My LHBS story

[Happywanderer]

So, I decided to talk to my LHBS about water since the water in my area has really hard water with extremely high sodium.

I wanted to get some opinions on RO vs Distilled. So I asked, "what do you guys do for water?"

His answer...we don't do anything.

He explained that two local craft brew places don't do anything special with their water (one charcoal filters, the other apparently uses tap). Weird. Our water REALLY sucks.

Then I asked about mash pH ... And he said he doesn't worry about it.

Wha?!?!

Does this fly in the face of all published literature on brewing....

So.....

Should I really not worry about water ....

My idea was buying RO ($0.35/gal) then adding gypsum, Epsom, calcium chloride, and baking soda to get the proper water profile for given styles...

I understand that not all RO is equal, but it should be close enough to a baseline for water building right?






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[paperairplane]

Well, I'm no master brewer and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn last night - but I have made over 100 gallons of beer in the last year. All my own recipes and all BIAB all grain.

I filter my tap water with a RV hose/ charcoal unit and have never thought once about pH. I'm focused on clean controlled ferm temp.

 

[schokie]

Can you make good beer without paying attention to your water? Sure! Can you make better beer if you put in some minimal research and tweak your water profile? Of course!

It just depends on how happy you are with your current product and how motivated you are to learn about water chemistry. I don't think your LHBS is saying water chemistry doesn't matter, only that he's happy with what he's got already.

 

[turkeygecko]

You should focus on mash Ph and thus, water . If you're lucky to live somewhere with decent tap water you may not need to do any adjustments. But, that is definitely not a given!


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[pvault98]

Your mash PH is important and in order to get there you need to have some control over your water. The style of beer you are brewing also dictates whether you need to adjust your water or not. I have pretty hard water and for some styles I just need some acid malt or lactic acid to get my PH where I want it and the rest of the minerals are good enough, however when brewing pilsner or some other styles I get RO and add in the minerals.

Can you make pretty good beer without adjusting your water? Of course you can, however you can make better beer by adjusting your water as well. For example I brew saison as my house beer and everyone loves it, but I entered it in a competition and got feedback that there was some astringency. I always felt something was a little off with it and through research and this feedback found the source to be my water. I adjusted my water profile and lowered my mash and sparge PH and fixed the problem.

LHBS are good for ingredients and supplies, however the advice you get there is only as good as the people giving it. I love my LHBS, however of the 4 or 5 people working there only one of them brews on a regular basis and he is the only one I would ever take advice from.

 

[sky4meplease]

I got shabby water advice from my LHBS as well.
You spend enough time there and you will learn the faces and who to go to for certain things and who not to for others.
They all seem to have their areas of expertise.

 

[RM-MN]

Have you been brewing long? Does your beer really suck? Have you tested the pH of the mash? Are you on city water or on a well?

RO water should have all the minerals stipped out, nearly the same as distilled. If your answer to the first 3 questions is affirmative, get RO water and adjust the minerals the way you want. If your beer already tastes good, why bother? If you are on a well instead of city water, your water can be greatly different than that of even a nearby neighbor. Have you had a sample of your water sent in to be tested?

 

[user 141939]

I've been to some shops and heard terrible advice being given. All I could do to not interject. Definetely seek out multiple opinions.


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[Peyope]

I've been to some shops and heard terrible advice being given. All I could do to not interject. Definetely seek out multiple opinions.


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+1 Just because they work at a store doesn't mean their smart. Consider the source and do your own research.

 

[RM-MN]

I've been to some shops and heard terrible advice being given. All I could do to not interject. Definetely seek out multiple opinions.


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A LHBS has one main purpose, to make money for the owner. Its secondary purpose is to supply the homebrew community with quality supplies. Anything you get after that is a bonus. Some shop owners are very knowledgeable about brewing, others just like to brew.

 

[stpug]

They're human and, thus, prone to error. If the advice sounds "off" then quietly disregard and do your own research. There's plenty of "off" advice being passed around internet forums

BTW, many breweries use local water with minimal treatment since the prospect of ROing thousands of gallons of water each day is out of the questions. As homebrewers, brewing at such small scales, it's easy for us to "play" with our water to try to meet specific goals or historic regions water profiles.

 

[campbellmike]

The guys at my LHBS are very knowledgable but when asked about how they brew it's always very simple and INEXPENSIVE. They are creative and typically come up with the most cost effective solution to make good beer.