New RO brewer

[RedRyderr]

Local brewery is doing an interactive brew and has shared the homebrew recipe. Sweet!!

I want to brew this as my first batch using RO water this weekend. Have always just used tap water at my old house and things came out pretty well. I've played with the Bru'n Water sheet some, tried the calculator on Brewer's Friend, have skimmed through the water section in my Palmer book, and read about a thousand posts on water chemisty here and other interweb sources. It's a bit overwhelming at the moment. I'll get it eventually I'm sure... but was hoping for the 'easy answer' to get started with my first RO brew. What should I add to the water for this 5 gallon batch (fly sparge)?

Grain Bill:

2 Row – 13# / 70%
C-120 – 1# / 6%
Carapils – 1# / 6%
Flaked Oats – 1# / 6%
Caramalt – .5# / 3%
Roasted Barley – .5# / 3%
Chocolate Wheat – .5# / 3%
Munich – .5# / 3%

Water Profile:

High on Carbonate (200 ppm) with a semi-balanced Sulfate to Chloride ratio.
Sulfate: 50-100 ppm Chloride: 100 ppm
Aiming for a pH of 5.50

This is going to be a thick mash at 3.5#/gal.
Rest at 155F for an hour.

 

[VikeMan]

Why are you looking for "High on Carbonate?" Bicarbonate should "never" have a goal to build up to, IMO.

Anyway, here's one approach starting with RO (which does not include adding Bicarbonate).

In the water model tool of your choice:
- Enter your grain and Water/Mash Thickness info
- Add a gram or so of CaCl* to the Mash input
- Add the acid (like lactic or phosphoric) of your choice to the mash input to reach a pH prediction of 5.5
- Add CaCl and CaSO4 to the sparge/kettle input to reach your Chloride and Sulfate targets
- If overall Ca level is below 50 ppm at that point (it won't be in this case), consider adding more CaCl or CaSO4 to reach 50 ppm Ca.**

*Ca is a cofactor for alpha amylase in the mash. Malt also contains some Calcium, so it's debatable whether or not adding any to the mash is beneficial. But it won't hurt, and it will help lower the pH toward your target.

**Ca is also important for yeast flocculation.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

but was hoping for the 'easy answer' to get started with my first RO brew.

Maybe this? Water Chemistry – How to Build Your Water – Bertus Brewery (https://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/02/water-chemistry-how-to-build-your-water.html)