Tell me about my water

[Chris Grubb]

Just got my results back. How does this look and what are the suggested additions to achieve a better product,
Thanks!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

That almost looks like RO water.

 

[couchsending]

Depends on what beer you want to make and how you want it to taste/feel. But yeah basically RO water. You can easily make anything with it.

 

[Chris Grubb]

Wow. Really? This is just my well water. Makes me feel a little better about having to drill 600+ feet for it.
Obviously the ph is high for most beers. I could use gypsum to lower that, right?
So for porter/stouts, what would you suggest adding?

What about IPAs?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The waters pH is highly irrelevant. What is relevant is the 39 ppm of alkalinity. For every 5 gallons of your water 12.2 mL of 10% Phosphoric acid should take care of that (call it 12 mL even, which should be close enough). Ditto 1.15 mL of 88% lactic acid (call it 1 mL even, which in all probably is close enough). I use medicine syringes.

Beyond that, add calcium chloride for maltiness, or add gypsum for dryness (or you might want to add a combination of both). The choices here vary with the style you are brewing. Bit the general goal for adding either of these is to get your waters Ca++ (calcium) ion concentration up to around 50 to perhaps as high as 100 ppm (target at least 50 ppm).

 

[couchsending]

Wow. Really? This is just my well water. Makes me feel a little better about having to drill 600+ feet for it.
Obviously the ph is high for most beers. I could use gypsum to lower that, right?
So for porter/stouts, what would you suggest adding?

What about IPAs?

Do you have Bru’n water or another water spreadsheet/program? Do you have a pH meter? You’ll need those. There is no set answer to any of that. You’ll need more Ca, from CaCl or Gypsum. You might need to add some bicarbonates for a porter or stout but there are a few other variables.

If you’re going to use acid I’d personally use Lactic or some acid malt instead of 10% Phosphoric. Or find some food grade 85% phosphoric.

 

[Chris Grubb]

I do have a ph meter, but don’t currently have a laptop or desktop computer for Bru’n water. I don’t believe there are any apps for a smartphone now.
I was hoping to get a target profile for a couple different kinds of brews (ipa, and porter/stout particularly) and get an idea of what to add to my water to achieve these targets.

 

[Staylow]

You could use the brewers friend website on your phone. It's not perfect, but should get you close enough. I find that I routinely hit lower than it predicts, so I adjust for that. YMMV.

 

[Chris Grubb]

I plugged in my numbers on Brewer’s friend, but it didn’t populate the needed additions to achieve profile. I will play around with it more.

 

[Staylow]

I plugged in my numbers on Brewer’s friend, but it didn’t populate the needed additions to achieve profile. I will play around with it more.

Yeah, you gotta tell it what you're adding, then it will tell you what you have. I actually use it in conjunction with Beersmith. I use the water profile tool there to figure out my additions, then use Brewers friend to get a more accurate pH prediction, and figure how much/if I need acid.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

You'll need to add some carbonate or bicarbonate for porters and stouts. The amount will depend on your recipe. I prefer bicarb soda as long as it doesn't push the Sodium too high, as it dissolves more easily than chalk. Chalk is the most common option though.

 

[Chris Grubb]

What is a good target for porter or stout, and What would you recommend adding to get this?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

What is a good target for porter or stout, and What would you recommend adding to get this?

As to the required alkalinity (or bicarbonate) to be added (via baking soda, or other) it simply doesn't work like that. The amount of baking soda (or other) to be added depends upon how much acidity you are introducing into the mash via mainly the crystal malts and deep roasted malts, but really for all of the malts in the grist (or recipe), and that (the acidity) depends upon the specific malts and their specific quantities. It also depends upon how many gallons of water you are doughing into when you mash. And whether or not your water already has some quantity of alkalinity. And it also depends upon the pH target you are trying to achieve during the mash.

 

[Chris Grubb]

Ok. Let’s take my next porter for example. Going for a traditional English porter
10 pounds Chevallier malt
1.5 pound brown malt
.5 pounds black patent
4.5 gallons strike water
4 gallons sparge water to get to 6 gallons.
60 minute mash @155
60 minute boil.
With a 39 ppm alkaline count (along with the rest of the report), what should I add to my water and when should I add it?
Getting a good water profile seems like the most confusing and difficult aspect of the entire brewing process

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

How about something like this:

This image is for mashing at 5.4 pH. If you prefer to mash at 5.5 pH you wouldn't have to add any acid, as this grist mashes straight up in your water at pH 5.49 before adjustment. Close enough to 5.5 pH. This (my) software is a free download.

 

[Chris Grubb]

Awesome! Thanks for that. Guess I need to spend a little money to get a laptop or something instead of more beer stuff.

 

[BigEd]

Wow. Really? This is just my well water. Makes me feel a little better about having to drill 600+ feet for it.
Obviously the ph is high for most beers. I could use gypsum to lower that, right?
So for porter/stouts, what would you suggest adding?

What about IPAs?

The pH number alone is almost meaningless. What is important is what are the combination of ions that result in your water's pH. Your water is incredibly low in virtually all brewing ions. That's good, because you can pretty muck leave your water alone and add brewing salts to adjust for any style. It's subtracting and removing ions that is difficult. It will only take very small tweaks to take care of the mash pH number.