hamburgeler
Active Member
Water continues to befuddle me even though I have been trying. I got my water report done over the summer after moving and tried adjusting my water using beersmith, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use it properly so I used a spread sheet (can't remember which) to estimate some mineral additions. Using a Mac limits my water options, I think. I have been splitting my house water 50/50 with distilled, then adding 3 grams of gypsum at mash and 1 Calc Chloride, 4.1 gypsum at sparge and 1.4 calc Chloride for hoppy beer. I have been moderately happy with the results. At NHC I desperately searched out help with my report and was told by Jamil to just brew with it. So I did. First with an obsidian stout clone, which came out good, but lacked the clarity in roastiness that the real obsidian has. Then I went back to cutting the water before brewing the hop burst IPA recipe from Mitch Steele in zymurgy without cutting or changing the water. The beer is harsh, way too harsh for how the hops were added(6grams FWH, then 3oz at 15 min). When it warms up I like it more, but isn't anywhere near what it should have been. My question is, should I stick to cutting and build up? Is my water as bad as I think? I do not have a pH meter but will look into one if the price is reasonable. I know using all distilled and building up would be ideal, I just don't like spending so much money on water, but will if I cant build from what it have. Any tips and advice for what I should be doing would be greatly appreciated.
pH: 7.4
Total dissolved solids: 447
Sodium, Na: 29
Potassium, K: 2
Calcium, Ca: 83
Magnesium, Mg: 20
Total hardness, CaCO3: 291
Nitrate, NO³-N: 2.5
Sulfate, SO⁴-S: 6
Chloride, CL: 122
Carbonate, CO³: 122
Bicarbonate, HCO³: 191
Total alkalinity, CaCO³: 157
Thank you,
Hamburgeler
Sent from my VS980 4G using Home Brew mobile app
pH: 7.4
Total dissolved solids: 447
Sodium, Na: 29
Potassium, K: 2
Calcium, Ca: 83
Magnesium, Mg: 20
Total hardness, CaCO3: 291
Nitrate, NO³-N: 2.5
Sulfate, SO⁴-S: 6
Chloride, CL: 122
Carbonate, CO³: 122
Bicarbonate, HCO³: 191
Total alkalinity, CaCO³: 157
Thank you,
Hamburgeler
Sent from my VS980 4G using Home Brew mobile app