Water adjustments for LME?

[BruceH]

So I got a deal on some LME. I just tapped the first keg brewed with it and grain 50/50. It's off.

It tastes like my lighter brews prior to having the water analyzed and making adjustments to it. I did a normal brew with 1.5x my mineral adjustments and added the LME at the end. Then an equal volume of distilled water was used to make enough for two fermentors at 1.042.

I did some research on the matter prior and it didn't make sense to me. Everything I could find said to not do any water adjustments because minerals were concentrated in the LME. I decided to do it half way for the LME portion of the brew, hence the .5. I now wish I would of went full water adjustment.

For those who do a lot of LME brews what do you do about water chemistry? Same as with grains?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I now wish I would of went full water adjustment.

You can adjust water minerals after fermentation. That makes it possible to optimize your preferred ion levels by taste testing various amounts.

 

[mabrungard]

To avoid overdosing your wort with excessive mineralization and avoid raising the wort pH, its best to use distilled or RO water to reconstitute your wort from extract. Tap water probably has too much alkalinity and there may be more ionic content in it than you want. PS: Briess extract has very high sodium content and that can come through into your beers.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

For those who do a lot of LME brews what do you do about water chemistry? Same as with grains?

When I brew classic (non-hazy) APAs / IPAs with Briess DME, I'll often add 0.5 grams gypsum per gallon of water. I got to this number with a couple of trial-and-error batches (0.25, then 0.5, then 0.75 grams per gallon).

"Blasphemy - No Boil NEIPA" has a number of extract based recipes with just CaCl additions.

I recently brewed a couple of gallon batches side-by-side, same recipe with different brands of the same style of DME. The beers were noticeably different in flavor. I experimented with brewing salt additions (CaCl and CaSO4) "in the glass" to get to the "best" flavor for each beer - the amount and type of salts needed to get to a 'best' beer were also different based on the brand of DME.

Somewhere on my "to brew" list is the idea of taking this article (https://beerandbrewing.com/learning-lab-water-treatment-for-all/) and reworking it so that one can brew just a single batch with "in the glass" brewing salt additions. I also want to prove to myself that the "in the glass" brewing salt additions can be "scaled up" (added to the recipe) and produce the same beer.

Everything I could find said to not do any water adjustments because minerals were concentrated in the LME

https://beerandbrewing.com/brewing-water/ captures the highlights of chapter 8 in How To Brew, 4e. The book Brewing Engineering, in chapter 14, also has some additional information.

Tips For Extract Brewers
Malt extract is concentrated wort, and the extract’s brewmaster has already made the water decisions. All you really need to be concerned about as an extract brewer is rehydrating the malt extract back to its original composition. And for that, a low mineral mountain stream source or distilled water source is ideal.

If you want to add brewing salts to your water, I urge you to brew the beer without the salts first and see how it tastes. This is where water adjustment gets tricky for extract brewers: You don’t know how much sulfate or chloride is already present in your malt extract. It doesn’t matter whether you are brewing with dry malt extract or liquid malt extract; the minerals are still there.

If you want to add brewing salts to enhance the flavor of the beer, use either 1 gram of calcium sulfate per gallon (3.8 liters) of wort for bitterness or 1 gram of calcium chloride per gallon (3.8 liters) of wort for fullness. Don’t use both, and don’t exceed 1 gram per gallon (3.8 liters) until you have brewed with that extract recipe and determined how it tastes.

Remember, don’t go overboard with water adjustment. Brewing is cooking, and using brewing salts and acid additions can easily be overdone, just like over-salting your food.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

So I got a deal on some LME. I just tapped the first keg brewed with it and grain 50/50.

Let's back up to the beginning: this reads like you are doing a partial mash. If so, check out the April 2, 2020 ("Brown Ale or Brown Fail") Basic Brewing Radio episode. At minutes 27 to 34, there is a discussion on water chemistry with partial mash brewing.

 

[BruceH]

Let's back up to the beginning: this reads like you are doing a partial mash. If so, check out the April 2, 2020 ("Brown Ale or Brown Fail") Basic Brewing Radio episode. At minutes 27 to 34, there is a discussion on water chemistry with partial mash brewing.

Yes, partial mash. Like I mentioned I have my city water figured out and usually do all grain. However, a deal popped up on 6 x 6lb LME. Now I'm almost back to square one for figuring out how to brew with it. I might just try either an all LME or stick to something more forgiving like using it with steeping grains for a stout.

At this point I wish I had just invested in grain instead of LME. Hindsight, 20/20.