Water Ajustments

[modenacart]

Is there a way to add just Ca or Mg to my water without using Gypsum or Epson salts? My water profile is:

Ca Mg Na SO4 Cl HCO3
1 1 136 0 44 247

If I add enough Ca or Mg using Gypsum or Epson to balance the HCO3 then I will have a huge amount of SO4.

 

[k1v1116]

you can use calcium chloride or calcium carbonate (chalk) to add Ca, if your trying to balance it Id try the CaCl you should be able to find the dry powered form from a few HBS online. im not sure about the Mg. the amount of sulfate you want depends on the style some english ales I think need around 700ppm.
yeast need small amounts of Mg and Ca to be healthy they're also needed by the enzymes in the mash but you could use stuff like acidulated malt, lactic acid, and phosphoric acid to get the right Ph without needed to much Ca or Mg.

 

[modenacart]

Wouldn't I get a sour taste with aciduated malt? Is there a corrolation of how much it brings down the Ph of the mash?

I might have to try latic acid then.

 

[BigEd]

Is there a way to add just Ca or Mg to my water without using Gypsum or Epson salts? My water profile is:

Ca Mg Na SO4 Cl HCO3
1 1 136 0 44 247

If I add enough Ca or Mg using Gypsum or Epson to balance the HCO3 then I will have a huge amount of SO4.

First, what style of beer are you brewing? As posted above you can use calcium chloride or calcium carbonate to add Ca without adding SO4 but it would depend on the style of the beer. Generally you would use the CaCl for lighter beers and CaCO3 for dark ones. To make things a little more complicated you already have a pretty high carbonate number and if I read you list correctly a very high amount of sodium. Frankly before I did anything else I would cut this water 50/50 with distilled or RO to get the sodium down to something reasonable. The other question that comes to mind is why do you want to add magnesium? There is nothing magnesium does that calcium doesn't do better and it can be a problem if you have too much. Unless you are trying to copy a Burton water profile there is no reason to add magnesium to brewing water.

 

[k1v1116]

taken directly from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wsawdon/www/water.html
"Magnesium: Magnesium is the secondary mineral of hardness. It is essential as a co-factor for some enzymes and as a yeast nutrient. In small concentrations of 10 to 30 ppm, it accentuates the beer's flavor, but it imparts an astringent bitterness when it is present in excess. Over 125 ppm it is cathartic and diuretic. Usually found at levels of 2 to 50 ppm, its solubility is less affected by carbonate anions in solution than is calcium."

so you dont need a lot but you do need some. from the numbers you give it looks like your water is passed through an ion exchange system (explains the high sodium and lack of Ca / Mg) if you have this installed in your house you maybe better off bypassing the filter to get your brewing water.

 

[modenacart]

taken directly from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wsawdon/www/water.html
"Magnesium: Magnesium is the secondary mineral of hardness. It is essential as a co-factor for some enzymes and as a yeast nutrient. In small concentrations of 10 to 30 ppm, it accentuates the beer's flavor, but it imparts an astringent bitterness when it is present in excess. Over 125 ppm it is cathartic and diuretic. Usually found at levels of 2 to 50 ppm, its solubility is less affected by carbonate anions in solution than is calcium."

so you dont need a lot but you do need some. from the numbers you give it looks like your water is passed through an ion exchange system (explains the high sodium and lack of Ca / Mg) if you have this installed in your house you maybe better off bypassing the filter to get your brewing water.

That is why I wanted to add Epson Salts. I should be in about the 15-20 ppm range with my addition.

The water is plan old city water for where we are, I don't have a water softener. We are about 30 minutes from the beach and have salty water. I run my water through a whole house filter before I use it, but thats all. Will the whole house filter filter out any of the minerals?

I ended up adding

4.5 grams/gallon of Gypsum
0.1 grams/gallon of Epson

I got my mash Ph to about 5.6-5.7 range at mash temperature so I will see how it taste when I am done.

Before making additions my mash Ph was around 6.2 or so.

I am brewing a pale ale.