feedback about the above and whether my water profile looks good for a stout / porter etc. Also, thoughts on whether the Sodium Carbonate was likely causing my beer to be undrinkable.
Basically, i live in a very soft water area:
Total hardness as CaCO3: 32 --all in ppm
Calcium : 8.82
Magnesium : 2.43
Chloride : 11.59
Sulphate : 15.86
Alkalinity as CaCO3 : 33
I've been using the excellent bru'n water spreadsheet to great effect on my pale beers, but that was always going to be relatively easy with my water to be honest.
My recent dark beers have all been awful and i think i finally found out why. I'd been idiotically using Sodium Carbonate by mistake instead of Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) to increase the alkalinity of my mash. I carried out a small experiment where i added the same amount of Baking Soda and Sodium Carbonate to 2 seperate pints of water and found that the Sodium Carbonate pint tasted absolutely awful, making me retch. I actually found out that its often referred to as Soda Ash and is often used in the manufacturing process of washing poweder for clothes? The Baking Soda sample was merely a bit weird and salty. Basically my Stouts brewed with Sodium Carbonate would have massively muted flavours, awful head retention and deteriorate over time as opposed to improve. I'm 90% sure this is why my Stouts suck, does this seem like what's likely caused it?
Right, now on to the changes i've made. Obviously i've changed the Sodium Carbonate for Sodium Bicarbonate (so embarassing). I've elected to target a water profile similar to London but with added CaCl2:
Ca:68
Mg:2
Na:65
Cl:95
SO4:45
HCO3:278
Heres the grist:
Maris Otter 3L : 1.85kg (62.4%)
Flaked Oats 2.2L : 372g (12.5%)
Extra Dark Crystal Malt 160L : 268g (9%)
Chocolate Malt 357L : 238g (8%)
Brown Malt 65L : 134g (4.5%)
Black Patent Malt 525L : (3.5%)
I use a grainfather and the calculator recommended 11.5L for the mash and 7L for the fly sparge. (11L Batch Size)
I used 4.4g Baking Soda and nailed my mash pH of 5.5 exactly(i was doing that with the Sodium Carbonate too though....)
Basically i'd just love feedback about the above and whether my water profile looks good for a stout / porter etc. Also, thoughts on whether the Sodium Carbonate was likely causing my beer to be undrinkable.
Last edited: