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Agreed. Water modification is important if you want to duplicate a style with some precision. Jim:mug:

Sorry you feel that way, but if you read my posts in sequence you might have different view. And I never said that, or anything even close to it, which is why I make any negative comments at all. This place is filled with people who can't read and who insist on distorting what's being said...

According to Michael Lewis' book "Stout" in the Classic Beer Styles series, Guiness is 40.5 IBU. Beamish is 38-40. Jim:mug:

I didn't start with degree dropping, I began with some common-sense advice concerning off-flavors in light beers. Then Uncle Fester removed my posts on the Brew Science forum saying which from my point of view was a joke. AHAHAHAHAAAA!!! And you think some of these guys are going to...

As I"ve already said at least twice, I've brewed my own light and dark beers with and without salts, but just tasted them, not blind tasted. The beers with added sulfate have a harsher kind of bitterness, exactly what the books say. My pale ale with added sulfates tasted similar to Samuel...

Most people don't make a starter with dry yeast. That's one reason why they use it, because they don't want to bother. Many don't even rehydrate it. If you have an actively fermenting starter of anything, it should start quickly. I have no idea what the op does. Jim

Adding a bunch of salt isn't the issue. The issue is whether your water as it stands is causing your light beers to taste funny. Obviously, if you add a huge amount of any salt, much greater than is naturally found in any tap water, you will have a funny flavor. Do I need to quote your...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf034631z?prevSearch=%255Babstract%253A%2Bbeer%2Besters%255D&searchHistoryKey= The aging and consequent changes in flavor molecules of a top-fermented beer were studied. Different aging conditions were imposed on freshly bottled beer. After 6 months of...

I think you need go back and reread my posts. I'm not arguing that water chemistry doesn't change flavor, I'm arguing that water chemistry is the last thing you should look at when trying to rid your light beer of off flavors. The original poster in the RO thread complained about off flavors...

What does making belgian or saison have to do with making a clean tasting light beer? Jim

I don't insist on 80F, it's just a high number. How about 79F? All chemical reactions produce more byproducts at higher temperatures. You are going to get more byproducts at 80 than at 65. Jim

I'm sorry, but I have to challenge this too. It just doesn't make sense. Beers are brewed all over the world with waters of differing permanent hardness. Good beers are made with all of them. If you want to say that, for example, high sulfate PLUS a fermentation at 80F gives a bad flavor...

Advice from a Ph.D chemist on vinegar plus bleach: http://chemistry.about.com/b/2009/02/02/why-people-mix-bleach-and-vinegar.htm The acidification makes it more effective against spores, that's because spores have a hard outer shell, unlike lactobacillus and zymomonas and the other...

I'm not going to listen to some guy who works for a company trying to sell his product, I'm going to pay attention to my own knowledge of chemistry (in which I have two degrees). Using vinegar with bleach is idiotic. I never said it wasn't a factor in beer flavor. I said you are not...

No, you can't. And please don't kill yourself mixing vinegar with water. Some people apparently get their "information" from infomercials or company shills trying to convince you to buy their product ("Well, you can use bleach but you know, you gotta mix it with vinegar and that could be...

No it's not, they are major reasons for poor beer quality. Long lag times give bacteria a foothold, and many double their population in 10-20 minutes verses 1-2 hours for yeast. High fermentation temperatures produce more unwanted metabolic byproducts, I thought everyone knew that (it's true...

Right, which must be how it all started. They think because they have a lot of sulfates in their beer, that's why their dark beers come out well and their light beers don't, when it's probably because they are fermenting at too high a temp or they have long lags because of using dry yeast...

I keep seeing in various threads the idea that hard water is good for dark ales, usually when the brewers dark ales are coming out well but their light beers aren't. It's not as bad (or stupid/dangerous) as the "Bleach is not effective unless you add vinegar" myth, but still....?? Jim

I just read in Terry Foster's book on porter in the "Classic Beer Styles" series that the reason London had good water for porter is because of the high carbonate and low Ca/Mg sulfate. The acidity of the dark malts counteracts the carbonate and gives the right pH for the mash. London...