I would go with the current recommendations which @Northern_Brewer provided. That said I do not do much with my water, which has quite a high alkalinity. I either use a bit of lactic acid or acid malt, or I boil water the day before and let the chalk precipitate. The latter is something I do rarely, either for water that needs a lot of minerals (so my calcium does not go through the roof) or for German Helles.
Have a look here
I 2nd that!
. It tastes like a Berliner Weisse with lots of additional hops inside. Not bad at all, but not what I expected and not what the brewer intended. It even happens to the bigger professionals.
And of course, as Miraculix says, you can tweak profiles after your liking.I 2nd that!
Just do what works for you. British waters are sometimes highly mineral but more than 150 ppm sulfate is not nice, according to my own palate. Try brewing with 400 ppm once and you might either fall in love with it or agree with me. Both are reasonable possibilities.
I like to balance sulfate and chloride in between 100 and 200 each.
Btw. I am having a "Pinkus Spezial Pils" atm which went completely sideways
Intersting isn't it? I do not like that "zing" at all and attribute it to only a small percentage of the British beers I have had when living there. It might be related to the area one lives in and obviously which beers one fancies. Personal taste and preferences certainly differ heavily from person to person.
I've first recognised it within a Marston old empire IPA. There's this hop bite thing going on which you cannot really get from hops alone but need high sulfate levels as well. I'm actually not sure what their sulfate levels are so if they are low I'm completely on the wrong track.
Just curious to taste test without committing a homebrew batch to it.
Exactly my thoughts as well. I try to get calcium above 100, better in the direction of 150 while not letting sulfate rise much above 100. Chloride will be above 150 this way, sometimes around 200. Works for me!
The reason for the smell must be found somewhere else. As an experiment, take a glass of non-chlorinated water. Add a teaspoon of table salt and dissolve it. The water is now a solution with chloride levels way beyond what's being used in beer. Does it smell like a swimming pool to you?
I'll see if I can find out more. Maybe it was a more mineralic smell from who knows what combination. Just found it interesting that this one chloride-heavy test beer gave much more noticeable results than the sufate-heavy beer.
I tend to notice some apricot notes in canned Guinness once I get used to the roastiness. I have a beer with Wyeat 1084 fermenting right now at 21°C (70°F), so I'm curious if I will notice the same thing.Was it this thread that said wy1028 didn’t give a marmalade flavor? My Guinness clone has a bit of it with the Wyeast Irish yeast. Thing fermemented in the low 70s oops. If amusing because I thought it was dish soap on the glass at first. It’s currently an orange citrus scent. It also has some dark fruit undertones as it warms. Not bad but not what I planned. Only 5gal to go!
Yeah looks like +90% of mine was done at 71-72. Apricot? maybe that too. But def. sometimes an orangy aroma.
The spec sheet I got from a sack purchased a while back had some min/max values. The values out of spec from that are:
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
