Diving into water profile

[Jag75]

Been doing research into water for brewing . I read the water primer section. Have my water acids and minerals . I finally got my water test back.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Your SO4 (sulfate) is actually 111 ppm.

Sodium is a bit high but not over the limit high, as is sulfate (for many recipes). For most recipes you will need to knock out (or at least knock down) the alkalinity via adding acid. Calcium is right where you want it to be. Chloride is OK also. I wouldn't be adding any additional sodium to it.

You will assuredly also need to acidify your sparge water.

You should be able to brew with it merely via controlling the alkalinity.

 

[Jag75]

So adding some Lactic acid is gonna be my main thing? Does this water look ok to brew many different types of beer with dropping the alk? I'm fixing to do a Neipa. I just got Brunwater so I will play around with it. Should I dilute with RO water or just add acid ?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I would just add acid. For an NEIPA I would also add some calcium chloride. Your sulfate level may be too high for NEIPA's though. You will just have to try it and find out. Or at least that's what I would do.

 

[Jag75]

I would just add acid. For an NEIPA I would also add some calcium chloride. Your sulfate level may be too high for NEIPA's though. You will just have to try it and find out. Or at least that's what I would do.

Thanks Silver . I should be able to input it on Brun water and play with the numbers to get it close . Wonder if cutting it with RO water would help with the Neipa.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Thanks Silver . I should be able to input it on Brun water and play with the numbers to get it close . Wonder if cutting it with RO water would help with the Neipa.

If you're going to do that, you might as well use all RO and just add minerals to it.

 

[Jag75]

If you're going to do that, you might as well use all RO and just add minerals to it.

Ok thank you for your help

 

[Jag75]

When adding lactic acid to bring down the alkalinity you wait until about 5 min into the mash step then again at 15 min. Then sparge you do separately. And when testing with the meter wait until mash is room temp?

 

[ajdelange]

With respect to acid addition: The easiest thing to do is to treat the total volume of water to be used (mash, sparge, dilution) with acid until its pH reaches the desired mash pH (e.g. 5.4). The water's alkalinity is now 0 (WRT to mash pH). The portion of the water to be used in the mash may require some additional acid to zero out the alkalinity of the base malt(s).

 

[Jag75]

If I add acid to my mash water before dough in and get down to say 5.4 . When I add base malts will the ph drop below the desired ph and then I would have to add something to bring it up? Alkalinity is checked with a ph meter ,correct ? As the alkalinity level drops it goes to more acidic level right ? Just trying to fully grasp this stuff .

 

[ajdelange]

If I add acid to my mash water before dough in and get down to say 5.4 . When I add base malts will the ph drop below the desired ph and then I would have to add something to bring it up?

No, when you add the base malts, which typically have pH's well above desired mash pH, pH will go up and you will need a bit more acid to compensate for this.

Alkalinity is checked with a ph meter ,correct ?

Alkalinity is the amount of acid you must add to a water (or malt) sample to get it to reach a standard pH level (usually 4.5 in the case of water). Thus you need a pH meter (or other means of determining pH such as a colored indicator dye) and a means of dispensing acid in accurately metered amounts in order to measure alkalinity.

As the alkalinity level drops it goes to more acidic level right ?

If you have water with alkalinity of 95 as CaCO3 (as you do here) that really means the alkalinity is 95/50 = 1.9 mEq/L. Thats how much acid the analyst had to add to 1L of your water to get the pH to 4.4 (that's the value Ward Labs uses). If he added 1 mEq/L and stopped the pH would be lower (but not as low 4.4) and the alkalinity of the sample would be reduced (to 1.0 mEq/L = 50 ppm as CaCO3).

This can be confusing to beginners who have probably been taught that pH is a measure of how acid or basic something is. That's not really the case. Acidity and alkalinity depend on the chemical composition of the solution and a pair of pH's. For example, the alkalinity of your water, between pH 8.1 and 4.4 is 1.9 mEq/L. The alkalinity of your water between pH 8.1 and mash pH (5.4) is about 90% of that.

 

[Jag75]

No, when you add the base malts, which typically have pH's well above desired mash pH, pH will go up and you will need a bit more acid to compensate for this.


Alkalinity is the amount of acid you must add to a water (or malt) sample to get it to reach a standard pH level (usually 4.5 in the case of water). Thus you need a pH meter (or other means of determining pH such as a colored indicator dye) and a means of dispensing acid in accurately metered amounts in order to measure alkalinity.

If you have water with alkalinity of 95 as CaCO3 (as you do here) that really means the alkalinity is 95/50 = 1.9 mEq/L. Thats how much acid the analyst had to add to 1L of your water to get the pH to 4.4 (that's the value Ward Labs uses). If he added 1 mEq/L and stopped the pH would be lower (but not as low 4.4) and the alkalinity of the sample would be reduced (to 1.0 mEq/L = 50 ppm as CaCO3).

This can be confusing to beginners who have probably been taught that pH is a measure of how acid or basic something is. That's not really the case. Acidity and alkalinity depend on the chemical composition of the solution and a pair of pH's. For example, the alkalinity of your water, between pH 8.1 and 4.4 is 1.9 mEq/L. The alkalinity of your water between pH 8.1 and mash pH (5.4) is about 90% of that.

Whoa I just had my mind blown lol. Very interesting stuff indeed. Some of you guys are seriously smart . It takes me a little longer to get this stuff . I appreciate you guys helping us newbies crawl first then get us walking .

 

[ajdelange]

We all crawled at one time.

 

[Big Monk]

We all crawled at one time.

Some of us still are...

 

[Jag75]

Is my water spot on for a stout ? Just curious because it turned out fantastic without doing any additions because it was brewed before my water report.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Is my water spot on for a stout ? Just curious because it turned out fantastic without doing any additions because it was brewed before my water report.

It depends on the recipe, but yes (with the risk that your sparge, if fly sparging, could extract tannins through high pH).

 

[Jag75]

I'm having a really tough time figuring out a NEIPA . The #'s that the beer calls for I cant even get close to . I thought all the boxes were supposed to turn green . I did what silver said and inputed some calcium chloride . My starting point is 111 and I have to get down to 75. Even my sulfate is too high at 75 and it should be down to 12. I'm wondering if I should just start with RO water for this beer and build up