Adjusting the water profile

[Bokdem]

I'd like to brew a NEIPA, the water profile is kind of important when brewing this beer as far as I have read. Also, since I'm still kind of new to brewing, I'd like to get started with adjusting my brew water.

I've already been reading some about this aspect. For as far as I know there are different kind of salts you can add to the brew water to adjust the PH, Calcium? (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

Do I only need the salts and a PH meter to adjust the brew water?
Is there maybe a good article which goes into this, understandable for me?

Any info on this will be much appreciated!!

 

[bajaedition]

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/balancing-the-malts-and-minerals
http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/05/07/mash-ph-and-why-it-matters-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

 

[ba-brewer]

Read this post
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

Mash pH is important but having a pH meter is nice to have but not necessary if you shoot for the middle of the normal pH range. I have a pH meter and use it more to verify the calculation then a real time tool. I RO water and build up and normally come within 0.15 of the calculated values.

Find the BruNwater spreadsheet or use the water calculator in beersmith or the one on brewewsfriend website, they all give pretty close results.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I've already been reading some about this aspect. For as far as I know there are different kind of salts you can add to the brew water to adjust the PH, Calcium? (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

Adding salts to the water will have a slight impact on pH, but aren't (normally) used with the intent of adjusting pH. Salts are added in the same way as seasonings for food - to enhance and lift the other flavors. Choose the salts you want to add to get the concentrations of ions that you want, then work out how much acid/base you need to add to get the pH that you want. Most IPA's have a LOT of sulfate and low chloride, but NE IPA's have high chloride levels. This all gets quite complicated - you're probably better off as a new brewer just using the brewing water sticky from the brew science section, and focusing more on getting clean ferments (which has more of an impact on quality beer) -- eg. control ferment temperature.

 

[Bokdem]

I've been using the calculator on homebrewfriend. Filled in my local water profile and choose the 'light colored and hoppy'-profile to compare with. The results are shown below.

Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2 HCO
Actual 36.8 3.2 8.1 8.0 5.0 0.000

Delta -38.2 -1.8 -1.9 -42.0 -145.0 0.0

I'm not sure on which of these are the most important and what exactly to add to my local water to adjust to the right levels.

 

[Bokdem]

Adding salts to the water will have a slight impact on pH, but aren't (normally) used with the intent of adjusting pH. Salts are added in the same way as seasonings for food - to enhance and lift the other flavors. Choose the salts you want to add to get the concentrations of ions that you want, then work out how much acid/base you need to add to get the pH that you want. Most IPA's have a LOT of sulfate and low chloride, but NE IPA's have high chloride levels. This all gets quite complicated - you're probably better off as a new brewer just using the brewing water sticky from the brew science section, and focusing more on getting clean ferments (which has more of an impact on quality beer) -- eg. control ferment temperature.

Been working on things like this as well. But just also like to experiment with water profiles. Hoping there's someone on here to provide me with the info that I can somehow start off with.

 

[Yooper]

I've been using the calculator on homebrewfriend. Filled in my local water profile and choose the 'light colored and hoppy'-profile to compare with. The results are shown below.

Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2 HCO
Actual 36.8 3.2 8.1 8.0 5.0 0.000

Delta -38.2 -1.8 -1.9 -42.0 -145.0 0.0

I'm not sure on which of these are the most important and what exactly to add to my local water to adjust to the right levels.

The "light colored and hoppy" profile generally favors the west coast IPAs with the high sulfate (the S04).

You will want a mash pH of 5.3-5.4, that's the most important thing. Then you can use calcium chloride, to bring the calcium to 50-100 ppm and the chloride to 125-150 ppm or so. That's about all you need for the style you want to brew.

For a brewing spreadsheet to help estimate the mash pH, Brewer's Friend has a free water chemistry spreadsheet (you need the advanced one for mash pH estimation). You input the grainbill, and the calcium chloride (start with 10 grams for a 5 gallon batch) and then see what the mash pH is projected to be.