Greetings! I'm fairly new to this forum, although I've lurked and gotten great insight from you all for most of the last 3 years. I recently made the jump from carbon filter to an RO filter and building my water from there.
So as the title suggests, I'm curious to know if any of you have a preferred water profile for brewing a Vienna lager? I have a Vienna lager recipe I've tweaked a few times and it turned out amazing last year. So I'm simply looking to fine tune this brew with a complimentary water profile.
The biggest question mark for me is the sulfate to chloride ratio? Based on the water profile I obtained from our local water supplier, both are fairly low at 32ppm and 24ppm respectively. The sodium of our local supply is 54ppm. It's fairly alkaline and has a HCO3 of 126. With all that in mind, and based on the fact that my Vienna turned out so well last year, I'm thinking building water with less HCO3 and enhancing either the sulfate or chloride. This is what I was thinking for a 10 gallon batch:
Water Profile: Ca 50 Mg 4 SO4 36 Na 21 Cl 73 HCO3 44
RO water additions: 2g Gypsum, 8g CaCl,2g Epsom salt, 4g Baking Soda
The biggest conflict I have in my head is whether I should shift the balance toward higher sulfate or balance the two evenly?
Thoughts?
So as the title suggests, I'm curious to know if any of you have a preferred water profile for brewing a Vienna lager? I have a Vienna lager recipe I've tweaked a few times and it turned out amazing last year. So I'm simply looking to fine tune this brew with a complimentary water profile.
The biggest question mark for me is the sulfate to chloride ratio? Based on the water profile I obtained from our local water supplier, both are fairly low at 32ppm and 24ppm respectively. The sodium of our local supply is 54ppm. It's fairly alkaline and has a HCO3 of 126. With all that in mind, and based on the fact that my Vienna turned out so well last year, I'm thinking building water with less HCO3 and enhancing either the sulfate or chloride. This is what I was thinking for a 10 gallon batch:
Water Profile: Ca 50 Mg 4 SO4 36 Na 21 Cl 73 HCO3 44
RO water additions: 2g Gypsum, 8g CaCl,2g Epsom salt, 4g Baking Soda
The biggest conflict I have in my head is whether I should shift the balance toward higher sulfate or balance the two evenly?
Thoughts?