Need a quick hand with water adjustment

[Cart]

Hey. I'm taking the plunge into all-grain brewing in a few weeks time, and trying to make sure things go smoothly. I'm planning an APA based on EdWort's Haus Ale (adjusted for grain availability at my LHBS), at about 6.5 srm. My main question is whether Palmer's water spreadsheets are based on a 5 gallon batch or some other amount?

My municipal water report shows:

PH: 7.4
Hardness: 206
Alkalinity: 134
Chloride: 17
Sodium: 29
Sulfate: 147
Calcium: 47
Bicarbonate: 134

I'm thinking of using 3g of gypsum and 6 of Calcium Chloride to get the mash pH in the ballpark and balance the chlorides and sulfates for a less bitter taste. This is based solely on Palmer's info, and I have no experience with water adjustment, so pardon the newb question, but am I completely out to lunch?

 

[sparkyaber]

If you are using his spreadsheet, I think there is a cell that you enter the amount of water you are using, and if you cut it with distilled or RO water. I do believe that it is set for 5 gallon batches. There has been a lot of questions about this recently, and it is still up for debate:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/first-time-building-water-141975/

I use palmers' spreadsheet for water adjustments and have had good success.

Also, if you have not listened to his podcast on HBN I highly recommend it.

 

[Cart]

got it... bonehead move not reading every cell before I show up with a question.

BTW thanks for the linked thread, I was looking for exactly this kind of info in the technical section, barking up the wrong tree when I should have been in the all-grain section.

...everyone here's so helpful, are you sure this is the internet???

 

[sparkyaber]

Do you have the info on how much magnesium is in your water. It does effect on the beer. It has to do with the hardness which ties into the RA.
Also, go to Palmers website and look at his nomographs. They put it in a easy form to see what these things do to affect your water.

 

[Bobby_M]

HBT is Internetz Brew.0

I like the spreadsheet linked in my sig better than Palmer's, give it a go.

Just taking a stab at it with 4gallons strike, 4 gallons sparge (YMMV):

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 47
Mg: 0 ??????
Na: 29
Cl: 17
SO4: 147
CaCO3: 134

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4 / 4
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:

CaSO4: 5 / 0
CaCl2: 3 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 176 / 112
Mg: 0 / 0
Na: 29 / 29
Cl: 113 / 65
SO4: 331 / 239
CaCO3: 134 / 134

RA (mash only): 8 (6 to 11 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.27 (Very Bitter)

The key is using enough salts in the mash to get RA down but leave them out of the sparge/boil so that the levels are diluted back down for the Cl:SO4 ratio. Note that Randy Mosher's ideal pale ale profile puts SO4 at 350ppm and Cl at 50. No worries there.

 

[Cart]

My Mg shouldn't be too much of an issue, it's 22, so enough for the yeast, but shouldn't make the beer taste bad (I think anyway).

 

[Cart]

thanks for the link too Bobby, seems pretty user friendly.