In Murfreesboro, TN - CUD: How's my water?

[dmbsteve]

I would consider myself an intermediate brewer. I have always focused more on improving process and learning ingredients, etc. and I am now to a point where I want to consider water chemistry in order to make "better" beer, as I do understand the importance it has on flavor. I have done 5 AG batches so far. I've only tasted 3 so far, because I have two in the primary right now. But I have noticed a similar flavor in each one, especially after a few weeks in the bottle. I wouldn't describe it has a necessarily a bad or off-flavor. It is hard to describe, but I guess I would call it sort of a malty sweet-like flavor, which tells me perhaps I'm not getting good hop utilization.

I am assuming it has something to do with my water, but I'm not certain. My tap water tastes good...I have no problem drinking it right out of the tap even though the fridge is 5 feet away (I just don't feel like waiting that long sometimes because the fridge dispenser it slower ) Although I would call it hard water, which I know can affect the beer's taste.

Any issues/recommendations based on these numbers? Are there certain beer styles that my water may be well suited for, or others that I need to adjust it for, and if so how?

I'm still waiting for the calcium & magnesium numbers, for some reason it's been hard to get it, but I'm still trying...

Chlorine 2.4 mg/L annual average
Sodium 11 mg/L
Water hardness – 220 ppm or 12.8 grains/gal
Alkalinity – 200 ppm or 11.7 grains/gal
Calcium content & Magnesium content – varies from day to day
Sulfates – 9 mg/per liter

In case there is anything else important that I didn't list, here is a link to the actual water quality report...
http://www.cudrc.com/docs/2010CCR.aspx

PS -From reading a few other recipes from people in my area, I have seen some using gypsum pretty regularly. I have used it once a long time ago (only because it was included in the kit) but can't remember if it made a difference or not because I was still noob at the time and didn't know any better.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[ajdelange]

There are basically 2 approaches one can take to managing brewing water. One is to work with what's available, trying to modify its composition in order to obtain a particular result for a particular style of beer. This gets complicated fast involving mineral profiles for particular styles (which are often incorrect), the use of elaborate spreadsheets (which despite the incredible efforts their creators have put into them have models which are not, in all cases, robust) etc. The other approach is to start with water with low ion content (DI, RO, distilled) and add the salts needed to produce a decent beer. I advocate the latter because it is much simpler, much less confusing. It does demand that you experiment with additions over multiple brewings of the same beer but when you are finished you will know what works with your IPA as opposed to what works with your stout. Then you can go to the spreadsheets and figure out how to modify your water to get what you want.

Accordingly there is a Water Primer in the stickies section of the Brew Science topic. I suggest having a look at that and perhaps trying out its recommendations. People who have are reporting good results.