Water Profile Help

[theexternvoid]

I'm very new to water profile issues and hoped someone could help. I used to be able to brew tasty clones of Stone's Ruination. I love the an IPA that brings out the hop flavor and aroma. What I don't like is an IPA that just tastes like pure bitterness. Unfortunately that's how my IPAs have turned out lately using a new water supply: far too bitter with very little hop aroma and flavor despite massive amounts of dry hopping and late-boil additions. This new water supply is extremely hard with too much iron, so I run it through reverse osmosis and then mix in some unfiltered hard water so it has some hardness, but hopefully not too much that the iron flavor comes through. This problem happens even with extract brewing, not just a problem with mash PH. My old water supply didn't have this problem, so I think it's a problem of the water profile and I should fix it by building water with measured ingredients rather than trying mix R/O water with the iron-laden well water.

Question: If you were starting from pure reverse osmosis water and wanted to make an IPA like Ruination or Pliny, what would you add to it to get the perfect hop aromas and flavor without a bitterness that would make even the most ardent hophead get the infamous Bitter Beer Face?

Thanks!

 

[rwing7486]

I'm very new to water profile issues and hoped someone could help. I used to be able to brew tasty clones of Stone's Ruination. I love the an IPA that brings out the hop flavor and aroma. What I don't like is an IPA that just tastes like pure bitterness. Unfortunately that's how my IPAs have turned out lately using a new water supply: far too bitter with very little hop aroma and flavor despite massive amounts of dry hopping and late-boil additions. This new water supply is extremely hard with too much iron, so I run it through reverse osmosis and then mix in some unfiltered hard water into it so it has some hardness, but hopefully not too much that the iron flavor comes through. This problem happens even with extract brewing, not just a problem with mash PH. My old water supply didn't have this problem, so I think it's a problem of the water profile and it should fix it by building water with measured ingredients rather than trying mix R/O water with the iron-laden well water.

Question: If you were starting from pure reverse osmosis water and wanted to make an IPA like Ruination or Pliny, what would you add to it to get the perfect hop aromas and flavor without a bitterness that would make even the most ardent hophead get the infamous Bitter Beer Face?

Thanks!

If you don't have a water report of your tap water I would start with 100% RO water. I use to go to my local grocery store and fill up two 5 gallon jugs of RO water on brew day and would then add minerals to tweak the water the way I want it for the style of beer I was making

Best way to tweak your water would be to use Bru n' water excel sheet
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Its free and you can enter your recipe and go from there. For your IPA's I would suggest using "pale ale" as your target profile from the drop down menu. Everyone has their own opinion on the "perfect" water profile for IPA's. Most debate over the amount of sulfate in the water. I prefer to have 250ppm to 300ppm sulfate in my IPA's.

Also here is a tutorial on using the Bru N' Water excel sheet. good luck and happy brewing!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTA_VmqhbQ[/ame]

 

[theexternvoid]

I do know that my water has 2 PPM iron, which is way too much for beer. That's why I don't want to use 100% well water and tried mixing it with R/O water to dillute the iron. (Its pH is 7.0 BTW.) But in the end I think the easiest thing to do is simply start from R/O scratch and build the profile like many breweries do. I'll look at that Bru'n spreadsheet later today. Thanks for the link! But if anyone else has specific water profiles that they recommend for a west coast double IPA then please share.

 

[rwing7486]

I do know that my water has 2 PPM iron, which is way too much for beer. That's why I don't want to use 100% well water and tried mixing it with R/O water to dillute the iron. (Its pH is 7.0 BTW.) But in the end I think the easiest thing to do is simply start from R/O scratch and build the profile like many breweries do. I'll look at that Bru'n spreadsheet later today. Thanks for the link! But if anyone else has specific water profiles that they recommend for a west coast double IPA then please share.

I use a similar water treatment on my IPA and DIPA. To make your beer a true "west coast" IPA (or DIPA) its all about your malt and hops. To get that west coast style use little to no crystal and add some corn sugar to dry the beer out on the back end to really let those american hop shine through (about 7 to 10% of grain bill).

Like I stated above I would use the Pale Ale profile as your targets. I just wouldn't exceed 300ppm of sulfur as as you starting going over you can sometimes gets a "sulfury" smell or taste in the beer. I have brewed beers with my sulfate slightly over 300 and did not have any issue.