Siberian
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2014
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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I've now done two separate ward lab reports. They are (I think) largely the same, though they are seasonally separate (July/Feb), both drawn off my hot water since I use that for brewing currently and between that time I did end up replacing the water heater. Not sure that made much difference, but still.
My main confusion is this - is there a point that for dark beers you can have too much Bicarbonate, but seemingly not have a negative effect on lighter beers?
The second one from winter is similar, but my PH has jumped up along with my TDS going up a bit.
This is well water, not city water, so I'm guessing seasonal shifts in my well account for most of the change. I do acid treat the water with Phosphoric Acid to get down to the proper PH range, but I'll be honest I'm testing with strips and it doesn't seem to match up how the spreadsheets think it should, I've bought a meter (showed up yesterday) so eventually here I'll have a good idea how it's working.
The reason I'm confused is this, I read that higher Bicarbonate is 'good' for dark beers. Yet it's the dark beers I'm actually struggling with more. They come out astringent. Lighter colored beers (Edwort's Centennial Blonde for example) with less crystal/roasted malts generally end up being better beers for me then when I brew up a darker beer like an Irish Stout. The darker beers, at lower abv (<5%) often have this astringent/aggressive taste, particularly in the finish that's not exactly pleasant. If I head well into the higher ABV range (>9%) there's so much malt backbone I think this unpleasantness just isn't detectable or the residual sweetness from higher finishing gravity masks it. I've found I also do better with sweet/milk stouts then dry stouts, probably for the same reason.
It also happens to beers that approach darker colors (usually with a bit of roast barley), such an Irish Reds which while not as bad as the dark beers, have this hint of dry astringency to them in the finish.
So I guess is there a point where the level of bicarbonate becomes too high for darker styles while seemingly producing acceptable tasting lighter colored beers? Or am I missing something fundamental here?
It seems the conventional wisdom is with 200ppm+ of Bicarbonate that darker styles should be turning out better then lighter ones, yet for some reason everyone (judges, my wife, friends) are happier with the tastes of the lighter style beers from this water with minimal (.5ml/gal Phosphoric acid only for PH) treatments. I've gotten multiple scoresheets back citing 'mild astrigency' which I'm guessing is a water problem in my case. Admittedly the lighter beers are not Pilsner levels of light, but still they are by no means 'dark beers'.
I'm doing BIAB, so it's full volume mashes, no sparge. So for smaller beers it's a very 'watery' mash. I'm probably going to try dillution with distilled water on a batch soon and I'm going be doing some PH testing on my finished beers now that I have an actual meter to try to get some idea where the ph of them has ended up to try to track down this problem, but I'd be interested any advice anyone here has.
My main confusion is this - is there a point that for dark beers you can have too much Bicarbonate, but seemingly not have a negative effect on lighter beers?
First report (July):
pH 7.4
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 311
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.52
Cations / Anions, me/L 5.3 / 5.7
ppm
Sodium, Na 11
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 63
Magnesium, Mg 19
Total Hardness, CaCO3 237
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 10
Chloride, Cl 20
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 274
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 225
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.31
pH 7.4
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 311
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.52
Cations / Anions, me/L 5.3 / 5.7
ppm
Sodium, Na 11
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 63
Magnesium, Mg 19
Total Hardness, CaCO3 237
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 10
Chloride, Cl 20
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 274
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 225
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.31
The second one from winter is similar, but my PH has jumped up along with my TDS going up a bit.
Second Report (Feb)
pH 8.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 334
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.56
Cations / Anions, me/L 6.0 / 6.3
ppm
Sodium, Na 20
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 68
Magnesium, Mg 20
Total Hardness, CaCO3 253
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 9
Chloride, Cl 37
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 287
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 237
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.19
pH 8.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 334
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.56
Cations / Anions, me/L 6.0 / 6.3
ppm
Sodium, Na 20
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 68
Magnesium, Mg 20
Total Hardness, CaCO3 253
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 9
Chloride, Cl 37
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 287
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 237
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.19
This is well water, not city water, so I'm guessing seasonal shifts in my well account for most of the change. I do acid treat the water with Phosphoric Acid to get down to the proper PH range, but I'll be honest I'm testing with strips and it doesn't seem to match up how the spreadsheets think it should, I've bought a meter (showed up yesterday) so eventually here I'll have a good idea how it's working.
The reason I'm confused is this, I read that higher Bicarbonate is 'good' for dark beers. Yet it's the dark beers I'm actually struggling with more. They come out astringent. Lighter colored beers (Edwort's Centennial Blonde for example) with less crystal/roasted malts generally end up being better beers for me then when I brew up a darker beer like an Irish Stout. The darker beers, at lower abv (<5%) often have this astringent/aggressive taste, particularly in the finish that's not exactly pleasant. If I head well into the higher ABV range (>9%) there's so much malt backbone I think this unpleasantness just isn't detectable or the residual sweetness from higher finishing gravity masks it. I've found I also do better with sweet/milk stouts then dry stouts, probably for the same reason.
It also happens to beers that approach darker colors (usually with a bit of roast barley), such an Irish Reds which while not as bad as the dark beers, have this hint of dry astringency to them in the finish.
So I guess is there a point where the level of bicarbonate becomes too high for darker styles while seemingly producing acceptable tasting lighter colored beers? Or am I missing something fundamental here?
It seems the conventional wisdom is with 200ppm+ of Bicarbonate that darker styles should be turning out better then lighter ones, yet for some reason everyone (judges, my wife, friends) are happier with the tastes of the lighter style beers from this water with minimal (.5ml/gal Phosphoric acid only for PH) treatments. I've gotten multiple scoresheets back citing 'mild astrigency' which I'm guessing is a water problem in my case. Admittedly the lighter beers are not Pilsner levels of light, but still they are by no means 'dark beers'.
I'm doing BIAB, so it's full volume mashes, no sparge. So for smaller beers it's a very 'watery' mash. I'm probably going to try dillution with distilled water on a batch soon and I'm going be doing some PH testing on my finished beers now that I have an actual meter to try to get some idea where the ph of them has ended up to try to track down this problem, but I'd be interested any advice anyone here has.