Help with Pilsner H2O profile

[Iowa Brewer]

Hey all,
Been reading about pilsner water profiles, and what BeerSmith3's water section recommends seems to be off from what I'm learning elsewhere.

For example, Palmer and Kaminski's Water book recommends 30-50ppm of calcium, depending on factors, but BeerSmith's recommendation is 7.5ppm(???). What am I missing here?

I've included images of my grain bill and the water section of my recipe, should they be helpful.
Many thanks, as always!

 

[AlexKay]

A certain amount of calcium (30-50 ppm) helps the amylase enzymes function properly.

 

[Dgallo]

What style Pilsner are you targeting?

 

[Dgallo]

Also, don’t use beer smiths water chemistry calculator, it’s very inaccurate. Use Bru’n water. It’s an excellent spreadsheet created by a Homebrewtalk member

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Ive been using beer smith for water for a while now and its really pretty close to what Bru'n water will give for a given water profile. I'll admit though that Ive only compared the two softwares ONCE for a NEIPA.

@Iowa Brewer I think your issue is that you matched your distilled water profile to the town of Pilsen's water profile which is located in the Czech Republic. This isn't the same as creating a target profile in Beersmith for the Pilsner beer style you want. Admittedly, this has irked me about beer smith as it has preloaded water profiles for different locations/cities/towns AND desired water profiles for beer styles.

If you want to use Palmer and Kaminski's water profile for your pilsner, in beer smith you will need to create a custom pilsner water profile first. Then you will need to "match" your distilled water as the base water profile to your newly custom profile. This should give you MUCH better results. I do this myself all the time - create a custom profile I want for a specified beer style and then use it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Iowa Brewer]

Ive been using beer smith for water for a while now and its really pretty close to what Bru'n water will give for a given water profile. I'll admit though that Ive only compared the two softwares ONCE for a NEIPA.

@Iowa Brewer I think your issue is that you matched your distilled water profile to the town of Pilsen's water profile which is located in the Czech Republic. This isn't the same as creating a target profile in Beersmith for the Pilsner beer style you want. Admittedly, this has irked me about beer smith as it has preloaded water profiles for different locations/cities/towns AND desired water profiles for beer styles.

If you want to use Palmer and Kaminski's water profile for your pilsner, in beer smith you will need to create a custom pilsner water profile first. Then you will need to "match" your distilled water as the base water profile to your newly custom profile. This should give you MUCH better results. I do this myself all the time - create a custom profile I want for a specified beer style and then use it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much, Noob_Brewer. This is a huge help!

 

[Iowa Brewer]

What style Pilsner are you targeting?

Hey Dgallo. It's a SMaSH Pilsner I'm trying out, and it looks like a Czech/German hybrid. Saaz hops with German pilsner. My local shop only had German pils in stock.

 

[marc1]

Also, don't target carbonate levels in your water. Use it if you need to for mash pH adjustment, but leave it out unless you need it.

 

[Iowa Brewer]

Thanks for the comments all. Does the following seem reasonable for a pils using only German Pilsner and Saaz hops, built from distilled water?

Calcium: 50.1 ppm
Magnesium: 5.2 ppm
Sodium: 0 ppm
Sulfate: 59.9 ppm
Chloride: 59.7 ppm
Bicarbonate: 0 ppm

 

[Dgallo]

Thanks for the comments all. Does the following seem reasonable for a pils using only German Pilsner and Saaz hops, built from distilled water?

Calcium: 50.1 ppm
Magnesium: 5.2 ppm
Sodium: 0 ppm
Sulfate: 59.9 ppm
Chloride: 59.7 ppm
Bicarbonate: 0 ppm

Yes this water profile is reasonable. If you want some more crispness and assertive bitterness, drop you chloride by 10-20ppm and up your sulfate by 20 ppm. Also targeting a ph to 5.2-5.3 for a Pilsner benefits a lite beer and will also make for a smoother bitterness

 

[jerrylotto]

Thanks for the comments all. Does the following seem reasonable for a pils using only German Pilsner and Saaz hops, built from distilled water?

Calcium: 50.1 ppm
Magnesium: 5.2 ppm
Sodium: 0 ppm
Sulfate: 59.9 ppm
Chloride: 59.7 ppm
Bicarbonate: 0 ppm

The only thing unreasonable about it is the precision. Fractional ppm is not useful data

 

[Iowa Brewer]

Yes this water profile is reasonable. If you want some more crispness and assertive bitterness, drop you chloride by 10-20ppm and up your sulfate by 20 ppm. Also targeting a ph to 5.2-5.3 for a Pilsner benefits a lite beer and will also make for a smoother bitterness

Cheers, Dgallo!

 

[Iowa Brewer]

The only thing unreasonable about it is the precision. Fractional ppm is not useful data

Ha! Yeah, just quoting the software