Question about water report (and brewing a hefe)

[Murphys_Law]

Hello - I'm planning a hefe and wanted to start adjusting my water other than just using a campden tablet. I had my water tested by Ward (results below).

I'd really appreciate any thoughts on how I should adjust my water, please! This particular recipe will be ~ 60% wheat, 40 % pilsner and a small amount of melanoidin.

WARD Report:
pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 110
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.18
Cations / Anions, me/L 1.8 / 1.7
ppm
Sodium, Na 14
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 16
Magnesium, Mg 4
Total Hardness, CaCO3 57
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 8
Chloride, Cl 8
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 57
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 47
Total Phosphorus, P 0.01

 

[TheMadKing]

Hello - I'm planning a hefe and wanted to start adjusting my water other than just using a campden tablet. I had my water tested by Ward (results below).

I'd really appreciate any thoughts on how I should adjust my water, please! This particular recipe will be ~ 60% wheat, 40 % pilsner and a small amount of melanoidin.

WARD Report:
pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 110
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.18
Cations / Anions, me/L 1.8 / 1.7
ppm
Sodium, Na 14
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 16
Magnesium, Mg 4
Total Hardness, CaCO3 57
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 8
Chloride, Cl 8
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 57
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 47
Total Phosphorus, P 0.01

That's some pretty good water! I would just add a tsp of CaCl, 1/8tsp of NaCl, and call it good for a hefe. I'm sure the water gurus will give you some better advice shortly, but that my $.02

 

[mabrungard]

That water is already somewhat typical of a pre-boiled Bavarian water. Fairly low in mineral content.

No need to add minerals to that water for a Hefe. You will need to acidfy the mashing and sparging water. Lactic acid is preferred.

 

[Murphys_Law]

That water is already somewhat typical of a pre-boiled Bavarian water. Fairly low in mineral content.

No need to add minerals to that water for a Hefe. You will need to acidfy the mashing and sparging water. Lactic acid is preferred.

So the calcium is OK being that low? For some reason I thought it should be a tad higher but adding nothing is good for me!

Thanks to both of you for the response!

 

[mabrungard]

Calcium is not a requirement in brewing water since it is supplied by the malt. However, it is beneficial for removing oxalate and for yeast flocculation. So we often add calcium salts to our brewing liquor. Since Hefe is cloudy, you don't need the yeast to floc.

 

[ajdelange]

You will need to acidfy the mashing and sparging water. Lactic acid is preferred.

If you don't acidify this water you will probably have a mash pH of around or a little over 6. Ordinarily we would raise an eyebrow at that and suggest you add acid. Hefeweizen appears to be an exception to this rule. At least that has been my experience. Some of the best beers I have ever made were Hefe's with water like this and no acidification (with resulting mash pH's in the 6's). The beers were so good that it was one of the few times in my brewing that I reasoned 'If it ain't broke don't fix it.' Now as a responsible poster I should point out that my beers might have been even better had I reduced the pH somewhat and you should probably try with and without to see for yourself.

I should also note that I always used the Weihenstephan strain.

 

[mabrungard]

My experience differs from AJ's. I've found through my own brewing results and through judging hundreds of Hefe's in competition that higher wort pH tends to create less satisfactory beers. I've postulated that while a somewhat high pH can be tolerated in mashing, reducing the wort pH in the kettle can make up for that. The beer will be crisper and more refreshing in my experience. In addition, I understand that it is a common commercial German brewing practice to acidify their kettle wort with sauergut. So, take whatever advice you follow with a grain of salt (acid?).

 

[ajdelange]

Just another observation (from memory - don't have access to my notes): while the mash pH's were always higher than we'd normally like the finished beer's pH's were always at the low end of the scale.

I was never able to correlate Weizens I judged with their mash pH's as when I was judging (been a while now) mash pH info was not made available to the judges.

 

[Murphys_Law]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen!