brewstergalVT
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Thank you for the primer. I mistakenly posted this on the water chemistry sticky before realizing this was a huge annoyance to the author of the sticky... I've just purchased a countertop RO system for brewing and have a couple of questions related to brewing a pilsner with RO. I want to keep the minerals low but want to make sure I have enough Ca in the mash
Just the questions:
1) can I add all the minerals only to the mash water and 2) then sparge with only RO water (if so acidify or not)? Here are the details:
I'm planning to do a 100% RO pils just to see how it differs from my typical pils using my tap water (which seems a bit minerally to me). For a 5 gallon batch I looked at Bru'n Water and determined that 1.3 grams CaCl in the mash & 1.3 grams in the sparge would yield about 25ppm Ca and about 46 Cl (using the spreadsheet RO numbers).
Is there anything wrong with using all 2.6 grams of the CaCl in the mash? My reason for this would be to have higher Ca in the mash for pH lowering, help the enzymes, etc. Then sparge with straight RO water. Is there a downside to using just RO for sparging if the minerals have been added in the mash? Also, in the past I've almost always acidified my sparge water due to my RA. From what I've read that's not necessary but will it hurt anything? My mash pH goal with light beers is always 5.3 (room temp). I'll be using 10 lb of pilsner malt and adding some acid malt, my typical is .6 oz acid malt per pound of pale base malt. I'm guessing I'll need to adjust the acid malt amount down when using 100% RO water but I'll figure that out by the pH readings.
Here's my tap water profile: Ca 54, Mg 3, Cl <1, Na 3, Sulfate 18, Bicarbonate 130, Alkalinity 131, Hardness 145, TDS 215. By my calculations RA 115. I have always been a boil and decant brewer to try and reduce the temporary hardness and then add in 2 grams CaCl to the mash only. Then to the sparge water I add either lactic acid or phosphoric acid because even with boiling I know I still have some RA left. But with RO giving a zero (or negative?) RA, it's new territory for me.
I really want to be able to make better light beers. My beers are good but water adjustment is the last area for me to look at, frankly because it's been the most difficult part for me to figure out. I think water adjustment is where one can find the intangibles in beer. I'm finally at the point where I think I'm understanding alkalinity and hardness, how to adjust what and why but I've still got quite a bit to learn.
Just the questions:
1) can I add all the minerals only to the mash water and 2) then sparge with only RO water (if so acidify or not)? Here are the details:
I'm planning to do a 100% RO pils just to see how it differs from my typical pils using my tap water (which seems a bit minerally to me). For a 5 gallon batch I looked at Bru'n Water and determined that 1.3 grams CaCl in the mash & 1.3 grams in the sparge would yield about 25ppm Ca and about 46 Cl (using the spreadsheet RO numbers).
Is there anything wrong with using all 2.6 grams of the CaCl in the mash? My reason for this would be to have higher Ca in the mash for pH lowering, help the enzymes, etc. Then sparge with straight RO water. Is there a downside to using just RO for sparging if the minerals have been added in the mash? Also, in the past I've almost always acidified my sparge water due to my RA. From what I've read that's not necessary but will it hurt anything? My mash pH goal with light beers is always 5.3 (room temp). I'll be using 10 lb of pilsner malt and adding some acid malt, my typical is .6 oz acid malt per pound of pale base malt. I'm guessing I'll need to adjust the acid malt amount down when using 100% RO water but I'll figure that out by the pH readings.
Here's my tap water profile: Ca 54, Mg 3, Cl <1, Na 3, Sulfate 18, Bicarbonate 130, Alkalinity 131, Hardness 145, TDS 215. By my calculations RA 115. I have always been a boil and decant brewer to try and reduce the temporary hardness and then add in 2 grams CaCl to the mash only. Then to the sparge water I add either lactic acid or phosphoric acid because even with boiling I know I still have some RA left. But with RO giving a zero (or negative?) RA, it's new territory for me.
I really want to be able to make better light beers. My beers are good but water adjustment is the last area for me to look at, frankly because it's been the most difficult part for me to figure out. I think water adjustment is where one can find the intangibles in beer. I'm finally at the point where I think I'm understanding alkalinity and hardness, how to adjust what and why but I've still got quite a bit to learn.
