Markdark60
Member
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2013
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi All,
I am new to all grain and have been trying to use Brewers Friend water calculator. I know I probably shouldn't be messing with my water at this point but please humor me. The main reason I am even messing with it is because my hoppy beers have all been kind of bland in the flavor department and I think it might have to do with my PH and relatively low mineral water that is higher in chloride than sulfates. I hear people talk about hops "poping" from the additon of salts like gypsum and think I may benefit from this. The first all grain beer I made was a stout with irish yeast and irish whiskey soaked french oak chips that came out amazing. The second beer I made was a single hop IPA that did not come out so great which may in part be due to a more than necessary complex malt bill and only adding hops for a hop stand and a small portion for bittering at 60. Either way all the IPA's I have made have been lacking in that clean in your face flavor aspect I enjoy in commercial IPA's.
My first question is real basic and I just want to double check that a carbon filter sink attachment doesn't filter out minerals just chlorine, is that correct?
My second question is a bit harder to explain but basically is about the accuracy of these water calculators and the mash PH they list. For example my next beer is a rye pale ale and it is pretty basic with just 2-row and rye malt. It is about 4.7 SRM according to beersmith. The water calculator says my mash PH will be 5.78 without any salt or acid additions. My question is basically is this accurate or is it actually lower due to the difference in room temp readings vs mash temp readings. On the calculator it says "* mash prediction is for mash sample cooled to 25 C / 77 F" does this mean my mash PH is 5.78 or actually 5.48 due to the difference in temps? If it is 5.48 then i would need to add a very slight amount of acid to get it to maybe 5.3 or so vs. needing to add more to get it down from 5.78 to 5.3 instead. Hopefully this makes sense.
My third question is about my water profile. I know I should get an actual water report done but I found listings for my areas water profile from several sources that are all fairly close, so until I can get that done I am just wondering if what I am aiming for would be sufficient for a rye pale ale or if I am going overboard. They list it as Ca - 27 ppm, Mg - 8 ppm, Na - 15 ppm, Cl - 39 ppm, SO4 -2 - 6 ppm(which EZ water calc says is actually 3x that amount as just SO4) so actually 18 ppm, CaCO3 - 65 ppm, and a PH of 8. I added 5.4g Gypsum and .9g Calcium Chloride to the calculator and end up with Ca - 67.9, Cl - 50.8, and SO4 - 100. I want the hops to pop but I also want to keep additions restrained and allow the rye to show through as well so I was going for a 1:2 ratio for the chloride to sulfates. Am I going too high on any of these? I have seen all sorts of recommendations and it hasn't really gotten any clearer. I know the calcium is important for the mash conversion and yeast health, and I know the chloride and sulfate ratio is mainly for malt vs hop. I know this is probably super over simplified but I really just want to get that clean evident hop flavor. I guess another example is that I can actually discern to a slight extent certain hops that are in commercial beers due to flavor differences but all the hoppy beers I've made have been kind of muddled and not really recognizable. I am sure that some part of this has to do with the recipes but I can't help but think there is more to it than that as some have been pretty simple recipes.
I appreciate any help with this, and hope it makes sense.
Thanks,
Mark
I am new to all grain and have been trying to use Brewers Friend water calculator. I know I probably shouldn't be messing with my water at this point but please humor me. The main reason I am even messing with it is because my hoppy beers have all been kind of bland in the flavor department and I think it might have to do with my PH and relatively low mineral water that is higher in chloride than sulfates. I hear people talk about hops "poping" from the additon of salts like gypsum and think I may benefit from this. The first all grain beer I made was a stout with irish yeast and irish whiskey soaked french oak chips that came out amazing. The second beer I made was a single hop IPA that did not come out so great which may in part be due to a more than necessary complex malt bill and only adding hops for a hop stand and a small portion for bittering at 60. Either way all the IPA's I have made have been lacking in that clean in your face flavor aspect I enjoy in commercial IPA's.
My first question is real basic and I just want to double check that a carbon filter sink attachment doesn't filter out minerals just chlorine, is that correct?
My second question is a bit harder to explain but basically is about the accuracy of these water calculators and the mash PH they list. For example my next beer is a rye pale ale and it is pretty basic with just 2-row and rye malt. It is about 4.7 SRM according to beersmith. The water calculator says my mash PH will be 5.78 without any salt or acid additions. My question is basically is this accurate or is it actually lower due to the difference in room temp readings vs mash temp readings. On the calculator it says "* mash prediction is for mash sample cooled to 25 C / 77 F" does this mean my mash PH is 5.78 or actually 5.48 due to the difference in temps? If it is 5.48 then i would need to add a very slight amount of acid to get it to maybe 5.3 or so vs. needing to add more to get it down from 5.78 to 5.3 instead. Hopefully this makes sense.
My third question is about my water profile. I know I should get an actual water report done but I found listings for my areas water profile from several sources that are all fairly close, so until I can get that done I am just wondering if what I am aiming for would be sufficient for a rye pale ale or if I am going overboard. They list it as Ca - 27 ppm, Mg - 8 ppm, Na - 15 ppm, Cl - 39 ppm, SO4 -2 - 6 ppm(which EZ water calc says is actually 3x that amount as just SO4) so actually 18 ppm, CaCO3 - 65 ppm, and a PH of 8. I added 5.4g Gypsum and .9g Calcium Chloride to the calculator and end up with Ca - 67.9, Cl - 50.8, and SO4 - 100. I want the hops to pop but I also want to keep additions restrained and allow the rye to show through as well so I was going for a 1:2 ratio for the chloride to sulfates. Am I going too high on any of these? I have seen all sorts of recommendations and it hasn't really gotten any clearer. I know the calcium is important for the mash conversion and yeast health, and I know the chloride and sulfate ratio is mainly for malt vs hop. I know this is probably super over simplified but I really just want to get that clean evident hop flavor. I guess another example is that I can actually discern to a slight extent certain hops that are in commercial beers due to flavor differences but all the hoppy beers I've made have been kind of muddled and not really recognizable. I am sure that some part of this has to do with the recipes but I can't help but think there is more to it than that as some have been pretty simple recipes.
I appreciate any help with this, and hope it makes sense.
Thanks,
Mark