Calcium Chloride & Gypsum for IPA

[Havoc]

I started with 6.5g of distilled water, and added calcium chloride and calcium sulphate to adjust the water profile.

I added 1 3/4tsp Gypsum and 1tsp of calcium chloride prior to the boil.

I was hoping for a strong hop forward profile with a bit of sweetness (NEIPAish) but now as I wait for the beer to ferment I'm wondering if I screwed up.

So, did I screw up the ratio?

 

[McKnuckle]

Did you mash with plain distilled water? Salts are typically added to the mash to adjust pH for optimum conversion. I'd think the pH would be a little high in the mash if you used pure distilled. Did you hit your target OG?

Adding salts to the boil is another optional step, but the mash is usually where these components work their magic.

 

[Dgallo]

I started with 6.5g of distilled water, and added calcium chloride and calcium sulphate to adjust the water profile.

I added 1 3/4tsp Gypsum and 1tsp of calcium chloride prior to the boil.

I was hoping for a strong hop forward profile with a bit of sweetness (NEIPAish) but now as I wait for the beer to ferment I'm wondering if I screwed up.

So, did I screw up the ratio?

Did you plug it into a spread sheet or calculator and see what your mash Ppms would be.

The whole ratio thing is only guideline and really doesn’t help produce a better or juicier beer just because you follow it. 1:2 ratio is what people call for but think about it 50:100 will produce a beer much different than 150:300, so don’t get hung up on the ratio worry more about the final ppm. Also calcium and sodium also play a big role in the final beer and a mg level over 20 can make the beer harsher.

You need to be more concerned about overall water profiles than a ratio. I use;

Ca:90-110 ppm
Cl:150-160 ppm
So4: 100-110 ppm
Na: 70-80 ppm
Mg: 8-13 ppm

 

[Havoc]

Did you mash with plain distilled water? Salts are typically added to the mash to adjust pH for optimum conversion. I'd think the pH would be a little high in the mash if you used pure distilled. Did you hit your target OG?

Adding salts to the boil is another optional step, but the mash is usually where these components work their magic.

I did a mini mash, the bulk fermentable was extract. But I did hit my target gravity

 

[Dgallo]

I did a mini mash, the bulk fermentable was extract. But I did hit my target gravity

You can’t adjust extract brew with any certainty. The extract companies adjust their mashes that make their extracts. You have no idea what they adjusted with so you literally taking a shot in the dark. You’re better off not adjusting at all or just using a gram of gypsum and calling it a day

 

[Jag75]

Like Dgallo said the extract is already adjusted no need to add anything.

 

[Havoc]

I appreciate the input!

I was aiming to adjust calcium rather than sodium for the specific mouthfeel and flavor. In terms of knowing what to adjust for, Briess actually did provide a profile for sulphate and chloride, 64ppm and 28ppm respectively. At least, another thread on here seemed to indicate that was the case.

Hopefully I didn't ruin it, but I'll post an update here regardless. Thanks!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

In terms of knowing what to adjust for, Briess actually did provide a profile for sulphate and chloride, 64ppm and 28ppm respectively.

edit: revised the question. Do you remember the link or topic title?

What is the source for this information (reads like it was directly from Briess)?

Do the PPM measurements refer to the water profile or the wort?

 

[Havoc]

edit: revised the question. Do you remember the link or topic title?

What is the source for this information (reads like it was directly from Briess)?

Do the PPM measurements refer to the water profile or the wort?

When I'm near a computer I'll update with relevant threads, but I wasn't even thinking about how they might adjust their profile

I assumed the PH would be altered for mashing, but didn't really think they'd do much beyond that. D'oh.

 

[walker111]

Did you plug it into a spread sheet or calculator and see what your mash Ppms would be.

The whole ratio thing is only guideline and really doesn’t help produce a better or juicier beer just because you follow it. 1:2 ratio is what people call for but think about it 50:100 will produce a beer much different than 150:300, so don’t get hung up on the ratio worry more about the final ppm. Also calcium and sodium also play a big role in the final beer and a mg level over 20 can make the beer harsher.

You need to be more concerned about overall water profiles than a ratio. I use;

Ca:90-110 ppm
Cl:150-160 ppm
So4: 100-110 ppm
Na: 70-80 ppm
Mg: 8-13 ppm

I am inquiring on this too. The last report I can get for my area has
Ca 56
Cl 12
SO4 75
Na 9
Mg 16
HCO3 173
We have hard water. It seems my water is low in a lot of these numbers.
Any recomendations on additions for an IPA or Pale ale?

Thanks

 

[Dgallo]

I am inquiring on this too. The last report I can get for my area has
Ca 56
Cl 12
SO4 75
Na 9
Mg 16
HCO3 173
We have hard water. It seems my water is low in a lot of these numbers.
Any recomendations on additions for an IPA or Pale ale?

Thanks

Buy some calcium chloride, gypsum, canning salt, baking soda, and lactic or phosphoric acid Download Bru’n water spreadsheet. Plug in the existing water profile and grain bill in the sheets needed. Then just play around with the amounts of each adjustment until you hit somewhere in the range I listed in my earlier post in this thread. Since your base water has a slightly elevated level of mg, I would avoid adjusting with Epsom salt since it will raise of your mg

 

[walker111]

Buy some calcium chloride, gypsum, canning salt, baking soda, and lactic or phosphoric acid Download Bru’n water spreadsheet. Plug in the existing water profile and grain bill in the sheets needed. Then just play around with the amounts of each adjustment until you hit somewhere in the range I listed in my earlier post in this thread. Since your base water has a slightly elevated level of mg, I would avoid adjusting with Epsom salt since it will raise of your mg

Brewed a 10 g Yoopers Pale Ale yesterday ( love that beer)and adjusted water with 9 g of gypsum and 5 CC and 5 ml of LA. Added 5 ml of LA to my sparge water too. Measured ph 10 min in and got 5.27 and 25 minutes in and got 5.4.

2 mishaps.
-27 here and needed to thaw my 100 foot hose in basement shower for my plate chiller. Worked but a bit of a gong show. Need to get adapters for my kitchen sink but it is the pull out nozzle type. The wort entering my fermonsters was so hot it warped the plastic some!!! My blunder!!!
Miss brewing in garage but -27!!!!!!!
off on OG by .05 so no big deal there .

Thanks for replies.

 

[walker111]

Still need to try a program and will try bru n water like suggested