Water Frustration

[mlager]

So much stuff about water chemistry, I get it that it's important... I live in Scottsdale, Arizona and the water is crap. I've been using distilled water with 3 tsp of Gypsum for the past couple of years and it seems to do fine, but I'm always wondering if I should be doing something else. I'm not really looking to get to far into the water chemistry, at least right now, but I'm wondering if I should be moving to just using spring water... I recently purchased a package of "Burton Salts", which contains Gypsum, and I'll be brewing an IPA, should I add that to distilled, spring, ro, or not at all? How much? I brew 6 gallon all grain batches...

I know this topic requires a response bigger than I'm asking for, so I'm looking for a "best thing to generally do" type answer, because I'm not at the stage where I'm adjusting water profiles for each style, just trying to get a way to have a decent water to brew with.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Homercidal]

The basic thing you need to understand is that harder/more alkaline water is better for darker beer because of the acids the roasted malts contain react with the stuff in the water.

If you don't have much alkalinity in your water, then you make better pale beers with it, because they lack the acids. Otherwise there could be too MUCH acid in the mash.

The bottom line IMO is pH. It's a balancing act.

In order to help you with your question we might need to know some basics about your spring water. Then we could generalize and give some broad advice.

An IPA is not much different pH wise (I think) form any other pale ale. The difference is more or less in the ratio of Chlorides to Sulfates. *Some* people adjust this ratio to enhance the hop flavors. I generally try to stay in the balanced or maybe a little toward sulfate for hoppy beers.

Given the lack of information about your water the only advice I can give is to use the same water that's been working well for your other pale beers, OR if you can post a recipe, someone here can tell you what THEY might use for water additions for an IPA.

I agree that water chemistry is important. It's not that hard to work with if you have a basic understanding and spend a little time getting over the learning curve. In essence it's just basic math and the spreadsheet will do most all of the work. It's especially easy if you are willing to start with distilled water.

I recommend listening to some podcasts like from BN and Kai Troester. They have some great information, if a bit technical. I also recommend checking out Bru'nwater spreadsheet. It seems more complicated than the others, but IMO it works more in line with the information put forth in the podcasts on pH. And IMO pH is what you are trying to adjust.

 

[mlager]

Great advice, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I'll listen to those podcasts and you gave me a really good starting point. Thanks!

 

[Grinder12000]

Basic thing to do is read the Primer in the brew science section. Clears a lot up and is understandable. As water even sucks more then my automatic soft water. Sorry.

 

[SouthBay]

Id suggest looking online for the water test results for your area. that may tell you what your water is without sending it off for testing

 

[duckmanco]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

An answer to your prayers, and it works quite well.

 

[ajf]

I wouldn't use Burton salts because you don't know what is in them.
Also, I don't think you want to copy the Burton water profile. It may have worked for an IPA in the 1800's, but was it optimal? I know I doctored my water for an IPA to come up with a Burton profile, and it tasted terrible.
For some years, I have been following the advice of Terry Foster (author of Pale Ale), and have been very happy with the results. For an American IPA with an OG of 1.065, he recommends Ca 100 ppm, SO4 200 ppm, and Cl 30 ppm.
I made a very simple recipe for an American IPA (14 lbs US 2 row + 0.5 lb crystal 20). For a 6g batch, at 75% efficiency that should come close to 1.065. Then I plugged the data into EZ water calculator 3.0 (it works well for me).
Then I started playing with the CaSO4 and CaCl2 adjustments to try and achieve Forster's figures starting with distilled water.
Using 1.4 grams of CaSO4 and 0.24 grams of CaCl2 per gallon, it predicted Ca 101 ppm, Cl 31 ppm, and SO4 206 ppm with a predicted mash pH of 5.45
That's where I'd start off.

-a.