• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

How much gypsum/cacl?

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

marjen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2017
Messages
755
Reaction score
189
I a, wondering how much gypsum and cacl is needed with RO water to get a 100:50 ppm ratio? The whole water thing is a mystery to me and I don't really understand brunwater at all. Starting with RO and going to a suggested ratio for my recipe. Thanks.
 
I a, wondering how much gypsum and cacl is needed with RO water to get a 100:50 ppm ratio? The whole water thing is a mystery to me and I don't really understand brunwater at all. Starting with RO and going to a suggested ratio for my recipe. Thanks.

Well, that's easy. It's 2:1 or 40:20 or 500:250.

So you can see it's not easy at all. A ratio is useless piece of information, because 2:1 can be 5000:2500 or 2:1. They would be totally and completely different.

Instead of a suggested ratio, look at the total number and you'll be all set.
 
Spend 15 minutes looking at brunwater and you can play with the gypsum and calcium chloride additions to achieve your desired concentrations.

Currently, only you know your brewing setup and water volumes, which you will need in order to know exactly what minerals to add.
 
ppm is the acronym for parts-per-milion. In metric system, that means that for 1L water you have to add 0.1g to obtain 100 ppm. It is easy to convert in imperial units.
 
For 5 gallons of RO or distilled water:

4 grams of gypsum and 2 grams of calcium chloride will get you fairly close to 100 ppm SO4 and 50 ppm Cl.

4 grams of calcium chloride and 2 grams of gypsum will get you fairly close to 100 ppm Cl and 50 ppm SO4.

And for either you will be at right around 80 ppm calcium also.

mg/l and ppm are the same thing.

In Bru'n Water additions are made by the gallon, so for 5 gallons you must divide each of the above gram quantities by 5 and enter that result.
 
I use beersmith.
I start with the published water profile (they send it to every water user) Albuquerque well zone 9.
Then I buy RO water that was made from that water (in my well zone).
RO water is 1/9 of the published numbers. It still has some hardness, and the chemistry is the same only way less. I make a modified profile - I don't have to know anything, other than it was almost 10 times stronger.
Then I look for the profile I want to mimic, and I use Albuquerque Zone 9 RO as as base and I ask beersmith to turn it into Randy Mosher's balanced profile, or Tasty's hoppy profile, (or Munich or, Dortmund, or Dublin...).
I usually make pilsners, and American lagers, I add 3 grams gypsum ans about a gram of Calcium Chloride to 4.25 gallons of water (2.5 gallon batches). When I use the 100ppm rule, my beer tastes salty. Beersmith does a great job...
 
water chemistry has nothing to do with ratios and everything to do with SRM. Bru'n water is perfection when it comes to this.
 
Bru'n can be daunting at first but a necessity if you want to get it right. Send your water off to Ward labs, get the report then plug into Bru'n. Water is very important, largest ingredient we use. Here is a great video to get you started. [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTA_VmqhbQ[/ame]

I didn't pay much attention till we went pro. Makes a big difference in you beer.
 
Brewer's Friend also has a water chemistry calculator. Here.

How much to add depends on what style you're shooting for, your volume of water, and your water's original mineral content.
 
Back
Top