My Water Report

[oldrepublic]

Here's my water report:
Sodium - 90.7
Calcium - 95.4
Magnesium - 20.4
Chloride - 106.2
CaCO3 - 215.6
Sulfate - 137.2
HCO3 - 262.8

Here's what I want to make:
Mostly light colored beers (Belgians, IPAs, Saisons, etc..)

Am I even close?

 

[jeffmeh]

What is your Ca figure? That is also necessary to determine the brewing water chemistry.

That being said, if your alkalinity as CaCO3 is 215.6, you are going to have to lower your residual alkalinity to get anything suitable for a lighter colored beer. Then you will likely have to add CaSO4 and/or MgSO4 to get your Cl:SO4 ratio down to where you want it.

Have you played around with the EZ Water Adjustment spreadsheet? If I plug in your numbers, and just take a wild guess at Ca at 100 ppm, and shoot for an IPA with 7.5 gallons mash water, I get something like this.

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 100
Mg: 20.4
Na: 90.7
Cl: 106.2
SO4: 137.2
CaCO3: 215.6

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 7.5 / 0
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 0 / 0
CaSO4: 6 / 0
CaCl2: 0 / 0
MgSO4: 3 / 0
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
NaCl: 0 / 0
HCL Acid: 3 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 148 / 148
Mg: 30 / 30
Na: 91 / 91
Cl: 151 / 151
SO4: 296 / 296
CaCO3: 216 / 216

RA (mash only): 29 (8 to 12 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 0.51 (Bitter)

 

[oldrepublic]

Sorry - added the Calcium measurement. I have played around with the EZ spreadsheet, but I get pretty lost. If I want to do a good Hefe, for example, I try to make my water like the Munich model. But I can't get it close. Should I NOT do this and only worry about my RA and Cl:SO4 ratio?

 

[jeffmeh]

So my guess of 100 ppm Ca was pretty close, lol.

Personally, I would not try to match Munich water profile, and would just stick to achieving the desired RA and Cl:SO4. Perhaps something like this, adjusted for your mash and sparge water. You can play around with it a bit more, to see if you can add less stuff and get the same type of output. Also, I have never had to add acid, as I have very soft water, so you might want to search for some more information on that.

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 95.4
Mg: 20.4
Na: 90.7
Cl: 106.2
SO4: 137.2
CaCO3: 215.6

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 7.5 / 0
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 0 / 0
CaSO4: 3 / 0
CaCl2: 3 / 0
MgSO4: 3 / 0
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
NaCl: 0 / 0
HCL Acid: 6 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 148 / 148
Mg: 30 / 30
Na: 91 / 91
Cl: 247 / 247
SO4: 237 / 237
CaCO3: 216 / 216

RA (mash only): -35 (2 to 7 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 1.04 (Balanced)