New to water adjustments

[osprey12]

Hi all, I was going to start tinkering with my water and got my report back from Ward Labs. I'm in the Tacoma, WA area. It looks like this:

I'm planning on making a stout and a pale ale this weekend and just wanted to make sure I was on the right track. I'm using Beersmith's profiles for stout and yellow dry and Beersmiths water addition calculations.

For the Stout:

For the Pale Ale:

I'm using a grainfather to brew and a separate pot for sparging. Does anyone have any nitpicks or suggestions? Am I on the right track? Also, does anyone have ideas on what beer styles would go best with my household water results?

If I'm missing any info that would be helpful just let me know.

Thanks! This place has been super helpful!

 

[day_trippr]

Just a comment: that is rather enviable water that one could push in any desired direction. Lucky!

Cheers!

 

[dmtaylor]

Looks like RO water, clean as a whistle. You'll have to add all your own salts because there's not much there. Enjoy.

 

[jdauria]

Wow, that's fantastic water, almost pure. Not that it matters that much with that profile, Ward Labs reports sulfate as S04-S, you need to multiply it by 3 to convert it to SO4 for the water profiles in BeerSmith. So it should be 3 in BeerSmith, not that the difference between 1 and 3 going to change flavors. But as to your question...the pale ale profile looks good, you could go even higher on sulfate if you want a drier pale ale and accent hops more, but profile as is works too. As for the Stout, what is the estimated pH number on the mash page in BS for that profile? Does not seem like enough baking soda to offset the alkalinity of the black barley and with all that calcium chloride and gypsum your pH may be too low.

 

[kevin58]

Using the Beersmith 3 tool makes it pretty foolproof. Enter your base water then select the target you want to reach. If you have your recipe open it will add all the additives straight to your recipe.

 

[chumpsteak]

As for the Stout, what is the estimated pH number on the mash page in BS for that profile? Does not seem like enough baking soda to offset the alkalinity of the black barley and with all that calcium chloride and gypsum your pH may be too low.

Pickling lime is a good alternative to baking soda for bringing pH back up with soft water and dark grains.

 

[osprey12]

Wow, that's fantastic water, almost pure. Not that it matters that much with that profile, Ward Labs reports sulfate as S04-S, you need to multiply it by 3 to convert it to SO4 for the water profiles in BeerSmith. So it should be 3 in BeerSmith, not that the difference between 1 and 3 going to change flavors. But as to your question...the pale ale profile looks good, you could go even higher on sulfate if you want a drier pale ale and accent hops more, but profile as is works too. As for the Stout, what is the estimated pH number on the mash page in BS for that profile? Does not seem like enough baking soda to offset the alkalinity of the black barley and with all that calcium chloride and gypsum your pH may be too low.

Thanks for the tip about changing it from 1-3, I'll do that. As far as the stout pH, BS shows this:

Also, thanks everyone for the replies! I guess It's good to know my water is plain but also may explain why my beers feel like they need something else and water may just be the issue.

 

[jdauria]

Thanks for the tip about changing it from 1-3, I'll do that. As far as the stout pH, BS shows this:

View attachment 720088

Also, thanks everyone for the replies! I guess It's good to know my water is plain but also may explain why my beers feel like they need something else and water may just be the issue.

Not as low as I thought it would be, so that's good. I would still bump it up to 5.5-5.6 for a dark beer though.

 

[jdauria]

Pickling lime is a good alternative to baking soda for bringing pH back up with soft water and dark grains.

That it is. Had recommended baking soda since that is something that a lot of households already have on hand.

 

[tracer bullet]

For the Stout:

View attachment 720042

I'm not a water expert, still learning. From what I've read over the last few weeks some of those numbers seem pretty high. The calcium, the chloride. At some point you start getting effects you don't want.

They could be perfect, I don't know for sure, but they seem a bit high. I'd recommend looking into it... or hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give it the thumbs up.

 

[osprey12]

I'm not a water expert, still learning. From what I've read over the last few weeks some of those numbers seem pretty high. The calcium, the chloride. At some point you start getting effects you don't want.

They could be perfect, I don't know for sure, but they seem a bit high. I'd recommend looking into it... or hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give it the thumbs up.

Yeah, I'm not sure either. It sounds like as long as I can bump up the PH a bit they may be OK but I'm also new to water adjustments. I only got around to making the pale ale last weekend so the stout still remains in question. Hopefully will get to it this weekend but may get bumped to next.