How much should I worry about water chemestry?

asterix404 · Jul 14, 2011

I have been a brewer for more than 3 years and 2 of that is all grain. I have more than 35 batches of all grain under my belt, reliably hit 75% effency, mash and sparge temps, decoction methods, etc. and I have played around and managed to get above 90% efficiency in my last beer. I am at the point now of trying to get as high an efficiency as possible and getting as close to styles as possible to get ready to start entering competitions. Also I just want a damn accurate great style of beer when I make one.

In all of the advanced books I am reading it talks about water profiles and Noonan goes into why and the importances of getting water correct to style. You are correct in saying that the water I have will give me great beer, and it does. I want to see if that can be made better. Also I have a knack for chemistry and this seems like the next logical step.

I can't remember the poster, but the ones who say that getting mash ph correct will determine how great the beer is can not be more right. Ph determines almost all of the characteristics of the beer, and do think I don't have a ph meter yet. That will be fixed this weekend. The brun'n water is excellent and so is the brew chem pages. I will have to read through all of the stickies and only managed to get a bit into them.

I will say, that this is just proving how far down the rabbit hole I can go, and it seems to be a fairly endless rabbit hole. Also I am just a wee bit off and really do enjoy this. Also it seems that it can play a huge role and is definitely worth exploring.

CidahMastah · Jul 14, 2011

Guys we are all saying the same thing.

I think we all agree working on water can help. But I defer to the below for the necessity of working on your water, with the caveat that you are making crap beer and you have ruled out bad process.

asterix404 said:
I also read from "Designing great beer" that only 1/10 people who get into the second round actually fiddle with their water.

nuff' said.

Saying that messing with your water profile will make better brew just isn't true. Who knows, maybe your tap water will produce better beer without fiddling around with it. just being the devil's advocate here.

zeus53219 · Jul 15, 2011

If you drink your water, and it tastes good, and you are happy with your beers......I wouldn't give it another thought. There are many other things to think about on brew day.

dantheman13 · Jul 15, 2011

Bobby_M said:
Great tasting water makes great tasting... WATER. If you're happy with your beer and don't need another thing to think about during brew day, forget about water.

Being a geeky person who misses his science days in high school and college, water chemistry in brewing has always intrigued me. I am a new brewer (5 batches, last 3 were all grain), so water chemistry was intimidating when I started. Three things changed my mind about trying water chemistry changes. The first was Bobby_M's videos on using EZ Water calculator:

Secondly and thirdly were the water chemistry podcasts from Basic Brewing with Kai Troester and Brew Strong with John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-17-11kaiph01.mp3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-24-11kaiph02.mp3

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/search/water

Bobby's videos really made it look easy, and with these calculators it really is. Others have spoken as to why you should or shouldn't worry about water chemistry, but I would like to say that as a new brewer, it's not that hard to get into.

CidahMastah · Jul 15, 2011

dantheman13 said:
Being a geeky person who misses his science days in high school and college, water chemistry in brewing has always intrigued me. I am a new brewer (5 batches, last 3 were all grain), so water chemistry was intimidating when I started. Three things changed my mind about trying water chemistry changes. The first was Bobby_M's videos on using EZ Water calculator:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1n7-RjEJEM

Secondly and thirdly were the water chemistry podcasts from Basic Brewing with Kai Troester and Brew Strong with John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-17-11kaiph01.mp3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-24-11kaiph02.mp3

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/search/water

Bobby's videos really made it look easy, and with these calculators it really is. Others have spoken as to why you should or shouldn't worry about water chemistry, but I would like to say that as a new brewer, it's not that hard to get into.

good post! I am all for making it attainable :mug:

Powers · Jul 15, 2011

I've found brewing with my tap water produces a second rate brew. This largely stems from municipal additives (chloride, etc). I quit with the tap water altogether and movd to spring water from a well at our cabin or reverse osmosis (RO) water.

RO water is fine for a pilsner, but not an IPA. So I use salts to up the water profile for brews which are improved by higher mineral content. RO is easy because you know you are starting at zero for mineral content.

I don't know what the cabin spring water has in it, but I know it makes reliably good beer, so I don't worry about altering the profile on that water.

rinhaak · Jul 15, 2011

Does Natick use the same water supply as Boston? I absolutely love Boston water - for drinking and brewing - though I admittedly have a lot to learn about water chemistry.

mabrungard · Jul 16, 2011

"I also read from "Designing great beer" that only 1/10 people who get into the second round actually fiddle with their water. "

There is a big problem with that statement. It assumes that anyone's tap water will make an acceptable or good beer. Unfortunately there are a lot of water supplies that are not suited for making good beer or a particular style.

Those 9 in 10 people that didn't do anything to their water probably have water that suit that style and that 'first-round winning' demographic probably represents less than 1 percent of the total brewing population. The statement above is completely misleading and meaningless.

Most brewers will greatly benefit from understanding what their water is and what might be needed to amend it to brew other styles. Messing too much with brewing water (adding too many minerals) is often a bad thing, but understanding how to do it in an appropriate manner is a goal of Bru'n Water. Very few other water programs even provide good guidance on what water modifications are appropriate. Brewers end up screwing up their water without even knowing it.

cmoon · Aug 1, 2011

I'm going to just pile on with what mabrungard has said here.

For those people saying 'great water makes great beer, don't worry about it'...well, there's a point that stops working. It didn't take too long to figure out that the great tasting water I have favored malty beers while dulling the bitterness/crispness of the hops. My imperial IPA had all the right flavors and aromas, but the mouthfeel was dull. After seeing this again and again I realized that the one thing left I hadn't tackled was water chemistry, and now that I use a spreadsheet (can't be any easier!) I'm getting the mouthfeel I want out of my beers.

I would add, for those who think this is just super taster junk, I sat in a meeting of the maltose falcons and we shared several beers that effectively had the same grain bill but had different water profiles. There was absolutely no question that the water had a huge impact on the way you perceive the beer.

How much should I worry about water chemestry?

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