Oktoberfest water profile

[carrotmalt]

I'm planning to try Edwort's Oktoberfest Ale next and I've been reading lately about water profiles. Now I'm a total noob and wouldn't even be considering it, but last night I watched Bobby M's videos on using the ezwatercalculator spreadsheet. I'm not going to claim I understand it all, but I've downloaded it and have been playing with additions.

I'm using the Munich Oktoberfest profile and I see that the CL to S04 ratio is .46. That falls under the very bitter category. I didn't think this style was particularly bitter tasting, so I looked it up in the wiki and it sounds pretty malty.

Am I on the wrong track here?

Here's what I've entered just playing around if someone wants to chime in with recommendations. (I have it using 50% RO water because the amounts all seemed high without any mods.)

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 53.9
Mg: 35.9
Na: 63
Cl: 40
SO4: 74
HCO3: 285

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4.5 / 3.6
Dilution Rate: 50%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 1 / 0.8
CaSO4: 1.5 / 1.2
CaCl2: 2 / 0
MgSO4: 0.5 / 0.4
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
NaCl: 0 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 102 / 88
Mg: 21 / 21
Na: 32 / 32
Cl: 77 / 51
SO4: 98 / 98
CaCO3: 146 / 146

RA (mash only): 60 (10 to 15 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.53 (Bitter)

 

[Skoper]

Ockotober fest? Last time I looked it was January with snow on the ground!
Your a little late. Lol. Just kidding. I am just board at work waiting to get home to drink the 6er of Hopslam I bought today at lunch.
Good luck on the brew

 

[carrotmalt]

Good call on being out of season. I'm trying to impress SWMBO. Her favorites have been Dunkles and Oktoberfests out of the varieties I've gotten her to try... and yes, I'm looking at doing a Dunkle at some point too. She doesn't like bitter, so when I saw "very bitter" come up on the spreadsheet, an alarm went off. What gives?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

It's due to the Chloride:Sulphate ratio (I can't remember if they use Chloride:Sulphate or Sulphate:Chloride). The ratio won't make the beer bitter per se, but a high Sulphate:low Chloride ratio enhances bitterness. A high Chloride:low Sulphate ratio enhances maltiness.

For your water, use Calcium Chloride instead of Gypsum and it should get you into the 'malty' range, and you'll still get your Calcium.

 

[Skoper]

Funny on how we always try to impress our women. My SWMBO used to be the same way. She is now hooked on late addition pale ales.
Whenever we have a party she insists that I make the Amarillo pale ale from beerdujour.com. All the women seen to like it. It is like a grapefruit in a glass. I usuall add a half ounce at 45 and another half at 30 to get some ibu in there so I am not using 6 ounces in a pale ale. Any way good luck. I am no looking to steal your post. I know nothing about water. I live in Michigan and we have good water here. Some people will not brew without filtered water.

 

[Bobby_M]

One thing I noticed was that there's no water profile listed as a "famous brewing region" that has a higher Cl than So4. It's almost like 1:1 is where malty starts and goes bitter as SO4 goes up.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

Ockotober fest? Last time I looked it was January with snow on the ground!
Your a little late.

Actually, he's a little early...Oktoberfests were traditionally brewed in March.

 

[carrotmalt]

For your water, use Calcium Chloride instead of Gypsum and it should get you into the 'malty' range, and you'll still get your Calcium.

That's pretty much what I started off doing, but when I tried to get the numbers closer to Munich, I couldn't keep it Malty. That's when I noticed that the sheet had it at .46.

One thing I noticed was that there's no water profile listed as a "famous brewing region" that has a higher Cl than So4. It's almost like 1:1 is where malty starts and goes bitter as SO4 goes up.

I didn't even look at the other profiles, but now that I see that the most malty of the eight regions on the spreadsheet is a British Bitter, I'm not sure how concerned I need to be about that ratio. You think I should just go with numbers I have?

Also, am I on track diluting by 50% first with RO water?