English Ales - What's your favorite recipe?

[schmurf]

@schmurf
Brewed another five points yesterday, used the hop missile for the flameout addition and as a wort filter. We'll see how it goes, fermenting away at 19.5 at the moment. Will update in a week or two.

What's your procedure using the hop missile in this case? I've got one too but only used it twice so far and for american IPAs. The final product always turned out very hazy.

 

[McMullan]

@schmurf
Brewed another five points yesterday, used the hop missile for the flameout addition and as a wort filter. We'll see how it goes, fermenting away at 19.5 at the moment. Will update in a week or two.

I found the HopRocket too effective when I first used it for 30 minute steep (recirculated) at 80℃. It was a nice beer, but way too hoppy for a bitter.

 

[McMullan]

What's your procedure using the hop missile in this case? I've got one too but only used it twice so far and for american IPAs. The final product always turned out very hazy.

Are you using whole hops?

 

[schmurf]

No, I use pellets but put them in a fine bag first.

 

[McMullan]

No, I use pellets but put them in a fine bag first.

I'd say go with whole hops, if you can. Pretty much impossible to get them here in Norway. Petit Agentur used to do them but they seem to be struggling with stock generally these days. I've got more Admiral, Bramling Cross and Goldings than I'm going to use. If you want and you're happy to cover postage (shouldn't be that much to Sweden) you're welcome to some. They've been vacuum sealed (not nitrogen flushed) and stored @ -20 since I got them last year. I use them quite often and haven't noticed any deterioration yet.

 

[schmurf]

I'd say go with whole hops, if you can. Pretty much impossible to get them here in Norway. Petit Agentur used to do them but they seem to be struggling with stock generally these days. I've got more Admiral, Bramling Cross and Goldings than I'm going to use. If you want and you're happy to cover postage (shouldn't be that much to Sweden) you're welcome to some. They've been vacuum sealed (not nitrogen flushed) and stored @ -20 since I got them last year. I use them quite often and haven't noticed any deterioration yet.

Thank you, that would be very kind of you! I think I've only seen whole hops at humle.se lately, and only for a few varieties. I can't remember using Admiral before but I'm a frequent user of Bramling Cross.

 

[McMullan]

Thank you, that would be very kind of you! I think I've only seen whole hops at humle.se lately, and only for a few varieties. I can't remember using Admiral before but I'm a frequent user of Bramling Cross.

Yes, humle.se used to sell a lot more whole hops than they seem to now. PM me your details and I'll get some posted. I'll export as 'gift'.

 

[bwible]

I’m finally getting around to brewing a best bitter this week. I have this on deck, hope to brew on Tuesday:

3 Gallon batch (collect 4 gallons, boil down to 3.5, 3.5 into fermenter so that I actually get 3 gallons of finished beer)

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.011
%ABV: 4.39
IBU: 34
SRM: 11.8

2.8 lbs Fawcett Golden Promise
2 lbs Breiss Ashburne Mild Ale Malt
.5 lb Crystal 40L
5 oz Biscuit Malt

Boil Time 60 min

.6 oz Challenger 6.3% 60 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 20 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 5 min

Verdant IPA Yeast (first time use - never used it before)

For water adjustments, I come up with;

Ca Mg Na Cl So
102 12 21 57 131

I’m trying to use up some grains I have just a little left in a way that makes sense

 

[McMullan]

I’m finally getting around to brewing a best bitter this week. I have this on deck, hope to brew on Tuesday:

3 Gallon batch (collect 4 gallons, boil down to 3.5, 3.5 into fermenter so that I actually get 3 gallons of finished beer)

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.011
%ABV: 4.39
IBU: 34
SRM: 11.8

2.8 lbs Fawcett Golden Promise
2 lbs Breiss Ashburne Mild Ale Malt
.5 lb Crystal 40L
5 oz Biscuit Malt

Boil Time 60 min

.6 oz Challenger 6.3% 60 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 20 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 5 min

Verdant IPA Yeast (first time use - never used it before)

For water adjustments, I come up with;

Ca Mg Na Cl So
102 12 21 57 131

I’m trying to use up some grains I have just a little left in a way that makes sense

Are you being a bit reserved with the water treatment? For Bitters I use 150 (Ca), 10 (Mg), 40 (Na), 273 (SO4), 137 (Cl) and 15 (CO3), based on Graham Wheeler's calculator. Recipe looks nice, though. Based on what's been said about Verdant IPA so far it might be worth adding a little cane sugar, like demerara?

 

[bwible]

Are you being a bit reserved with the water treatment? For Bitters I use 150 (Ca), 10 (Mg), 40 (Na), 273 (SO4), 137 (Cl) and 15 (CO3), based on Graham Wheeler's calculator. Recipe looks nice, though. Based on what's been said about Verdant IPA so far it might be worth adding a little cane sugar, like demerara?

Thanks. I’ll go back and take a look at that again. That’s going to be a whole lot of gypsum to get to that.

 

[cire]

I’m finally getting around to brewing a best bitter this week. I have this on deck, hope to brew on Tuesday:

3 Gallon batch (collect 4 gallons, boil down to 3.5, 3.5 into fermenter so that I actually get 3 gallons of finished beer)

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.011
%ABV: 4.39
IBU: 34
SRM: 11.8

2.8 lbs Fawcett Golden Promise
2 lbs Breiss Ashburne Mild Ale Malt
.5 lb Crystal 40L
5 oz Biscuit Malt

Boil Time 60 min

.6 oz Challenger 6.3% 60 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 20 min
.5 oz First Gold 6.8% 5 min

Verdant IPA Yeast (first time use - never used it before)

For water adjustments, I come up with;

Ca Mg Na Cl So
102 12 21 57 131

I’m trying to use up some grains I have just a little left in a way that makes sense

I can't get that water profile to balance except by including an excessive quantity of alkalinity, a bit more than 130 ppm as CaCO3, alternatively 160 ppm as HCO3. This would be far to much for a bitter.

Even one with a such significant proportion of crystal and roasted malts shouldn't need as much as 50 ppm alkalinity. Might you revisit that profile once more? I think an extra 2 gm of gypsum and 1 gm of calcium chloride flake would come closer to a typical water profile for an English Bitter.

 

[DuncB]

@McMullan
As usual with a new piece of kit a bit fiddly. I watched the review and use of it on the David Heath you tube, he said wort in through the top and out the bottom with the hop pellets in a bag with some rice hulls. It really struggled to flow and I had to take it apart twice. Afterwards I found very little liquid in the hop rocket ( due to it all being packed down tight) but the hops hadn't disintegrated and so I'm unsure on the utilisation. Next time I'll leave more space for expansion in the bag as well and have some camlocks coming which will make life easier.
Having watched several other videos it appears that I had the flow going the wrong way so that might explain my issues. I'll know in a week or so the effect of the hopping .
You live and learn I suppose. All was going so well up to the blocking issue and that made the day drag on. On a positive note the yeast starter was voracious and it's nearly finished fermenting in less than 72 hours which was a bit unexpected. Time will tell and I will sample for gravity and an early taste tonight.

 

[bwible]

I can't get that water profile to balance except by including an excessive quantity of alkalinity, a bit more than 130 ppm as CaCO3, alternatively 160 ppm as HCO3. This would be far to much for a bitter.

Even one with a such significant proportion of crystal and roasted malts shouldn't need as much as 50 ppm alkalinity. Might you revisit that profile once more? I think an extra 2 gm of gypsum and 1 gm of calcium chloride flake would come closer to a typical water profile for an English Bitter.

I don’t know what that means - can’t get a water profile to balance. I’m just putting numbers in a spreadsheet trying to get close to a given water profile. I had my water tested by Ward Labs. I entered those numbers and my grain bill. Then I dilute a percentage of my tap water with distilled water when I want to lower one of the numbers and I add salts back to raise the values I want raised.

I did go back and add more salts as suggested and got to a different set.

Ca Mg Na Cl So
142 11 45 119 240

Does that look better?

 

[schmurf]

@DuncB yes I think David Heath did it wrong way, I did go from bottom to top.

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks. I’ll go back and take a look at that again. That’s going to be a whole lot of gypsum to get to that.

I recommend doing a test before going that high with gypsum. You can do it in the glass with a finished beer, to get a general idea what it does to the beer. It is not 100% the same as adding it to the water before mashing, but it shows the general direction quite well imo.

I made some trials and I can say that every beer I split batched was not as good as the same beer with sulfate levels below 120 or so. It is something different what these high sulfate levels bring to the table and I personally don't like it and I'm pretty sure that a lot of people also actually don't really like it but never made the experiment to get an idea about it. So better check for yourself.

 

[McMullan]

@McMullan
As usual with a new piece of kit a bit fiddly. I watched the review and use of it on the David Heath you tube, he said wort in through the top and out the bottom with the hop pellets in a bag with some rice hulls. It really struggled to flow and I had to take it apart twice. Afterwards I found very little liquid in the hop rocket ( due to it all being packed down tight) but the hops hadn't disintegrated and so I'm unsure on the utilisation. Next time I'll leave more space for expansion in the bag as well and have some camlocks coming which will make life easier.
Having watched several other videos it appears that I had the flow going the wrong way so that might explain my issues. I'll know in a week or so the effect of the hopping .
You live and learn I suppose. All was going so well up to the blocking issue and that made the day drag on. On a positive note the yeast starter was voracious and it's nearly finished fermenting in less than 72 hours which was a bit unexpected. Time will tell and I will sample for gravity and an early taste tonight.

The infamous Mr Heath strikes again. Last time I heard he was recommending home brewers ‘thaw out’ hops in a fridge for a couple days before dry hopping, to avoid shocking the yeast; even though the very low moisture content of dried hops prevents them from actually freezing. Out of the freezer they come up to room temperature in no time. The idea finely pulverised hop matter can be made sufficiently permeable to wort by adding rice hulls is flawed. When you think about it, a HopRocket full of hop pellets is much worse than the stickiest of mashes. It must put an awful lot of pressure on the pump. With whole hops packed into my HR I still manage to get a decent whirlpool effect going in the kettle. From the YouTube video you’ll note Heath’s method struggles desperately to dribble out wort. Based on the contrasting flow rates I’m willing to guess better hop extraction occurs with whole hops. I think at best you could get away with adding a small proportion of pellet hops, but they’re probably better added to the kettle directly then filtered by the whole hops in the HR. In terms of English ales, except for IPAs I’ve found the HR’s effectiveness throws recipes too much. I’m not sure if adding small hop quantities warrants use of a HR. I’m planning to pack it with a cheesecloth to reduce the available volume. A cheesecloth being sterilisable (e.g. in a pressure cooker) and about the best and cheapest filtering material generally available to home brewers. It might even work with hop pellets, if they are randomly filled as the cloth is wrapped and layered in a HR? I only use pellets for occasional lagers so that’s an experiment someone else will have to try.

 

[DuncB]

@McMullan
Yes feel I was a bit hobbled with my wrong setup of the hop missile. The HM does seem to have a cone bit that " allegedly " increases flow area which is in the outflow end compared to the videos I've seen of the hop rocket. But I'm less trusting of videos now.
Whole hops are difficult to get here in NZ which is odd given there are tonnes of hops grown here. I will seek some out to use in this and also see how things go on my next brew of that beer with hop missile set up differently. I'll keep plugging away to get it to perform, obviously my boil and late addition went free into the kettle and were well caught by the trubtrapper and whirlpool.
I'm hoping my EKG and Tangerine dream hop plants can produce some cones this year if they don't get blown out of the ground. They are suffering a bit at the moment with the northerly gales and lashing rain.
I'm wondering whether a plastic mesh coffee filter would jam into the hop missile to use as a filter or perhaps just a load of the spent grains at the end of the mash, they'd be nice and pasteurised at 77 celsius.

 

[McMullan]

I recommend doing a test before going that high with gypsum. You can do it in the glass with a finished beer, to get a general idea what it does to the beer. It is not 100% the same as adding it to the water before mashing, but it shows the general direction quite well imo.

I made some trials and I can say that every beer I split batched was not as good as the same beer with sulfate levels below 120 or so. It is something different what these high sulfate levels bring to the table and I personally don't like it and I'm pretty sure that a lot of people also actually don't really like it but never made the experiment to get an idea about it. So better check for yourself.

That's not something I've tried. Have you compared higher vs lower gypsum levels in the mash or have you added more to finished beer mashed with a lower level? I'm not sure if the latter is comparable with more in the mash, assuming water chemistry changes quite a bit throughout the process. I really don't know. Tinkering with water treatment isn't something I've done much of since getting my tap water analysed and following water calculator recommendations. With a noticeable improvement over a tsp of both CaCl and CaSO4 I've been reluctant to 'fix' what doesn't seem to be broken. What am I missing?

 

[Miraculix]

That's not something I've tried. Have you compared higher vs lower gypsum levels in the mash or have you added more to finished beer mashed with a lower level? I'm not sure if the latter is comparable with more in the mash, assuming water chemistry changes quite a bit throughout the process. I really don't know. Tinkering with water treatment isn't something I've done much of since getting my tap water analysed and following water calculator recommendations. With a noticeable improvement over a tsp of both CaCl and CaSO4 I've been reluctant to 'fix' what doesn't seem to be broken. What am I missing?

I did both. I first split a batch completely, two separate mashes, one with 300ppm gypsum and one with 100ppm. I tried the resulting beers, the high gypsum beer had something in the hop presence that wasn't nice at all. I recognised that from some original Burton ales that I knew, they also had that. I cannot really describe it well, it's like a more pronounced bitterness without actually being more bitter. Not a major show stopper, beer was still good but the one without it was better.

Afterwards I was curious if I could get the same taste when adding the gypsum into the beer in the glass and it was very similar.

For me 100ppm chloride 100Ppm sulfate is the best ratio and amount. Or maybe 120/80, but this does the job for me.

 

[cire]

I don’t know what that means - can’t get a water profile to balance. I’m just putting numbers in a spreadsheet trying to get close to a given water profile. I had my water tested by Ward Labs. I entered those numbers and my grain bill. Then I dilute a percentage of my tap water with distilled water when I want to lower one of the numbers and I add salts back to raise the values I want raised.

I did go back and add more salts as suggested and got to a different set.

Ca Mg Na Cl So
142 11 45 119 240

Does that look better?

In Basic terms, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate and chloride cannot be added individually to water, those come from compounds we might call salts, acids and bases and there is a fixed and simple numeric ratio of the ions in such compounds. In chemistry the individual ions are electrically charged and know as cations (CA, Mg, Na) and anions (SO4, chloride and carbonate or bicarbonate) and they should balance. A water that does not have equivalence of cations and anions cannot exist and is impossible. The first water profile consisted of 6.99 milliequivalents of cations, with only 4.34 for anions, a significant imbalance. As no amount was given for alkalinity, I assumed this was omitted, but balancing the profile required a substantial quantity of alkalinity, totally unsuited to a Bitter beer or the grist of your recipe.

Now the alternative profile looks better, but again doesn't balance suggesting it would balance if alkalinity was around 80 ppm measured as CaCO3 and while this is less than the first, it is still too much to achieve a reasonable pH in the mash. I know it is common practice in some parts of the globe to mash in, measure pH and throw an acid or a base until the target pH is obtained, but that isn't English brewing practice, where the profile, including alkalinity, is determined beforehand to balance with the chosen grist.

I hope this helps.

Do not add gypsum to a finished beer to assume had gypsum been added before the mash, boil, fermentation the result would be exactly the same. You cannot alter the result of a football game after the final whistle has blown and the same applies to beer. Gypsum and calcium chloride spend several hours then days in chemical and biological reactions resulting in most of the calcium being replaced by potassium and deposited with phosphates and this type of substitution is perhaps the greatest reason for homebrewers the world over misinterpreting the taste of British Cask Ale.

 

[Miraculix]

In Basic terms, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate and chloride cannot be added individually to water, those come from compounds we might call salts, acids and bases and there is a fixed and simple numeric ratio of the ions in such compounds. In chemistry the individual ions are electrically charged and know as cations (CA, Mg, Na) and anions (SO4, chloride and carbonate or bicarbonate) and they should balance. A water that does not have equivalence of cations and anions cannot exist and is impossible. The first water profile consisted of 6.99 milliequivalents of cations, with only 4.34 for anions, a significant imbalance. As no amount was given for alkalinity, I assumed this was omitted, but balancing the profile required a substantial quantity of alkalinity, totally unsuited to a Bitter beer or the grist of your recipe.

Now the alternative profile looks better, but again doesn't balance suggesting it would balance if alkalinity was around 80 ppm measured as CaCO3 and while this is less than the first, it is still too much to achieve a reasonable pH in the mash. I know it is common practice in some parts of the globe to mash in, measure pH and throw an acid or a base until the target pH is obtained, but that isn't English brewing practice, where the profile, including alkalinity, is determined beforehand to balance with the chosen grist.

I hope this helps.

Do not add gypsum to a finished beer to assume had gypsum been added before the mash, boil, fermentation the result would be exactly the same. You cannot alter the result of a football game after the final whistle has blown and the same applies to beer. Gypsum and calcium chloride spend several hours then days in chemical and biological reactions resulting in most of the calcium being replaced by potassium and deposited with phosphates and this type of substitution is perhaps the greatest reason for homebrewers the world over misinterpreting the taste of British Cask Ale.

Adding gypsum to a finished beer with low gypsum content in the water can give you a pretty good idea about what gypsum does to the beer at high levels. Not the same as adding to the initial water pre mashing, but still surprisingly close. How do I know? Empirically, see above.

 

[cire]

Adding gypsum to a finished beer with low gypsum content in the water can give you a pretty good idea about what gypsum does to the beer at high levels. Not the same as adding to the initial water pre mashing, but still surprisingly close. How do I know? Empirically, see above.

Indeed, I saw and read your post. I commonly use 300 ppm sulphate and provided there's some sort of balance with the chloride content it is anything but unbalanced. If the chloride is less than 100 ppm or less, then I'll agree with your findings. When I brewed with 400 ppm sulphate retaining the same level of calcium, there was an intense dryness, but after a month the beer took on a distinctly better character By that stage my beers are best part consumed, so it's not something I'd care to often do.

My water comes with over 100 ppm sulphate and beers made using my eldest daughter's water with lesser mineral content are not in the same league. It is interesting to find the level of sulphate and chloride in established commercial beers.

 

[Miraculix]

Indeed, I saw and read your post. I commonly use 300 ppm sulphate and provided there's some sort of balance with the chloride content it is anything but unbalanced. If the chloride is less than 100 ppm or less, then I'll agree with your findings. When I brewed with 400 ppm sulphate retaining the same level of calcium, there was an intense dryness, but after a month the beer took on a distinctly better character By that stage my beers are best part consumed, so it's not something I'd care to often do.

My water comes with over 100 ppm sulphate and beers made using my eldest daughter's water with lesser mineral content are not in the same league. It is interesting to find the level of sulphate and chloride in established commercial beers.

"Intense Dryness" is also a good way of describing what I tasted. I think that the split batch beer, if memory serves well, had about 150-250 Cl, and 350 sulfate, not my initially stated 300. So some chloride was present.

Wasn't my thing.

 

[McMullan]

@Miraculix, what mash temperature are you using? I'm not fan of overly dry Bitters myself. When I first started making 1.5 batches, to get the volume to fill the Yorkshire square, my strategy for avoiding a dry, thin ale, due to kettle top ups, was to increase mash temperature. Now, even for 0.5 batches, I'm comfortable setting mash temp to 68-69℃ for a Bitter.

 

[Miraculix]

@Miraculix, what mash temperature are you using? I'm not fan of overly dry Bitters myself. When I first started making 1.5 batches, to get the volume to fill the Yorkshire square, my strategy for avoiding a dry, thin ale, due to kettle top ups, was to increase mash temperature. Now, even for 0.5 batches, I'm comfortable setting mash temp to 68-69℃ for a Bitter.

I don't know what I used back then, but nowadays I'm just doing good old 65c single infusion, but I am actually thinking about raising that quite a bit, to your suggested range, for yeasts that ferment well. For a09 pub, for example, I would probably stay with 65c. ... Or maybe not, less alcohol, more flavour. Hmm... I would probably try 68c.

 

[cire]

"Intense Dryness" is also a good way of describing what I tasted. I think that the split batch beer, if memory serves well, had about 150-250 Cl, and 350 sulfate, not my initially stated 300. So some chloride was present.

Wasn't my thing.

Now that is interesting, for what you described fitted a low chloride profile which it was not. Might it be your calcium was low and the chloride added as common salt? There has to be some reason other than personal taste for similar descriptions of different profiles and vice versa.

This was the profile for my last pale beer which I think might have been shown in a previous posting. Please don't ask me now about this program, it would take more time to describe than I wish to spend, but the workings are in a series of charts of individual ions from water analyses done over a range time from the single borehole from where the water comes. By this it is possible from a single TDS reading to closely predict individual ion levels and swiftly calculate acid and salt additions to achieve the required calcium level and proportion of sulphate to chloride ratio at that level of calcium. Anyway, regardless of that, the finished profile is in the far right column.

 

[Miraculix]

Now that is interesting, for what you described fitted a low chloride profile which it was not. Might it be your calcium was low and the chloride added as common salt? There has to be some reason other than personal taste for similar descriptions of different profiles and vice versa.

This was the profile for my last pale beer which I think might have been shown in a previous posting. Please don't ask me now about this program, it would take more time to describe than I wish to spend, but the workings are in a series of charts of individual ions from water analyses done over a range time from the single borehole from where the water comes. By this it is possible from a single TDS reading to closely predict individual ion levels and swiftly calculate acid and salt additions to achieve the required calcium level and proportion of sulphate to chloride ratio at that level of calcium. Anyway, regardless of that, the finished profile is in the far right column.

View attachment 749821

That looks pretty similar to what I had back then. I never add table salt, always nacl if going for cl.

I think it's just personal taste,I just don't like that particular taste of high sulfate levels very much. It does something to the hop bitterness which makes it a bit unpleasant for me. I had the same flavour in some of the Marston's beers I had, and I know that people like them for it, so it's probably me. Without comparison, one never knows!

 

[bwible]

In Basic terms, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate and chloride cannot be added individually to water, those come from compounds we might call salts, acids and bases and there is a fixed and simple numeric ratio of the ions in such compounds. In chemistry the individual ions are electrically charged and know as cations (CA, Mg, Na) and anions (SO4, chloride and carbonate or bicarbonate) and they should balance. A water that does not have equivalence of cations and anions cannot exist and is impossible. The first water profile consisted of 6.99 milliequivalents of cations, with only 4.34 for anions, a significant imbalance. As no amount was given for alkalinity, I assumed this was omitted, but balancing the profile required a substantial quantity of alkalinity, totally unsuited to a Bitter beer or the grist of your recipe.

Now the alternative profile looks better, but again doesn't balance suggesting it would balance if alkalinity was around 80 ppm measured as CaCO3 and while this is less than the first, it is still too much to achieve a reasonable pH in the mash. I know it is common practice in some parts of the globe to mash in, measure pH and throw an acid or a base until the target pH is obtained, but that isn't English brewing practice, where the profile, including alkalinity, is determined beforehand to balance with the chosen grist.

I hope this helps.

Do not add gypsum to a finished beer to assume had gypsum been added before the mash, boil, fermentation the result would be exactly the same. You cannot alter the result of a football game after the final whistle has blown and the same applies to beer. Gypsum and calcium chloride spend several hours then days in chemical and biological reactions resulting in most of the calcium being replaced by potassium and deposited with phosphates and this type of substitution is perhaps the greatest reason for homebrewers the world over misinterpreting the taste of British Cask Ale.

You are way above where I am with this stuff. I only started making water adjustments earlier this year and I did it with a couple batches. I’m using the basic program, its EZ Water Calculator

Here’s what I’m starting with, from Ward Labs. I have chloride but almost no sulfate. Sodium is probably higher than what I think goes in most beers. Calcium is also a little low. This should fill in the missing ions

I’ve been diluting it with a percentage of distilled water.

With this program you put in your grain bill and starting water. This is a 3.5 gallon batch with a 5.6 lb grain bill.

 

[cire]

You are way above where I am with this stuff. I only started making water adjustments earlier this year and I did it with a couple batches. I’m using the basic program, its EZ Water Calculator

Here’s what I’m starting with, from Ward Labs. I have chloride but almost no sulfate. Sodium is probably higher than what I think goes in most beers. Calcium is also a little low. This should fill in the missing ions

I’ve been diluting it with a percentage of distilled water.

With this program you put in your grain bill and starting water. This is a 3.5 gallon batch with a 5.6 lb grain bill.

Well you've made the perfect start, getting your water tested and having a go.

So looking at your report from Ward's you see near the top their ion balance check, measured in milliequivalents per litre. with a slight imbalance. Now the report shows sulphate as just the sulphur component, so the sulphate is actually 15 ppm, oxygen making up that additional 10 ppm.

I wonder if the case for phosphorus is similar to sulphate, as phosphorus in water is usually in the form of phosphate and therefore is an anion, not a cation which might improve the balance. I'm sure @Silver_Is_Money will tell us. He is spot-on in such matters.

So your water has alkalinity measured to be equivalent to 78 ppm of calcium carbonate, so if diluted will leave a proportional amount resident in the water and omitting that will unbalance the water.

You might just care to try the calculator here, and the associated notes. either from the links in that calculator, or in total on this page.

The thing about water treatment is that it lends itself to learned in small stages. One problem is too many give up not knowing when they are on the verge of a breakthrough.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I wonder if the case for phosphorus is similar to sulphate, as phosphorus in water is usually in the form of phosphate and therefore is an anion, not a cation which might improve the balance. I'm sure @Silver_Is_Money will tell us. He is spot-on in such matters.

I count Phosphorous as a cation, but you are correct in that when found in the form of PO4--- it would indeed be a component of an anion.

That said, Ward Labs mEq/L Cation/Anion balance clearly identifies Phosphorous as a Cation, as the only way to match their mEq/L charge values is to count it as a Cation.

Your SO4 is actually 15 ppm as stated by @cire, but in addition, your NO3- is actually 19.8 as opposed to 4.5.

The requisite multipliers for any Ward Labs water report are:
SO4-S x 3 = SO4
NO3-N x 4.4 = NO3