jeremydgreat
Well-Known Member
One of the most enjoyable aspects of brewing is getting a deep understanding of what, on the surface, seem like simple things: grain, water, hops, and yeast. After all, what could be so complicated about yeast? They sell it in bulk at the grocery store. Then years later, you find yourself on one of these forums, researching the proper fermentation temperature for an obscure strain of brettanomyces and get pulled into a debate about which lacto-pedio blend produces the most "horse-blanket-like" esters.
I've crawled deep down the rabbit holes of hops, grain, fermentation temps, and yeast. But never water. And frankly, I'm trying to find a way to avoid it. I'm in San Diego CA and our water here, has been predictably good (according to other brewers) for many years. That's starting to change with the drought and it's something that homebrewers and professionals alike are talking about. At my LHSS I was talking with other brewers there about building up water profiles from distilled water (or possibly spring water).
Now, I know this topic of building water profiles from store-bought water has been covered at great length in many threads here at homebrewtalk. Some of the threads are absolutely massive and they draw out all the water scientists, chemists, and other much-smarter-than-me brewers. Within a few replies, someone usually point to the Bru'n Water spreadsheet. That thing is mind boggling.
So, for those of us who don't want to dive deep into this rabbit hole of knowledge, here's what I'm after:
GOAL: Build a recipe for making predictably good brewing water that works with a wide range of beers (but especially the lighter, hoppier beers where the imperfections of water could really stand out) that is easy to replicate at the 5 gallon scale (think about 8 gallons of water total, used in the mash) using known, widely available compounds (like gypsum, calcium chloride, etc). The water should also be ready to support healthy yeast activity, so
With that goal, here's what the guy behind the counter at my LHSS concocted punching the numbers into Beer Smith:
- About 8gal distilled water
- 11g gypsum
- 3g calcium chloride
- 1 serving (see package) of yeast nutrient.
Someone else said "Just use 1/2 spring water and 1/2 distilled. That gets you close enough to the numbers we're after every time."
What are your thoughts? Do you have a recipe for preparing water?
I've crawled deep down the rabbit holes of hops, grain, fermentation temps, and yeast. But never water. And frankly, I'm trying to find a way to avoid it. I'm in San Diego CA and our water here, has been predictably good (according to other brewers) for many years. That's starting to change with the drought and it's something that homebrewers and professionals alike are talking about. At my LHSS I was talking with other brewers there about building up water profiles from distilled water (or possibly spring water).
Now, I know this topic of building water profiles from store-bought water has been covered at great length in many threads here at homebrewtalk. Some of the threads are absolutely massive and they draw out all the water scientists, chemists, and other much-smarter-than-me brewers. Within a few replies, someone usually point to the Bru'n Water spreadsheet. That thing is mind boggling.
So, for those of us who don't want to dive deep into this rabbit hole of knowledge, here's what I'm after:
GOAL: Build a recipe for making predictably good brewing water that works with a wide range of beers (but especially the lighter, hoppier beers where the imperfections of water could really stand out) that is easy to replicate at the 5 gallon scale (think about 8 gallons of water total, used in the mash) using known, widely available compounds (like gypsum, calcium chloride, etc). The water should also be ready to support healthy yeast activity, so
With that goal, here's what the guy behind the counter at my LHSS concocted punching the numbers into Beer Smith:
- About 8gal distilled water
- 11g gypsum
- 3g calcium chloride
- 1 serving (see package) of yeast nutrient.
Someone else said "Just use 1/2 spring water and 1/2 distilled. That gets you close enough to the numbers we're after every time."
What are your thoughts? Do you have a recipe for preparing water?
