Water Profile for a Kolsch using RO Water

[BugAC]

Making a honey kolsch. Where can i find the correct profile for a kolsch? This will be my 2nd time using RO water in a beer.

Grain Profile

50% Pilsen
25% 2-row
10% Honey Malt
5% Dextrine
5% White Wheat
adding 12-16 oz. of honey at peak of fermentation

 

[MrHadack]

I'll start by saying that you shouldn't try to mimic a specific region's water profile exactly. Mainly because it is impossible to do. You can get some of the numbers close, sure, but that isn't the entire story.

What I typically aim to do is:

1. Get the Calcium levels up to their recommended minimum (without overdoing sulfate or chloride)
2. Adjust the water as needed to ensure the mash pH is around 5.4

With your grain bill and 3.5 gallons of RO water, your mash pH would likely come in around 5.7 which is a little too high. Let's take the above goals one at a time and adjust them as needed:

1. We need to add calcium to reach the 50 ppm recommended for yeast. Since Kolsch is not a hop-forward beer, Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) would be the best choice to do the bulk of the work since higher sulfide levels will accentuate malt character. If you add 2 grams CaCl2 and 1 gram Gypsum (CaSO4) it would give you the following:

Ca: 60 ppm
Mg: 0
Sulfate: 42
Chloride: 78

2. After the above addition, the mash pH will settle in around 5.5 which is close, but not quite there. At this point you can add a small amount of lactic acid or perhaps 2oz of acid malt. That will get your mash down to around 5.4

That should work well for the beer you're making. I typically calculate all these things with the Bru'n Water spreadsheet which has always worked really well for me. You can find both a free and paid version online HERE.

 

[JonM]

I'd use the same profile you'd use for a pilsner - about 50 ppm calcium, modest chlorides, and no sulfates at all.

You'll also need to add some aciduated malt or other acid to get you pH in check.

 

[BugAC]

i'm relatively new to the water treatment thing, so some of these things are new to me.

So when you say i need my calcium levels up, how do you know that? The reason i'm asking is i want to use RO water for all my brews from now on, and treat them per the style. How do you know what your calcium levels and ph should be for each style? I have several beer books, but as stated earlier, i've just gotten into using RO water, so i haven't thoroughly looked into it. Does any of the standard beer books have that information, like designing great beers?

 

[BugAC]

Also, what does each additive do to the water in terms of raising/lowering properties? By additives i mean gypsum, chalk, CaCL.

 

[MrHadack]

i'm relatively new to the water treatment thing, so some of these things are new to me.

So when you say i need my calcium levels up, how do you know that? The reason i'm asking is i want to use RO water for all my brews from now on, and treat them per the style. How do you know what your calcium levels and ph should be for each style? I have several beer books, but as stated earlier, i've just gotten into using RO water, so i haven't thoroughly looked into it. Does any of the standard beer books have that information, like designing great beers?

The water chemistry aspect of brewing can be confusing. I'll try to expand on what I said above.

I'm not sure if that info is in "Designing Great Beers" but it is covered a little bit in "How To Brew" by Palmer, which you can read online. Alternatively, check out the link I posted in my initial response for the Bru'n Water web site. There is a link to a section called "Water Knowledge" that explains things extremely well.

Anyhow, on to calcium:

All beer styles should have at least 40 ppm Calcium, with an ideal range between 50 and 100 ppm. Calcium is essential for yeast cell health, and helps flocculation (clumping together of yeast cells to sink to the bottom when fermentation is done). It also aids in enzyme activity during the mash.

RO water contains almost no Calcium (maybe 1 ppm) so you need to add it using some sort of brewing salt such as the ones I mentioned: Calcium Chloride or Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum). When you add either one of those, there are other effects than just raising calcium. As you can see by their names, they will also contain either Sulfate or Chloride as well.

Higher levels of Chloride will help accentuate a beer's malt flavors, while higher levels of Sulfate will accentuate the bitter hop flavors. Generally speaking, both Chloride and Sulfate should be kept lower than 100 ppm, so you have to be careful about how much you add.

There are some web-based tools (in addition to the spreadsheet I mentioned) which will help you determine how much of each brewing salt to add to your mash water.

The reason people use RO and Distilled Water as base water instead of tap water is because it provides a blank slate with known quantities of minerals, salts, etc. It's like an artist using a perfectly blank canvas before starting to paint.

 

[MrHadack]

As for pH:

For all beers, 5.4 is typically considered ideal for the mash, but pH should generally fall between 5.3 - 5.5. The types of grain you're using as well as the water additions will affect your pH. For example, roasted and crystal malts are acidic and will cause the pH to drop, while some additions (Calcium Carbonate / Pickling Lime) will make pH go up. Using an online tool or spreadsheet and entering your grain bill and starting water profile will help predict your mash pH, and what you can add to achieve the ideal mash pH of 5.4

 

[BugAC]

Thanks man, i appreciate it. When i get home i'll try messing with it on beersmith. I may have some more questions tomorrow. I appreciate the info.

 

[Natdavis777]

Id suggest downloading Bru'n Water and playing with it for awhile as well. I started getting into water chem a little over a year ago and thought I had it figured out, then downloaded bru'n water and proved myself wrong. After a few days of plugging some numbers, reading some lit, and messing with recipes, I got a better grasp of how everything played together. Needless to say, my beers took a turn for the better as well.

 

[BugAC]

Update:

So I'm brewing the honey kolsch tomorrow and I'm using distilled water with some salt additions to get to my desired water profile. Everything is in the clear (using brewer's friend and beersmith for my calculations), except my ph is at 5.66. If i add about 7 oz. of acidulated malt, then my ph goes down to 5.2.

My questions are

1) what is the PH of distilled water? 7.0?
2) What should my mash ph be? Is 5.2 too low? I was thinking of shooting in the middle of 5.2 and 5.4, so adding 5 oz. would give me 5.33.
3) Does acidulated malt alter the water profile, in terms of salts? According to brewer's friend, it really only alters ph.

Here's my water profile with the acidulated malt addition.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-ch...or/?id=NYXJX3W

 

[JonM]

The pH of distilled water should be around 7, but it might not be, sorry to say. If you have no way of checking the actual pH, then 7 is a pretty good guesstimate.

Lots of us shoot for something in the middle of the 5.2-5.5 range. 5.33 will be fine.

I don't know the answer to the third Q, but I'm pretty sure aciduated malt just changes the pH.

 

[solbes]

1) pH of distilled water will not really matter, but yes it should be close to 7 if it was freshly distilled. Upon contact with CO2, it can create carbonic acid which may lower it into the low 6's. But really only your malt types and weights, alkalinity (you have none with distilled), and water additions will matter for mash pH.
2) Go for the 5 oz of acidulated malt. 88% Lactic acid is what I use in small quantities to do the same thing.
3) It does not alter the water profile, just the pH as you stated.

 

[BugAC]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info.

 

[MrHadack]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info.

Going back to your original recipe, I might make one extra suggestion. I have used honey malt in a few beers recently, and a full pound is going to make the beer really sweet. My honey malt was about 3% of the grain bill in one beer (an IPA) and was noticeable. 5% in another batch was too sweet. 10%, like you plan, might make the beer overly sweet. I'd suggest cutting it in half. Just a suggestion based on my own personal experience.

 

[Yooper]

You don't need 50 ppm of calcium or higher. That so-called need has been way overstated. You definitely don't want to add sulfate.

You can add a little calcium chloride if you want but otherwise you don't need to add anything. 5 g of calcium chloride would be fine.

You would want to target the mash pH of 5.3 to 5.5.

 

[BugAC]

Brewday went off without a hitch, except, i forgot to add 1 gallon of distilled water to my sparge water. The salt additions were very small, according to what was required, per brewersfriend. I didn't read the part about honey malt, until just now, so hopefully it isn't too sweet.