First time adjusting water. Advice?

[CoalCracker]

I have an ro/di unit for my reef tank. Just replaced the membrane and get a consistent 96% rejection. 175ppm feed, 6ppm after ro. I'm going to be brewing a session IPA and would like to build the water. From a calculator I found to use the following.

8gallons of water

- 6 grams of gypsum
- 2.5 grams calcium chloride
- 4.5 grams Epsom salt
- 1 gram of chalk
- .5g table salt

Also going to add 1oz of aciduated malt.

Should give me:

Calcium -75ppm
Magnesium - 5ppm
Sodium - 10 ppm
Chloride - 50ppm
Sulfate - 150ppm

Ra of -58
pH oh 5.39

 

[NeoBrew]

If you haven't found it already, this is where you should start.

A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer

 

[CoalCracker]

Yea I've glanced at it. It gets way over my head. I enjoy biology but chem makes my head spin. For this reason maybe I'll start. At a base of 1.5tsp of calcium chloride and 1.5 tsp of gypsym and hope the malt adds enough of the other minerals

 

[Yooper]

Yea I've glanced at it. It gets way over my head. I enjoy biology but chem makes my head spin. For this reason maybe I'll start. At a base of 1.5tsp of calcium chloride and 1.5 tsp of gypsym and hope the malt adds enough of the other minerals

No need for chalk- first, it's ineffective since it doesn't dissolve properly and you probably don't need to raise the mash pH anyway.

I don't use epsom salt, or at least not very often, and I don't use table salt either.

If you're making an IPA, I'd leave out most of the stuff you have listed there.

First, target a mash pH of 5.35-5.4. Then, use the salts you need for flavor, just like with cooking.

You can use gypsum to get the sulfate level to 135-150 or so if you're not sure how much you love lots of gypsum in your beer. Some brewers will go up to 300 ppm with sulfate in an IPA, but I find that I just don't care for so much sulfate in mine and usually go with about 150 ppm for most beers.

I don't know where your water calculations came from, but if you want to use a good one, try bru'nwater. It has a learning curve for sure, but the "water knowledge" page is worthwhile for brewers beginning to learn about water chemistry: https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge

For a similar calculator but without the explanation, Brewer's Friend has a free calculator. Those are the two that I found have the best actual pH prediction.

The important thing is mash pH- the salts are for "flavor". You can go with 0 added salts if you want, but adding a bit of gypsum will help make the flavors "pop".