Check out my water!

[porter1974]

 

[porter1974]

I brewed one batch of Maris Otter SMASH with this water. I used 4 ounces of whole leaf cascade hops. 1.5 ounces at 60, 1.5 at 10 and 1 at flameout. The beer is good but lacks much hop aroma. Do any of you think the water played a part in the lack of hop aroma?

 

[BigEd]

I brewed one batch of Maris Otter SMASH with this water. I used 4 ounces of whole leaf cascade hops. 1.5 ounces at 60, 1.5 at 10 and 1 at flameout. The beer is good but lacks much hop aroma. Do any of you think the water played a part in the lack of hop aroma?

The water is fairly alkaline and very low in sulfates. Without adjustment it is better suited for dark ales like porter and stout than hoppy, pale ales. So, yes, the lack of hop presence in the beer was influenced by this water's makeup. To brew a pale ale with expected hop punch the alkalinity would need to be reduced (by dilution or other means like pre-boiling) and sulfate in the form of gypsum should be added. You should check out the information on brewing water in the Brew Science forum section.

 

[mabrungard]

Its a workable water. The main concern is to neutralize the alkalinity for each grist and always for each sparge. One option is to preboil that water in order to knock out temporary hardness. That takes out most of the calcium and a portion of the alkalinity.

You probably won't want to add any magnesium salts since there is sufficient magnesium in the water. The chloride level is fairly significant too and you should limit adding much chloride salts.

 

[thenugsmoustache]

Your water is very similar to my own. Works great for darker beers on its own. For pale beers I usually dilute with reverse osmosis water 50/50 and add calcium chloride and gypsum to get my mineral content where I want it. Plus acidulated malt to hit desired mash pH. I suggest using Bru'n water, it makes these calculations much easier.

As far as your recipe an increased sulfate level would increase hop perception. But a nice dry hop addition would also increase hop aroma. How long from Brew day till consumption? Cascade in my experience doesn't have a lot of staying power, so best consumed as fresh as possible. I've done Cascade SMaSHes with a similar hop schedule with the addition of a two ounce dry hop and they are always delicious.