Good water profile for a stout?

[PADave]

What's a good water profile for a stout? How would I get there using distilled water? I'm just diving into this whole water chemistry thing because my dark beers don't come out right. I did 2 IPAs so far building my own water, and I think I got it figured out, but I'm not sure about a stout. I use distilled water because our well water is not good.

 

[Lefou]

First thing to do is scale your batch size. Balance alkalinity, then add your calcium salts. Your desired hopping level will influence your sulfate levels.

I have been mucking about with the Advanced water calculator on Brewers Friend. It can give you some very detailed info on what additions you need to add to get a desired profile. You can do it by SRM, or by entering grain info to predict mash pH and salt additions. This is my point of view since I don't use BrunWater ...

 

[xico]

High bicarbonate levels will help to buffer the pH drop from dark malts. Calcium carbonate doesn't dissolve well into water unfortunately. I've taken to cold steeping my dark malts separately and adding it to the end of the mash.

 

[McKnuckle]

Here is a simple way to go. Some chemistry purists might object, but it's very practical, minimalist, and totally works.

Add gypsum and CaCl in roughly equal amounts to achieve 50 ppm Ca in the kettle (mash and sparge waters combined). Then, add baking soda to just the mash water, such that the estimated mash pH is 5.4-5.45. End up with approximately 15-20 ppm Na in the kettle from this addition.

 

[mabrungard]

Don't lump all stouts in the same water category. Most stouts benefit from using mashing water with some alkalinity. But Irish dry stout is actually made better when using RO water with no alkalinity.

 

[xico]

Wouldn't that depend on your pH of your source water? Mine out the RO system sits between 6.3 and 6.5 and I have overshot my 5.2 limit in my mash without any alkalinity added.

I ask out of curiousity, I'm not a stouts person and have only brewed the styles a dozen times. After getting 4.8-5.0 mash water I simply started mashing all but my dark malts as normal and either add them in the last 20 minutes of the mash on top (I recirc the mash) or cold steep them add to the system during sparge.

What is your source water pH to get no adjustments needed?