Brewers friend light and hoppy

[451brewer]

Has anyone used RO/distilled water and the light and hoppy profile on brewers friend? I did this with my last ipa and it turned out to have little to no malt profile. Really hoppy water. Brewed all grain and my mash temps were on. OG and FG were on. Trying to figure out if it's the recipe , water , or something else. 11.5 lbs 2-row .5 lbs caramel 20L mash at 152.


Life's a brew, drink it.

 

[renthispace]

I'm about to embark down the RO water lane and also use brewers friend. I've been reading the Water book and its definitely has tought me a lot. There are many more styles listed (and reasons for different ion concentrations) that what brewersfriend lists. So you're a step ahead of me, but I've been coming to the same question (I'm assuming). What is the best way to make water from RO? What software/style (mineral additions) should I try for?

I haven't comared brewersfriends calculations to any of the other popular water software, but according to the Water literature, I was getting similar additions to reach a certain concentration with a few things I checked (this by no way means brewersfriend is accurate, I will wait until I test it's predictability with a pH pen on brew day). But at least it passes the sniff test.

And now lets talk about the light and hoppy profile. BF lists it as:
Ca|-Mg-|-Na-|-Cl-|-SO4-|-HCO
75|---5--|-10-|-50-|-150-|---0---

The water book listes for "American Pale, American XPA, Saison, American IPA, Double IPA" as:
----Ca-----|-Mg-|-Na-|----Cl----|-----SO4---|---HCO
50-150 |--------|-------| 0-100 | 100-400 | 40-120


And this is where I've gotten. I know there were some minimum values listed for Mg and Na but I need to re-read this section. Also, I need to reread about the different ranges and what is optimal for varoius conditions. But you can tell there are definitely some differences between these profiles. I'm sure someone with better knowledge and finish what I started and make recomendations.

 

[brewmeister13]

Probably the grain bill/hop schedule. I brew my IPA's with lower mineral water and enjoy it immensely. If you want more malt presence you could try adding 5-10% Munich to increase malt presence and not the residual sweetness.

 

[451brewer]

A little update on my beer. I have pored a few more and it's totally different now. It's tasting way less watery and more malt characters are showing up. Becoming a great tasting ipa. A little side note I did the gelatin clarification process on this batch and it works awesome. This may have lead to some of the watery taste I had although I thought I pored plenty of waist before testing it. Anyway beer taste great!

As for how I get my additions is I use beer smith. I got the profile from brewers friend because beer smith really only shows profiles for regions. I don't like this because just because that's the water they have in their region doesn't mean they didn't alter the water before brewing with it. Another great thing about beer smith is after you enter you base water and then your target water it will auto calculate your additions. With brewers friend you have to tweet the number and keep updating.

I have been thinking about buying the water book. Is it worth it or is there enough info online?

Water chemistry and crushing my grain at home are my new task this year.


Life's a brew, drink it.

 

[451brewer]

Wanted to show how well the gelatin works. I'm highly impressed. I had my doubts of how well it would work. Maybe next time I will do a before and after.


Life's a brew, drink it.