My turn... water report

[Bobby_M]

Since October, I’ve brewed 11 beers with this water. Of these, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: the lighter/lower-gravity beers are “lacking something”.

Lighter colored beers with your water will land you in a high enough mash pH to extract some level of tannins. It's possible that the effect on your tongue reads as thin. In other words, if that beer didn't have tannic astringency, it might be perceived as more rich and malty. This high pH can be dealt with simply with lactic or phosphoric acid added to your strike water.

My brew club is telling me to start with distilled or get RO but as of now I do not see enough of a problem with this water to justify the extra expenses.

RO is $100 up front and about 25 cents of operating costs per batch. If that's not in the cards for you, for the lightest beers like Helles, Pils, Hefe, Wit, Blonde, etc. I would probably still dilute your tap water with about 20% bottled distilled and still use a little acid. Tweaking chloride and sulfate is about the last thing I'd worry about as it has the least impact as far as water mods go. The mash pH thing is not trivial at all. Fix that first.

 

[Bobby_M]

To better illustrate, here's my last batch of Helles which was 5% ABV with color at 4 SRM (pale yellow) if it were mashed with your water right out of the tap.

6mL of 88% Lactic gets you into the safe zone but it's a little much for a delicate beer because you can start tasting it as tangy.

If you dilute 20% distilled, which for my water requirement would be 2 gallons, you can reduce down to 4mL of lactic and still be OK.

And to just finish the circle, here's what I actually used along with 100% RO water. Few grams of calcium chloride, gypsum and salt.
3mL of lactic

 

[Airborneguy]

I was hoping you’d see this.

Thanks. I’ve been playing with distilled but have not used more than 2 gallons in a batch. If I used 3 in each batch, could I possibly skip all additions?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Assuming that this is tap water, the only issues with your very nice water are Chlorine/Chloramines and Alkalinity. Why waste money on distilled or RO?

 

[Bobby_M]

I was hoping you’d see this.

Thanks. I’ve been playing with distilled but have not used more than 2 gallons in a batch. If I used 3 in each batch, could I possibly skip all additions?

Nope. Even with pure distilled you'd still need 3-4mL of lactic on the palest of beers. If you want a pragmatic rule of thumb that is easy to implement and will definitely improve your beers, here's my best shot.

One pinch of Potassium Metabisulfite to remove chloramine.

How much lactic acid to add to your strike water:

5ml Yellow beer
4ml Copper beer
3ml Red beer
2ml Brown beer
1ml Dark Brown
0ml Jet Black

 

[Airborneguy]

I brewed a very pale rye ale today using Bobby’s recommended “easy” additions. I’ll report back in a few weeks.

 

[Airborneguy]

I just tapped the first beer brewed with lactic acid to lower the PH.

WOW!

What a difference. It is a rye ale with only maris otter, rye, and a touch of honey malt. Amarillo hops only. It's fantastic and not "lacking" (as I was describing it). I cannot wait to repeat the Dark Mild I made prior to the lactic addition.

Thanks again everyone who helped me here.