Simple Water Question...not really

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IloveWorts

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Would you guys recommend having a base water that is tweaked for each style of beer I brew? So essentially using EZ and BeerSmith to really hone in on recipes instead of just using the one base water report with the same additions. I use Lactic acid, gypsum and calcium chloride to get the mash profile I want for my blondes and IPA's

Heres the base: ph- 8.3

Calcium- 24
Magnesium- 15
Sodium- 80
Chloride- 105
Sulfate-80
Alk-70
 
Some brewers will match the water to a given famous city's water profile, in order to try to duplicate a beer. I don't do this personally, because I don't know how much a brewery changes their water anyway. So I build all of my recipes off of the same water profile.

I use EZ Water and Beersmith, too. So here's what I do:

1. Build the recipe in Beersmith to match OG, IBUs, SRM and ABV
2. Get the total mash and sparge volumes and put that into EZ
3. Determine the salts and acid malt to add to do the following:
a. Get mash ph in acceptable range (I don't use BS for this)
b. Get numbers at bottom of EZ water to be in the "green" range (low end if possible)
c. Pay attention to chloride/sulfate ratio to accentuate the malt or bitterness depending on style.

I'm happy with my beers since I started doing this. But I wish I had a way to test my water at each brew, instead of using water reports. That way I could hone in on the salts perfectly without using RO or distilled water.
 
Some brewers will match the water to a given famous city's water profile, in order to try to duplicate a beer. I don't do this personally, because I don't know how much a brewery changes their water anyway. So I build all of my recipes off of the same water profile.

I use EZ Water and Beersmith, too. So here's what I do:

1. Build the recipe in Beersmith to match OG, IBUs, SRM and ABV
2. Get the total mash and sparge volumes and put that into EZ
3. Determine the salts and acid malt to add to do the following:
a. Get mash ph in acceptable range (I don't use BS for this)
b. Get numbers at bottom of EZ water to be in the "green" range
c. Pay attention to chloride/sulfate ratio to accentuate the malt or bitterness depending on style.

I'm happy with my beers since I started doing this. But I wish I had a way to test my water at each brew, instead of using water reports. That way I could hone in on the salts perfectly without using RO or distilled water.

I take the same steps. Good points about not knowing what adjustments commercial brewers make to their water and that water reports do have a range.
 
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