Scottish ale -water adjustment help

[porterguy]

I'm brewing a Scottish ale using RO water. I know VERY little about water adjustments (although I plan to address this deficit of mine). So right now I just need advice for this batch, and perhaps a resource recommendation for future learning (I know virtually nothing about chemistry, and no science since HS). Any advice on this batch would be greatly appreciated. I have the following on hand: gypsum, calcium chloride, calcium carbonate, and magnesium.

Maris Otter- 8.5 lbs.
Munich malt- .5 lbs.
Crystal 40- 1.0 lbs.
Honey malt- .5 lbs.
Crystal 120- .25 lbs.
Pale Chocolate- 3.0 oz.

EKG- 1.0 oz


Thanks in advance!

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Here is the water profile from Bru'n water for an amber balanced beer which should work well for the Scottish ale.

You should put your info into the free version of Bru'n water or Mash Made Easy and adjust the Gypsum, CaCl, and NaCL, to hit the Ca, SO4, Cl, and Na ppm. Note, Na is not essential so don't worry too much about it. Do not add baking soda or chalk as bicarbonate is not necessary as it will only raise your ph and that is only needed if brewing very dark styles like stouts. In other words, target 0 ppm bicarbonate.

Given your grain bill, without running it through the water calculator, you should be able to get by without any acid. If you do want to lower a tad - I suggest you use acidulated malt, which has a rule of thumb of lowering your PH by .1 for every 1% of grain bill. At most you probably would only need 1% or less, but should be fine without it given all the crystal, pale chocolate, and honey malt in your recipe.

Also, here is a link to the water primer on this site to get you started on your future learning...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/a-brewing-water-chemistry-primer.198460/
Good luck.

 

[Spundit]

Good info above.

I also use RO water for most of my brews. To keep things simple, just worry about adding Ca, Cl, and sulfate to this brew. The mg that comes from the grain is generally enough and bicarbonate is only needed for beers using a lot of dark roasted malts (IMO).

I always make sure I add 50pm-200 ppm of Ca. Adjust the Cl and Sulfate to taste by adding calcium chloride (CaCl2) or gypsum (CaSO4)

So.... for 5g of Scotch ale, a good place to start is add 5g CaCl to your full volume of water. This will give a "soft" mouthfeel and should enhance the malt flavor. You can also add 2.5g of gypsum if you want a more balanced profile that may provide a slightly dryer perception and slightly sharper bitterness.

Once the beer is done, you can add small amounts of gypsum or Calcium chloride to a pint or pitcher to see how it changes the flavor. Use that knowledge for your next brew.

 

[mabrungard]

The original Edinburgh water actually has a modest amount of sulfate (140 ppm) in it. That sulfate provided a decent drying finish to beers made with it, even malty and lightly bittered beers. That helps make those beers more drinkable. Review the Edinburgh water profile in Bru'n Water to get an idea of what their water used to be. Modern Edinburgh has much less mineralized water since it comes from inland reservoirs.

 

[porterguy]

Thanks to all. Greatly appreciated.