Water Chemistry for a Mexican lager

[oldsccorpio227]

Hi. I am thinking of brewing Mexican lager and trying to figure out water chemistry. I have the Brewfather app but it doesn't have Mexican Larger as style. I did some digging on the internet and here is what I found

Ca -40
Mg - 10
Na - 35
Cl - 70
SO4 - 10
HCO3 - 25

Does it look right? I am using RO water. TIA

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Looks ok to me I used American Light Lager profile for Modelo clone so pretty close.
Ca 55
Mg 15
Na 50
Cl 75
SO4 25
HCO3 20

 

[oldsccorpio227]

Looks ok to me I used American Light Lager profile for Modelo clone so pretty close.
Ca 55
Mg 15
Na 50
Cl 75
SO4 25
HCO3 20

what is the water ph I need to target? with this addition, I still getting 5.65

 

[Cheshire Cat]

5.4

 

[day_trippr]

Water pH is typically not a target of interest...

Cheers!

 

[BigEd]

what is the water ph I need to target? with this addition, I still getting 5.65

Agree with day_trippr, it's the mash pH not the water's pH you should be targeting.

You're overthinking here. Follow the basic water guidelines for a light lager beer as suggested and brew away. Essentially you want water with low residual alkalinity as the profile supplied by Cheshire Cat is. Typically it would also be low in sulphate with moderate amounts of Calcium and chloride which it does.

 

[Yesfan]

Bump.

I'm thinking about brewing the Atlantico kit from Northern Brewer. I'm still stumped on the water profile. Here's my water profile and the target profile (American Light Lager) and the additions suggested.

My water profile: Ca- 11, Mg- 2, Na- 3, Cl- 4, SO4- 6, HCO3- 33

American Light Lager: Ca-55, Mg- 15, Na- 50, Cl- 75, SO4- 25, HCO3- 20

I'm currently BIABing, so there's no separate sparge water. After hitting the auto adjust, Here's the adjusted values:

Ca- 34, Mg- 4, Na- 28, Cl- 76, SO4- 25, HCO3- 33 : "Too full or malty".

pH is 5.70. I have to add 3.75 mL of lactic acid to drop the pH to 5.4

I feel like going this route is going to give me a sourish lager in the end. Do these numbers seem right to you guys?

 

[dmtaylor]

I target closer to 5.6. Fall down the rabbit holes...

homebrewtalk.com/threads/will-it-mash-at-ph-5-00.667992/page-2#post-8653242

homebrewtalk.com/threads/yet-more-evidence-that-commercial-brewers-do-not-mash-at-5-2-to-5-6-ph.671764/page-12#post-8803629

homebrewtalk.com/threads/yet-more-evidence-that-commercial-brewers-do-not-mash-at-5-2-to-5-6-ph.671764/

 

[Yesfan]

I target closer to 5.6. Fall down the rabbit holes...

homebrewtalk.com/threads/will-it-mash-at-ph-5-00.667992/page-2#post-8653242

homebrewtalk.com/threads/yet-more-evidence-that-commercial-brewers-do-not-mash-at-5-2-to-5-6-ph.671764/page-12#post-8803629

homebrewtalk.com/threads/yet-more-evidence-that-commercial-brewers-do-not-mash-at-5-2-to-5-6-ph.671764/

That reduces the amount of lactic acid. I'll check out those links. Thanks.

Do the mineral amounts look right for my water profile?

 

[dmtaylor]

That reduces the amount of lactic acid. I'll check out those links. Thanks.

Do the mineral amounts look right for my water profile?

You're overthinking it. No one on Earth can taste the difference between the three water profiles you posted. Whether you add any salts or not, the result is going to be basically just fine for this style.

 

[Yesfan]

I do tend to overthink these things...............

No salt additions and 2mL of lactic acid gets me to pH of 5.6. Think I'll just roll with that.

 

[pvpeacock]

To be authentic, I use water with a lot of solids in it

 

[shnth]

To be authentic, I use water with a lot of solids in it
View attachment 870271

lol

 

[Yesfan]

Got through with my brew day and it went peachy. I think I set a record for fastest brew day ever. About 4 hrs. The biggest thing I love about brewing in the spring/near spring is the ground water is still cold even though it can be sunny and in the 60s.

I didn't use any brewing salts and just added about 2mL of lactic to bring my mash pH to 5.6.