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100% Distilled All Grain

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Keebo

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Dec 8, 2012
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From what I've been reading over the past weeks about water chemistry for brewing, I've come to the conclution that the more control you have the better the outcome. Therefore Im going to give 100% distilled water brewing a try.
Water Calculators
The two I've settled on are Brewersfriend and EZ Water Calculators Spreadsheet 3.0
Here is my calculated water profile for both after adding minerals, let me know what you think.

This is for brewing a pale ale
I added:
7 gallons distilled water
NaHCO3 2 grams
CaSO4 5 grams
CaCl2 9 grams
MgSO4 5 grams

Brewersfriend
Ca 137
Mg 19
SO4 179
Na 21
Cl 163
HCO3 55
Alk 45
pH 5.69

EZ Water 3.0
Ca 135
Mg 18
SO4 179
Na 21
Cl 164
Alk 45
pH 5.55

Everything is in balance with both programs EZ water seems to be better because it let me list all the proper amounts of grains that I will be using. I only have one question though, the Residual Alkalinity in both were in the negatives, -63.93 and -62 respectively. Is this common?

Thank you for your help!
 
RA = alkalinity - [calcium_hardness + magnesium_hardness/2]/3.5
thus any hard water with low alkalinity will exhibit negative RA. Thus any hard water where the hardness is mostly permanent will show low or negative RA. Water like this may not be that common but I wouldn't call it rare either.
 
A little. At RA = -100 your knockout pH in an all base malt mash would be nominally 0.168 pH lower than it would be in the same mash made with distilled water.
 

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