Should I adjust this water for my Irish red?

[JONNYROTTEN]

Brewing now
I've made this beer many times and is good.....but can it be better???
I have calcium chloride and Gypsum
It calls for Gypsum but how would they know without knowing each persons water?


pH: 7.9
Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) Est. ppm: 215
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm: 0.36
Cations / Anions, me/L: 3.2 / 3.2

PPM

Sodium, NA 18
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 30
Magnesium, Mg 11
Total Hardness, CaCO3 121
Nitrate, NO3-N 4.5 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 6
Chloride, Cl 34
Carbonate, CO3 <1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 94
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 78
Total Phosphorus, P 0.05
Total Iron, Fe <0.01

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2.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60 min) Misc 1
10 lbs 12.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 2
12.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3
2.40 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4
2.40 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5
2.40 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 6
1.25 oz Fuggles Pellet Type 90 [5.1%] - Boil 60 min Hops 7
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10 min) Misc 8
1 pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast 9

 

[jdauria]

Usually when a recipe calls for certain minerals, they are basing the recipe on soft water, i.e. RO or Distilled and/or to get pH in proper range. Your calcium at 30 ppm is a little low too, you want at least 50 for yeast health, so would recommend calcium chloride or gypsum for every brew depending if you are going malty or hoppy. Looking at your water profile, your Chloride is almost 6 times Sulfate, so would be good for very malty beers. And Irish Red should be "slightly malty" per BJCP guidelines, so would definitely add gypsum.

Plugging your water profile into Bru'n Water, adding 2 tsp of gypsum to an average 4 gallon mash, would push sulfates to almost 300 ppm, which is very high for non-hoppy beer and put pH at a very low 5.2 (for a red ale). Probably too late now, but next time, try a 1/2 tsp (2 grams) of gypsum and 5/8th of tsp of calcium chloride. That would give you a "balanced" beer profile approximately and get your pH to around 5.38.

 

[Yooper]

Definitely no gypsum! Gypsum enhances the perception of dryness, nice in an Irish red, but with the the recipe itself, that won't be an issue.

With only 5 ounces of roasted grain, you probably will need some acid to get your pH to 5.3-5.5.

Phosphoric acid is a great choice for pH adjustment.

You could use some calcium chloride in the water, to increase the chloride (50-75 ppm would be great) as well as the calcium level. You don't need calcium for fermentation, but it does enhance yeast flocculation and help prevent beerstone so it's nice to have it at 50-100 PPM if you care about that.