Brew water help!

[BuiltToLast]

So I'm trying to figure out how to get my mash water dialed in with Bru'n water and I'm having a hell of a time getting things to balance out. If I get my pH (5.3) and ion levels dialed in by adding lactic acid, my Bicarbonate/Alkalinity/RA are WAY in the negative. If I get my by bicarbonate levels and ions dialed in my mash is an expected 5.6+ pH. I'm clearly missing something here. I've been brewing commercially for 9 years (just now returning to home brewing) and we treat our water pretty much the same way for all the brews we do, so this is all foreign to me. Trying to figure this out is quite daunting. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Yooper]

5.3 is a bit low, but that works for lighter colored beers so it may depend on what you're making.

The thing you want to do is have a proper mash pH. The amount of bicarbonate is NOT a target- you only need as much alkalinity as you need to get the right mash pH. Never increase that, unless you have a reason to need to raise the mash pH (almost never, but maybe with RO water and a ton of dark roasted grains).

 

[BuiltToLast]

Thanks for the quick reply! So I got it all dialed in, here's a screen shot of bru'n water. Does this look appropriate? It gives me a pH of 5.4.

 

[Yooper]

What's the projected mash pH? I see you chose "amber bitter", so I assume it's something like an American amber/red?

I'd probably ditch that minute amount of NaCl, and just add it as CaS04 to increase the calcium a wee bit more (to assist yeast flocculation), but if your mash pH is 5.4, and you're happy with the additions, it looks ok to me.

 

[BuiltToLast]

Thanks for your input Yooper. I'd like my mash to be 5.4pH and I'm brewing an american IPA with an SRM of about 8, so it seems that puts it in the Amber category. My water report is much different then most of the ones I've seen, so its been hard to find something to compare this too. In the brewery we use 19oz of gypsum in the mash with 127 gallons of water, but thats for traditional english ales. Thats quite the discrepancy considering we're both drawing off the same municipal water source. I don't want to base my recipes off that ratio, because those recipes were created over 25 years ago by people who didn't really know much about brewing science....

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for your input Yooper. I'd like my mash to be 5.4pH and I'm brewing an american IPA with an SRM of about 8, so it seems that puts it in the Amber category. My water report is much different then most of the ones I've seen, so its been hard to find something to compare this too. In the brewery we use 19oz of gypsum in the mash with 127 gallons of water, but thats for traditional english ales. Thats quite the discrepancy considering we're both drawing off the same municipal water source. I don't want to base my recipes off that ratio, because those recipes were created over 25 years ago by people who didn't really know much about brewing science....

If you like a higher sulfate, you could try Mosher's pale ale profile- it uses 300 ppm of sulfate, which is often a bit too much for me, but in some IPAs it's awesome. Plus, many many brewers like a higher sulfate level than I do (probably most).

I'd increase the calcium, leave the chloride pretty low, and up the sulfate.

 

[BuiltToLast]

So I decided to change the water profile over to Pale Ale. I can get it all dialed in, but my Mg levels are low. I have always added YeastEx to my brews, so I wondering if I can get away with slightly lower Mg levels and still have good yeast health. I've attached a copy of the current water profile, incase anyone is willing to take a quick peek.

 

[Yooper]

Malt has plenty of magnesium, so you don't have to worry about that. The only reason to add Mg is if you want the flavor impact. I normally don't, but many others like that slight "sour" note that 25 ppm or so will give you.