Water Profile for a Porter

[rsl052]

I got my Ward results back and have really soft water. Because of this I am trying to build a water profile for a porter. Here is my Ward results:

Sodium, Na 35
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 26
Magnesium, Mg 6
Total Hardness, CaCO3 90
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.6 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 14
Chloride, Cl 39
Carbonate, CO3 6
Bicarbonate, HCO3 68
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 65
Fluoride, F 1.03
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

I input all of this into Bru'n Water and here is what I came up with.

This is my first time changing my water profile, and I have heard that chalk wasn't easy to use, but that was the only way I could increase my calcium without raising my sulfate too much. Does this look like it will work? Any advice? And this is for a 3 gal batch so the water volumes are lower.

 

[ajdelange]

The spreadsheet is too small for me to read but yes, chalk is quite hard to use in the water. You must dissolve it with acid - carbonic acid if you expect to come up with something that resembles what nature does. This is only done when attempting to accurately emulate the water of a particular region and only when you have a verifiably accurate ion profile for that water. It is seldom necessary or justifiable to do this.

But you would never want to use chalk to increase calcium anyway. If you are trying to reach the 50 ppm minimum for calcium that is so often quoted you could just use a bit of calcium chloride. For example, adding 2 grams of calcium chloride dihydrate to each 5 gallons of your water treated would get the calcium to 55 mg/L and chloride to 90. This should be fine for a Porter - rather mellow and round from the chloride. Should you prefer something drier with more hop punch you could use a like amount of gypsum instead of the calcium chloride. That would net you 51 mg/L calcium and 73 mg/L sulfate. Or you could use both for 80 mg/L Ca++. That should be plenty unless you are relying on Ca++ to lower mash pH which you shouldn't do in any case because it takes a lot of calcium to lower the pH a little and you especially shouldn't try to do it with chalk because chalk has 3.5 units of pH raising power for each unit of pH lowering power. pH is better controlled with acid which in a dark beer comes in large part from the dark malts. IOW you shouldn't need either it or excessive calcium.

My standard recommendation in a case like this would be to add the calcium chloride and gypsum to your untreated water, mash with it and check mash pH. Should mash pH be too high, add some acid (lactic, phosporic). Should it be too low - that's when you add chalk to the mash in small increments as required to bring the pH up. This shouldn't be necessary unless you have lots of roast and/or dark crystal malts in your grist. To me "lots" means enough to overwhelm the beer with the flavor characteristics of those malts but some brewers like their beers that way and they should have them that way with the consequence being that they may need alkali to keep pH in range.

The next phase is to re-brew the beer experimenting with different amounts of gypsum or calcium chloride (only vary one at a time). You are looking for the levels of chloride and sulfate that give you the realization of a Porter that is most pleasing to you.

 

[mabrungard]

If you're like most homebrewers, brewing and rebrewing to dial in a recipe or water adjustment may not be too appealing. There are just too many styles out there that brewers want to try their hand at. Bru'n Water provides the tool needed to get the water 'close enough'. Brewers that are looking for the next Ninkasi Award or commercial success, may want to take their water adjustments to the next step as AJ recommends.

I can't see what's on that sheet, but if the brewer is not using calcium chloride, they should be. It is a very useful mineral for water adjustment. Chalk is a pretty cranky mineral to use in brewing and its effects can be variable without proper disolution. Gypsum and the resulting sulfate concentration should be moderated unless the brewer is looking for a punchier hop presence. Bumping up the chloride can be a better flavor component in a Porter.

Enjoy.

 

[ajdelange]

If you're like most homebrewers, brewing and rebrewing to dial in a recipe or water adjustment may not be too appealing.

That's a significant comment. It's really a trade as are so many things in brewing (and the rest of life too). You basically have a choice between a diverse 'portfolio' (to borrow from the commercial guys) of beers or a much narrower selection of potentially much better beers. Given variations in materials, water, equipment and procedure the only way to perfect a beer is by repeated trial and error and it's not just the water parameters that need to be tweaked. A normal human doesn't have enough skill, time, energy or liver capacity to be able to come anywhere close to perfection on more than a few beers. The guys that can do this are few and far between but they do exist and we all envy them. I won't say how long it has taken me to get my relatively few beers to where I really like them because I don't want to discourage anyone.

 

[logdrum]

That's a significant comment. It's really a trade as are so many things in brewing (and the rest of life too). You basically have a choice between a diverse 'portfolio' (to borrow from the commercial guys) of beers or a much narrower selection of potentially much better beers. Given variations in materials, water, equipment and procedure the only way to perfect a beer is by repeated trial and error and it's not just the water parameters that need to be tweaked. A normal human doesn't have enough skill, time, energy or liver capacity to be able to come anywhere close to perfection on more than a few beers. The guys that can do this are few and far between but they do exist and we all envy them. I won't say how long it has taken me to get my relatively few beers to where I really like them because I don't want to discourage anyone.

Great reply aj. Your water primer has helped me immensely, thank you.

-d

 

[rsl052]

Thanks for the help. I wasn't sure what to shoot for so I was using the water profile for London in Bru'n water. If I add 1 gram of gypsum and 1 gram of calcium chloride my new profile should be around:

Sodium, Na 35
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 70
Magnesium, Mg 6
Total Hardness, CaCO3 90
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.6 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4 91
Chloride, Cl 81
Carbonate, CO3 6
Bicarbonate, HCO3 68
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 65
Fluoride, F 1.03
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

My biggest concern was getting enough calcium, and this looks like it should work great.

Sorry about the spreadsheet, that was actually my first post and I wasn't sure how to make it bigger. Now all that's left is actually brewing!