Water help

[SNIPEONE]

New to AG, can one of you great Brewmasters please tell me what to add to RO water for brewing a very simple beer. This ia a 5 gal batch,
-10 lbs 2row
-1lb Caraform
-1 lb Crystal 60L
-2 oz Chinook
- 2oz Cascade
-Safale US05

Thanks for your help

 

[homebrewmike]

You may want to refer to the following thread for help.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/first-time-building-up-ro-water-apa-443205/

 

[jknapp12105]

My experience with RO water has not been good and I have had beer with RO water and it was not good. It makes the beer seem very soft on the palate and seem flat to me. I use a 50/50 mixture. 50 % tap vs 50 % filtered. I have great quality water from the tap here in northeast Texas. I just personally wouldn't use it. Just my 2 cents.

 

[ajdelange]

That's what the Primer is for:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

RO water properly supplemented makes excellent beer. It puts you in control over what is in your water - not the water company (or mother nature if you are on a well).

 

[mabrungard]

+1 to the blandness that brewing with straight RO or distilled water can produce. That can be an asset in malt-focused and delicate styles, but is probably going to be uninspiring in other styles. Even AJ prefers some mineral content and that is what the Primer recommends.

For that Pale Ale recipe, I suggest that 100+ ppm of sulfate is desirable.

I also note that the recipe above, includes 20% crystal malts and that is likely to be excessive. I would delete the Carafoam and replace it with a equal amount of the 2 row. The roughly 1 lb of Crystal 60 should be sufficient to provide the head and sweetness that most drinkers enjoy.

 

[ajdelange]

While I generally hold that lower mineral water makes better beer (and this is doubtless in large part personal preference) a minimum level of mineralization is necessary. When I have experimented with very low levels the beer has become insipid. That's why I said "properly supplemented" in #4.

I got an interesting reminder as to one often neglected aspect of this when doing cell counts on a beer with a problem starter the other day. There were not only yeast cells to count but calcium oxalate crystals. Lots of them - about 10,000/mL. Better in the beer than in the drinkers kidneys, take my word on that. If for no other reason than that a minimum calcium level should be maintained but it doesn't need to be as high as 50 mg/L if you are looking for that soft continental lager quality.