Water for Pilsner style

[Barkingshins]

I am planning on brewing an all-grain batch of Bohemian style Pilsner and I want to do what I can (within reason) to get the soft water that is typically recommended for the style. Jamil Zainasheff recommends using a 50/50 mixture of RO water and your typical brewing water (I use water from a natural spring here in Eden Prairie, MN) to get reasonably close to the chemistry that the style demands.

Does this seem reasonable to you guys as well and, if so, what is a good source for RO water? In the past I have kept fish aquariums and remember that one of my local aquarium shops sells RO water by the gallon. If it's good enough for the fish, is it good enough for making beer do you think?

Thanks for any replies.

-Brian

 

[cfonnes]

Some of the grocery stores around here sell RO water by the gallon. You just bring in your jug and fill it up.

 

[Catt22]

I am planning on brewing an all-grain batch of Bohemian style Pilsner and I want to do what I can (within reason) to get the soft water that is typically recommended for the style. Jamil Zainasheff recommends using a 50/50 mixture of RO water and your typical brewing water (I use water from a natural spring here in Eden Prairie, MN) to get reasonably close to the chemistry that the style demands.

Does this seem reasonable to you guys as well and, if so, what is a good source for RO water? In the past I have kept fish aquariums and remember that one of my local aquarium shops sells RO water by the gallon. If it's good enough for the fish, is it good enough for making beer do you think?

I use a 50/50 blend of distilled water and carbon filtered tap water with excellent results. Supposedly the water vending machines at supermarkets are dispensing RO water, but that was second hand info, so you would need to check that for yourself. Also, supposedly the bottled water marked "drinking water" in the jugs on the supermarket shelves is RO. Again, you would have to read the labeling to be sure. The bigger question is what your natural spring water make up is. Often, spring water is fairly hard as it has passed through a lot of limestone etc and absorbed a lot of minerals, but that could vary dramatically from source to source. I think you can buy a test kit that should give you some idea or maybe the aquarium supply could test it for you if you give them a sample (and some beer maybe). That's as far as I can go. Hope it's of some help to you. Good luck with your lager.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Publix around here has Glacier water machines that vend RO water for $0.30 a gallon.

 

[BigEd]

I am planning on brewing an all-grain batch of Bohemian style Pilsner and I want to do what I can (within reason) to get the soft water that is typically recommended for the style. Jamil Zainasheff recommends using a 50/50 mixture of RO water and your typical brewing water (I use water from a natural spring here in Eden Prairie, MN) to get reasonably close to the chemistry that the style demands.

Does this seem reasonable to you guys as well and, if so, what is a good source for RO water? In the past I have kept fish aquariums and remember that one of my local aquarium shops sells RO water by the gallon. If it's good enough for the fish, is it good enough for making beer do you think?

Thanks for any replies.

-Brian

That suggestion is way oversimplified IMO. What does "typical" mean? Pilsner wants water that is low in mineral and ion content. I've seen profiles of many "typical" waters that would still be overboard for a pilsner after a 50/50 dilution. If you know what the brewing ion contents of your water are, and you should if you brew all grain, then you can make a reasonable estimate if it will work as is or what will be necessary to modify it. For pils the numbers for almost every ion should be very low, in the single digits or as close as you can easily achieve. Calcium (Ca+) is a requirement, however, and for a homebrewed pils a range of 50-75ppm is a good. Calcium Chloride is the recommended salt addition here as you do not want to add SO4- which is the negative ion in gypsum. If you do not know what the ion numbers are on your spring water and you can buy the RO water at a good price just add enough Calcium Chloride to the RO to get you to the 50-75ppm Ca+ number.

 

[Barkingshins]

If you know what the brewing ion contents of your water are

I have no idea what the brewing ion contents of my water are. For two years I've been all-grain brewing using water from a free, public natural spring here in the Twin Cities. As far as I know, a water report is not available for the spring and, even if it was, I'd assume that the chemistry of any spring's water would be in constant flux to some degree or another. In any case, I've been very happy with the results I've gotten using this water... it's a vast improvement over the results I was getting using Minneapolis' municipal water... blech!

Until now, I haven't felt a need to tackle the mystical subject of water chemistry (other than mash pH stuff) but it appears that, if I'm going to try and make a proper Pilsner, I will need to do some reading and learn how to take control of the variables in the water I will be using. Any suggestions for getting started on this? I really am at square one on this subject. I wouldn't even know how to determine the appropriate amount of Calcium Chloride to add to get to the ppm that you suggest.

Again, thanks for all your help.

-Brian

 

[Barkingshins]

Just to clarify...

I'm perfectly comfortable with ditching the spring water for a batch of Pilsner if need be and going with 100% RO. I just wouldn't know where to go from there.

-Brian

 

[944play]

I wouldn't even know how to determine the appropriate amount of Calcium Chloride to add to get to the ppm that you suggest.

You'll want something on the order of a gram per gallon:
http://brewery.org/library/wchmprimer.html
Add it to the mash. It will help reduce pH.

 

[pjj2ba]

I use a 50/50 blend with distilled water from the grocery store

 

[WhenInMinnesota]

I have no idea what the brewing ion contents of my water are. For two years I've been all-grain brewing using water from a free, public natural spring here in the Twin Cities. As far as I know, a water report is not available for the spring and, even if it was, I'd assume that the chemistry of any spring's water would be in constant flux to some degree or another. In any case, I've been very happy with the results I've gotten using this water... it's a vast improvement over the results I was getting using Minneapolis' municipal water... blech!

For a standard 5 gallon batch how much water do you start with?

 

[cfonnes]

For a standard 5 gallon batch how much water do you start with?

Here is a link that will help you understand how much water is used.

http://www.brew365.com/technique_calculating_mash_water_volume.php