EZ Water Calc..... help me once so I can do this myself

Up to this point I have taken all your advice and avoided meddling with my water until I had everything else nailed down. I am in the Chicago suburbs, using filtered water that originates from the Jardine purification plant. After 50 or so brews I am confident in all the other aspects of all-grain brewing and could use some help understanding the water additions for my specific water.

I'm using the EZ water calc v3.0.2, which has aided me but as is the typical case I have found conflicting information online and in podcast's such as the latest water episode of Brew Strong.

Starting water:
Ca: 30
Mg: 11.2
Na: 8.25
Cl: 15
SO4: 27.9
Total Alkalinity as CaCO3: 98

Ordinary Bitter Grist (11 gal to fermenter):
14 lb Fawcett Maris Otter
1 lb C-120
.5 lb Briess Special Roast (50 Lov)

After entering all the numbers I show two issues. First is that according to the spreadsheet my mash (with 5 gallons strike (~1.25 qt/lb)) will have a 5.74pH. Second is that my water is low in Ca and SO4.

Adding 5g Gypsum will boost me to Ca:90 and SO4:175. Is this too much or an appropriate method to enhance the bitterness a bit?

I am also planning on adding some 10% Phosphoric acid in the mash to drop the mash pH down. Should I add 15ml to get it down to 5.59pH, rest for 10 minutes before testing?

And lastly, do I need to acidify the sparge water if I am batch sparging?

For what it's worth, I have been happy with my homebrew to date, but would like to keep moving forward with the little changes that can move it from good to great.

THANKS!

 

Correction: The spreadsheet shows adding 5g Gypsum to the mash and an additional 12g Gypsum to the sparge water.

 

Water is not EZ.

Try Bru 'N Water.

You should only add acid to your mash after you've tested the pH to ensure that you need to add acid. Then, if you do indeed add acid, you need to test the pH again.

I could be wrong, but the purpose of acidifying sparge water is to get the sparge water to the same pH as your mash, so yes you should acidify your sparge water and do the pH test, repeat...

Try using Bru 'N Water it should help determine your sparge water acidification.

 

the spreadsheets are not exact, so i wouldn't add any acid unless you actually measure it as necessary. personally I wouldnt go that high on sulfate and would add some cacl to balance

EZ water calc is another water spreadsheet

 

Boosting the Ca and SO4 to those levels might be OK for a Bitter. That gypsum addition is not out of bounds. The alkalinity of that tap water certainly would require acidification for both the mash and sparge.

 

Thanks for the quick replies.

I am planning on checking the pH after dough-in to see if I need any acidification.

In the long run, does it make more sense to dilute the tap with RO for lighter styles, or is using acid a fairly common procedure?

What pH should I target for the sparge water?

 

I just gave the Bru'n Water Calculator a shot. Nifty bit of code there.

Checking out the sparge acidification tab, I have the following:
Water Alkalinity: 104
Starting Water pH: 7.8
Desired Water pH: 6 (Default)
Water Volume: 12 Gal (I'll only be sparging with 10 gal and topping up the kettle with 2 more. Is is correct to put 12 here?)
Acid Type: Phosphoric
Acid Strength: 10%

Which shows me that I need 1.47mEq/L, or 57.30mL of liquid acid.

Anything I should change here? It's sparge water so if I have to start it over no big deal, but I would like a little confidence going in to it.

Thanks again.

 

It sounds like a lot of acid to me.

Try the calculator at

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/

and see if you get a similar answer. I think this calculator is the easiest to use and you can post a link to your calculations so others can see the whole story in one place.

 

This! The biggest pointer I can give you about EZ Water is to stop using it and get Bru'nwater. My results with ti have been much better than with the other water calculators out there.

 

Great link. Thanks for sending that over.

With minor changes per comments above, I have reduced the Gypsum and added a little Calcium Chloride.

The report can be seen here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?id=GW564S1

The only difference is that this tool automatically aims for a pH of 5.4 for sparge water. It wants over 77mL of 10% phosphoric acid to achieve that. Still seems super high to me, but then again I don't really have a good idea of what is a reasonable amount.

 

Oh, I see why 77ml sounded high. I typically use lactic acid which would require much less volume that phosphoric.

One observation from your calculation is you didn't select a target water profile. Your mash water is currently all zeros. It doubt that is what you want. Select one of the preset target water profiles or make your own and update the calculation. You may have to adjust your salts to compensate for the change.

 

LOVE brewersfriend software. So easy and to the point. I've messed with EZ and brun. I totally get the complexity of brun and one day will switch but brewers is so easy.