Can a get a few extra sets of eyes on my water adjustment?

[merkinman]

Hello All.

I will be brewing a second batch of my last beer next week. This batch will have a small gravity adjustment as well as some water adjustments. The beer is a (for lack of a better term) a pseudo German pils (80/20 Pils/Munich) with Mittelfruh hops.

I want to bring out a sharper hop profile commonly found in examples like Bittburger and Left Hand's Polestar among others.

My water before adjustments:

Cal 32 | Mg 2 | Sodium 12 | Sulfate 25 | BiCarb 36 | Chloride 6

I plan to add .5 grams Calcium Cloride and .5 grams Epsom Salts per gallon:

Which, by my calculations (with help from J. Palmer's How to Brew):

Cal 131 | Mg 15 | Sodium 12 | Sulfate 76 | BiCarb 36 | Chloride 69

I feel as though this is a minor adjustment, though I am a little concerned about the Calcium level.

Any input or red flag warnings would be very appreciated. :rockin:

 

[Yooper]

For a pilsner, I would not increase the sulfate. You can, but I'd do minimal amounts. Shoot for a mash pH of 5.3-5.4, that's the important thing. Chloride of 50 ppm is sufficient, and you can lower the CaCl2 to get you there. Calcium of 40-50ppm is fine.

You may need some acid or acid malt to get the pH in range, and most folks will.

 

[merkinman]

Interesting.

The Sulfate was what I was looking to adjust the most (using Dortmund 120 and Vienna 125 as examples). I do not want to go as far as Dortmund water -- somewhere in between there and Munich.

I think it was Kaiser who suggested somewhere to keep sulfates around 100 and higher than chlorides. I used that suggestion as well.

My goal is for something like Bittburger which tastes somewhere between a Munich Helles and a Dortmunder.

Removing the Epsom Salts would result in:

Cal 68 | Mg 2 | Sodium 12 | Sulfate 25 | BiCarb 36 | Chloride 69

which raised the calcium to levels I am looking for . . .

any more thoughts?
This is helpful.

 

[mabrungard]

For a German Pils, you do have to focus on sulfate. Not crazy high content, but more than what you have naturally. Look at the water profile for Jever, Germany which is included in the Bru'n Water profiles. Jever Pils is a pretty fine GP, in my opinion. 75 ppm SO4 and 30 ppm Cl. I do recommend obtaining some of that SO4 content via Epsom Salt addition to keep the calcium lower. Don't take the Mg over 15 ppm.

 

[gspot]

Thanks for this thread, all. I'm doing a German pils this weekend with a similar goal (Bitburgerish) as the OP. I lived in Duisburg, Germany, for a couple years and have fond memories of König Pils, which is very similar to Bitburger and Warsteiner. I'll be starting with 100% RO, and will approach the Jever profile using Martin's spreadsheet.

 

[merkinman]

Thank you for all the input.
The suggestion to look to Jever was helpful indeed.

I've decided to go with adding
.25g Gypsum
.10g Epsom Salt
.10g Calcium Chloride
to my home water, which should result in a water with the following profile:

Cal 54 | Mg 4.6 | Na 12 | Sulfate 73 | BiCarb 36 | Chlor 19

It looks like I may be able to get closer building up RO water, but I'd prefer not to go that route.
I am going to start building the water in a couple of hours, so let me know if you see something that looks just plain crazy.

 

[gspot]

Is the Jever profile only in the paid version? I didn't see it in my free version and had to use Duesseldorf profile instead. I guess that's ok though, because Koenig is brewed in Duisburg, which is a mere 20 mins away.