Need Help W/ Water Additions- Chocolate Cherry Cake Stout

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Bostrows128

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Diving into the realm of all grain here! Not completely a newb (came up from the ranks of extract, partial mash, and moving into the big leages). That being said my personal tap water is pretty poopy, leaves my beers a tad bit watery and my wines a bit skunky so I'm starting with good ole distilled water. Figured I might as well do this right with some help from you guys of course! Anyway, I'm making a Cherry Chocolate Cake stout (the recipe I found in a BYO magazine) but I wanna possibly spice it up who knows. Here's the recipe-

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1270774/chocolate-cherry-cake
I'm looking for a thicker mouthfeel (ya know tired of drinking water) but I want some of the coffee and obviously, the chocolate notes to shine. Fruity is a must as it's in the name and am contemplating adding some cinnamon when I add the nibs.

Any help is appreciated just looking for a starting point here, I'm sure ill be able to figure this stuff out eventually. If you have any recipe suggestions for this let me know as well!

TL;DR: help me figure out my water additions to make this beer pop!
 
When adding flavorings to a beer, one needs to have a solid recipe for the base style.

Consider starting with water adjustments appropriate for a stout, then 1) exBEERiment with adding minerals in the glass, and 2) apply the findings to the next iteration of the recipe.
 
I start with reverse osmosis water and add salts to the mash and boil. I use those RO machines at the grocery store. Two bucks for 5 gallons.
A great read to learn how to do it is This... The whole website is pretty informative and worth a read. I also use this calculator.

That should get you close to what you're looking for...
 
Does your tap water have chlorine taste to it? Sometimes our water makes great dark beers while making lackluster light beers. That's my case . For my light beers I use Bru n Water and build up from RO.
 
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