I have decided to finally give building my water a go for the first time on an upcoming Kolsch. I have access to this year's water report, our water here is very soft so I am going to just build from there.
I was hoping some of the water experts would look over this and see if I am making any horrible mistakes.
Here is the base water (ppm):
Ca: 4
Mg: 1.1
Na: 9.4
Cl: 5
SO4: 7
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 22
Adding calcium chloride, gypsum, and epsom salt to achieve (ppm):
Ca: 96
Mg: 14
Na: 9.4
Cl: 125
SO4: 122
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 22
A few questions:
1. Is it easier to treat all the water (~10 gallons) and draw off for the mash and sparge, or treat the mash and the sparge separately?
2. How hard is to get this stuff to dissolve? I am thinking I might treat the mash and the sparge separately so I can use the heating of the water to aid in dissolving the salts. I know it is not technically necessary to treat the sparge water, but I want to achieve certain ion levels/ratios in the final beer.
On a side note: Anyone have water with Ca this low? I did not realize it was so low, I think I have been cheating my yeasts out of a needed nutrient.
Am I missing anything here?
I was hoping some of the water experts would look over this and see if I am making any horrible mistakes.
Here is the base water (ppm):
Ca: 4
Mg: 1.1
Na: 9.4
Cl: 5
SO4: 7
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 22
Adding calcium chloride, gypsum, and epsom salt to achieve (ppm):
Ca: 96
Mg: 14
Na: 9.4
Cl: 125
SO4: 122
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 22
A few questions:
1. Is it easier to treat all the water (~10 gallons) and draw off for the mash and sparge, or treat the mash and the sparge separately?
2. How hard is to get this stuff to dissolve? I am thinking I might treat the mash and the sparge separately so I can use the heating of the water to aid in dissolving the salts. I know it is not technically necessary to treat the sparge water, but I want to achieve certain ion levels/ratios in the final beer.
On a side note: Anyone have water with Ca this low? I did not realize it was so low, I think I have been cheating my yeasts out of a needed nutrient.
Am I missing anything here?