Water Chemistry Help - Porter

[cysiam]

I'm planning to brew a porter soon and I recently read that DC's water is not so good for dark beers. I've never done any chemistry adjustments before. Is there anything simple I could add to my water to help out?
Here is the water report:

Ca: 40
Mg: 8.8
Na: 20
SO4: 54
Cl: 38
HCO3: 76

 

[DangerRoss]

The main ways to adjust your water chemistry is by changing the pH, hardness, salinity, and trace elements present. In my opinion, the pH and the hardness are going to be the main ones to concentrate on.

Here is what I like to do:

I have a couple of the 5 gallon Culligan water jugs that I refill with a reverse osmosis machine my local grocery store (about $5 to refill 10gallons). The RO water has a pH of 6-8 and very low levels of trace elements.

For mash pH, I like to use 5.2 Mash Stabilizer. It is cheap, easy to use, and automatically adjusts your pH.

Then on brew day I add a package of Burton Water Salts from my LHS. Burton water salt raises the water hardness by using magnesium sulfate instead of calcium sulfate (provides yeasts with trace nutrients).

Between the stabilizer and the Burton salts your water chemistry profile should be excellent to brew any beer

 

[Yooper]

I don't use 5.2 stabilizer or burton salts with my water. I wouldn't touch either one!

But anyway, your water is actually fine. If you don't have a pH meter, you shouldn't just add stuff to it, as you won't know the results and may not get the best beer.

I would NOT add Burton salts to that water! I think 5.2 stabilizer is ineffective at best, and has an unpleasant taste if used in enough quantity to be effective, so I'd skip that too.

 

[mabrungard]

That water profile is not too bad for lighter colored beers, but the alkalinity is likely to be a little too low for dark beers or beers with significant crystal malts and the mash pH may end a little lower than desirable.

Adding Burton salts would further depress the Residual Alkalinity and the resulting mash pH. Not a good idea. If anything, a darker beer made with this water may need some additional alkalinity to provide the additional buffering needed. My preference is pickling lime, but a little baking soda might also be used as long as the sodium content is kept below about 50 ppm.

I hate to say this, but the typically poor performing 5.2 Stabilizer product would actually help in this mash. This product tends to push the mash pH well above 5.2, but that could be a help in the case of a dark beer. But the problem with this product is that it adds a lot of sodium. Not really a good solution. The other alkalinity producers mentioned above, are better alternatives to 5.2 Stabilizer.

Chalk is another option for adding alkalinity, but its a little cranky in delivering its alkalinity. It should be dissolved into water along with a CO2 bubbler, but another option is to add twice as much chalk as indicated by its stoichiometry.

The other option is to just go ahead and use the stock water profile and brew with it. The beer may come out a little tarter than it might have, but you may like it that way.

Enjoy!