Calling Water Build Experts

[optimatored]

This is for a Coffee Stout... its low on hops in the boil (18ish IBUs) but I assume the coffee I add to the secondary will add some bitterness. Heres the profile, built from 100-percent distilled and I like to add all my salts to the mash. Would anyone change anything?

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 0
Mg: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 0
SO4: 0
HCO3: 0

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4.25 / 3
Dilution Rate: 100%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 7 / 0
CaSO4: 1 / 0
CaCl2: 1.5 / 0
MgSO4: 3.4 / 0
NaHCO3: 5.4 / 0
NaCl: 1.2 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 214 / 125
Mg: 20 / 12
Na: 121 / 71
Cl: 90 / 53
SO4: 117 / 69
CaCO3: 414 / 242

RA (mash only): 249 (26 to 30 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.77 (Balanced)

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I'm certainly no water expert (ajdelange is but I only see his posts in the Science forum) but it appears to me that you're adding WAY too much chalk and baking soda and you don't need any Epsom or table salt either.

Read the sticky in the Science forum, most of the time you won't need to add any chalk or baking soda (or table salt or Epsom salt). There is plenty of Magnesium in the malt so you don't need any from the Epsom. You don't need any sodium and you can get plenty of chloride from CaCl (and you'll need the Calcium). So the only thing you usually need to add is Calcium; but not with any carbonate, which only leaves CaCl and Gypsum. Sulphate is generally not very tasty unless it's a hoppy beer and since this isn't a hoppy beer, that only leaves CaCl.

FWIW, when I was using beer color to try and determine in my target RA; it was my dark beers that came out harsh (I assume from tannin extraction). My lighter colored beers were fine.

 

[optimatored]

I'm certainly no water expert (ajdelange is but I only see his posts in the Science forum) but it appears to me that you're adding WAY too much chalk and baking soda and you don't need any Epsom or table salt either.

Read the sticky in the Science forum, most of the time you won't need to add any chalk or baking soda (or table salt or Epsom salt). There is plenty of Magnesium in the malt so you don't need any from the Epsom. You don't need any sodium and you can get plenty of chloride from CaCl (and you'll need the Calcium). So the only thing you usually need to add is Calcium; but not with any carbonate, which only leaves CaCl and Gypsum. Sulphate is generally not very tasty unless it's a hoppy beer and since this isn't a hoppy beer, that only leaves CaCl.

FWIW, when I was using beer color to try and determine in my target RA; it was my dark beers that came out harsh (I assume from tannin extraction). My lighter colored beers were fine.

I was working off the RA/Cl:SO4 and getting as close to my SRM of 37 as possible. As well as going by the Dublin water profile.

I read through the sticky you mentioned and it is not clear to me as to why not adding some minerals over others is beneficial.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I was working off the RA/Cl:SO4 and getting as close to my SRM of 37 as possible. As well as going by the Dublin water profile.

I read through the sticky you mentioned and it is not clear to me as to why not adding some minerals over others is beneficial.

Using the beer color to determine target RA often just doesn't work very well. Brewing with published water profiles (or rather, why you probably shouldn't brew with them) is covered pretty well in that thread. Sulphate generally comes across as harsh. In brewing, alkalinity is bad. I'm just paraphrasing things that ajdelange has written (hopefully not butchering them too much).

For fear of stepping in it and giving you bad advice, try posting in that stickied thread (A Water Chemistry Primer); aj is pretty good about responding (just be patient). But if it were me, I'd just use a little bottled spring water (or tap if it's useable) in addition to your distilled (still using almost all distilled water) and use the guidelines in that thread (i.e. 1 tsp CaCl per 5 gal water, no acid malt, that's it).