Hi all,
I'm brewing today and I'm still kind of winging it on water adjustments so I'm hoping you guys would be kind enough to glance over my numbers/procedures and tell me if you see anything out of place. I use RO water since I live in Phoenix which apparently has awful water for homebrewing.
I'm brewing a Southern English Brown Ale straight out of brewing classic styles (my goal is to brew all 80 recipes over the next 2 years, but that's another story!) so I'm planning to use London's water profile:
Ca - 100
Mg - 5
SO4 - 50
NA - 35
CL - 60
HCO3 - 265
I got these numbers from brewersfriend.com's water chemistry page. Using EZ water calculator it looks like I'll be adding the following (in grams):
Addition: Mash / Sparge
Gypsum: 2 / 3.9
Calc. Chloride: 3 / 5.8
Epsom: 2 / 3.9
Baking Soda: 4 / 7.7
Chalk: 3 / 5.8
Lactic Acid: As needed / As needed
This is for a 6.75 gallon mash and 13 gallon sparge. Looking at the resulting water profile all of the items are within 2 or 3 PPM, which I'm sure is close enough.
A few questions:
1. How do you guys calculate your additions? I've just been fiddling around with numbers until I get the right resulting water profile. I understand that each salt adds its corresponding ions to the water (e.g. CaCl2 will add Ca and Cl), but that is the extent of my understanding.
2. I didn't calculate how much lactic acid to add since I have a Ph meter anyways. Last time I brewed I added about 5mL of lactic acid and still wasn't down to 5.6 in the boil kettle so I stopped because I was worried I would end up adding too much and ruining the beer. How much lactic acid do you guys typically add? I think Kal from theelectricbrewery.com said you could add up to 1-2mL per gallon before it would have an impact on the flavor, but I was feeling cautious
I think that's it, if anyone has any additional tips I'm all ears. Thanks in advance!
I'm brewing today and I'm still kind of winging it on water adjustments so I'm hoping you guys would be kind enough to glance over my numbers/procedures and tell me if you see anything out of place. I use RO water since I live in Phoenix which apparently has awful water for homebrewing.
I'm brewing a Southern English Brown Ale straight out of brewing classic styles (my goal is to brew all 80 recipes over the next 2 years, but that's another story!) so I'm planning to use London's water profile:
Ca - 100
Mg - 5
SO4 - 50
NA - 35
CL - 60
HCO3 - 265
I got these numbers from brewersfriend.com's water chemistry page. Using EZ water calculator it looks like I'll be adding the following (in grams):
Addition: Mash / Sparge
Gypsum: 2 / 3.9
Calc. Chloride: 3 / 5.8
Epsom: 2 / 3.9
Baking Soda: 4 / 7.7
Chalk: 3 / 5.8
Lactic Acid: As needed / As needed
This is for a 6.75 gallon mash and 13 gallon sparge. Looking at the resulting water profile all of the items are within 2 or 3 PPM, which I'm sure is close enough.
A few questions:
1. How do you guys calculate your additions? I've just been fiddling around with numbers until I get the right resulting water profile. I understand that each salt adds its corresponding ions to the water (e.g. CaCl2 will add Ca and Cl), but that is the extent of my understanding.
2. I didn't calculate how much lactic acid to add since I have a Ph meter anyways. Last time I brewed I added about 5mL of lactic acid and still wasn't down to 5.6 in the boil kettle so I stopped because I was worried I would end up adding too much and ruining the beer. How much lactic acid do you guys typically add? I think Kal from theelectricbrewery.com said you could add up to 1-2mL per gallon before it would have an impact on the flavor, but I was feeling cautious
I think that's it, if anyone has any additional tips I'm all ears. Thanks in advance!