What styles of beer would this water be best for?

[TasunkaWitko]

I am not a "mess with the water" person; to me, the characteristics of the local water make the beer a local and unique thing - I believe that the term is terrior. My beers have all tasted very good using this local spring water, in my opinion, and that is surely due at least in part to using this water.

Having said that, after a few brews, I am curious as to what the Knights of the Round Table would have to say about it.

Here it is:

Measured in milligrams per Liter (mg/L) and is equivalent to parts per million (ppm).

Calcium (Ca) 65.0 mg/L
Chloride (Cl) 0.8mg/L
Fluoride (F) 0.6mg/L
Magnesium (Mg) 19.0 mg/L
Nitrate (NO3 as N) 0.16 mg/L
Potassium (K) 0.7 mg/L
Silica (SiO2) 6.9 mg/L
Sodium (Na) 1.0 mg/L
Sulfate (SO4) 81.8 mg/L
Bicarbonates (HCO3) 190.0 mg/L



Boron (B) 32 µg/L
Chromium (Cr) 2 µg/L
Copper (Cu) 7 µg/L
Lithium (Li) 5 µg/L
Selenium (Se) 0.4 µg/L
Strontium (Sr) 610 µg/L
Titanium (Ti) 10 µg/L
Vanadium (V) 1 µg/L
Zinc (Zn) 9 µg/L

Questions:

Are there any particular styles of beer that this water would be best for?

Are there any styles that should be avoided?

Would I be doing myself a favour by playing around with water chemistry, or is this - on the whole - a good water to use, keeping the terrior concept in mind as a priority?

Thanks in advance -

Ron

 

[giraffe]

Not doing the math right now, but amber to brown somewhat hoppy styles. Also drier amber to dark belgian styles. Alts and munich dunkels might work.

While i havent dont the math, id guess youd have a hard time hitting mash ph on very pale beers, you may need to add some acid/acid malt. Even if you dont want to add anything to your water, id download bru'n water and plug in your water and recipe, and make sure you are projected to hit a reasonable mash ph of 5.3-5.5ish.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

thats s good pale ale or ipa water also, mg is a little high but not too bad

 

[BigEd]

It's fairly high in alkalinity (190ppm bicarbonates) so as is the water is pretty good for darker beers. For light colored beers you may want to consider reducing the alkalinity by pre-treating and/or dilution.

Before "playing around" do yourself a favor and learn a bit about brewing water. There's lots of information here at HBT in the Brew Science section to get started.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thanks, guys - sorry that it took so long for me to reply regarding this.

I'm in "dark beer" season right now, so I'll use this water with full confidence; I bottled a stout, amber ale and dubbel last night, and the samples from all three were amazing. My next two brews will be porters and then an English pale ale (non-IPA), so I am guessing they will also be fine, considering the comments above.

In the spring, I might play with it a bit as I turn to lighter ales - I don't know ~

Thanks again!

Ron

 

[saltymirv]

Is that chloride value right? It seems too low, especially with other values being high. If its right, you might want to add some CaCl2 to boost the Cl up to 40 at least, depending on style

 

[Lefou]

London porter and dark ale!
Here's the London profile .....
Ca Mg Na Cl SO4 HCO3
100 5 35 60 50 265

Maybe harden by adding a touch of calcium chloride, table salt (not the iodized type!), and some sodium bicarbonate. No epsom salt needed because the magnesium sulfate concentration you have seems fine. Too much epsom salt will activate your bowels - trust me!
If you want to precipitate calcium carbonates, you can add sodium hydroxide - but I don't recommend this because not only is NaOH a STRONG base agent that will increase your pH, it is an oxidizing agent that turns your water "slippery".
If you want "softer" water you're better off just boiling your source water down, cooling it, then filtering, and mixing with distilled water.
Me, I'm lucky.
My local water has a pH of about 7.5 and is naturally soft allowing me to brew light SRM ales. To do dark beers, I just have to add CaCl and Epsom salts. I learned the hard way by ruining a Dunkel experiment which truly sucked.
Now I just do light SRM ales and buy five gallons of Poland Spring water at the store while playing Holiday Inn Express chemist during the wintertime. During the summer I double as a poolboy.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I didn't even think about PH at first, when I wrote the original post ~

It looks like the PH for this water is 7.7.

Here is a link to the water report -

http://www.bigspringwater.com/WaterQualityReport2009.pdf

For what it's worth, all beer made from this water (un-altered) has been very good.

Ron

 

[kingwood-kid]

The pH of your water isn't important, the buffering capacity is. Your water has a lot of carbonate. You can dilute that or precipitate it or use as is. If you choose to use as is, you'll need a decent amount of dark grain or acid to get your mash pH into ideal range. A brewing calculator like Bru'nEater or the one at Brewers Friend can tell you what to do. If you brew a pale with your water as is, then as my friend likes to say, "worst case scenario you'll have beer."

 

[rhys333]

Agree with above that it looks at a glance like good water for ambers and browns. Drop in a little CaCl2 and you're good for pale ales too.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, guys -

I took a look at Bru'N Water and I am ashamed to say that it all looked Greek to me. I will do some reading and take a second look as I learn more, but in the meantime, I did have a question regarding this water.

I like many, many styles of beer, but the simple fact is that wheat beers in general, and hefeweizens in partifular, are the ones that I find that I truly love. Anyway, are there any opinions about these stats vis a vis hefeweizens?

Also, other than a home-brewing shop or website, would you be able to suggest where any of the necessary additives might be available on short notice? I "think" I've seen Calcium Chloride in the pharmacy section at the local Pick-Your-Mart, but I could be wrong, and those might not be suitable for brewing anyway.... This might also be the case for other additives.

FYI - I brew 1-gallon batches.

I'm still on the fence about playing with my water, since all of the beers I've brewed with it have tasted great, to me - but if such additions might result in a "better" hefeweizen in the future, I'll sure consider them.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions -

Ron

 

[Yooper]

Hi, guys -

I took a look at Bru'N Water and I am ashamed to say that it all looked Greek to me. I will do some reading and take a second look as I learn more, but in the meantime, I did have a question regarding this water.

I like many, many styles of beer, but the simple fact is that wheat beers in general, and hefeweizens in partifular, are the ones that I find that I truly love. Anyway, are there any opinions about these stats vis a vis hefeweizens?

Also, other than a home-brewing shop or website, would you be able to suggest where any of the necessary additives might be available on short notice? I "think" I've seen Calcium Chloride in the pharmacy section at the local Pick-Your-Mart, but I could be wrong, and those might not be suitable for brewing anyway.... This might also be the case for other additives.

FYI - I brew 1-gallon batches.

I'm still on the fence about playing with my water, since all of the beers I've brewed with it have tasted great, to me - but if such additions might result in a "better" hefeweizen in the future, I'll sure consider them.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions -

Ron

The alkalinity (bicarbonate) is pretty high in your water. That's why it's suited to darker beers, like stouts. The dark acidic grains neutralize some of that alkalinity, making a more suitable mash pH.

Lighter colored beers don't do that, so the mash pH for your lighter colored beers (like hefeweizen) will be higher than optimal. You can dilute with RO water, or use some acid to get to a better mash pH. The thing is that with a high alkalinity, sometimes you need to use so much acid that it can be above the flavor threshold. You can try phosphoric acid, which tends to be flavor neutral, instead of lactic acid which can be tasted as a "tart" flavor when used in larger amounts. My preference would be to buy a jug of distilled water or reverse osmosis water, so you wouldn't have to do anything at all unless you wanted to add some calcium chloride (pickle crisp).

You can get phosphoric acid at homebrew stores. I've never seen it in a pharmacy.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Understood, Yooper ~ thanks!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, guys -

Sorry to keep resurrecting this topic, but I am slowly getting there and have a couple of questions.

a) Based on what I have read on this thread and elsewhere, it looks as though the lighter beers (including hefeweizens) could benefit from a little bit of dilution and addition of Calcium Chloride. Based on the numbers etc., would anyone be able to recommend a good middle-of-the-road place to start with those additions to a 1-gallon batch? At what stage of the brewing process would one add them?

b) Is there anywhere on this forum or on the internet that gives some good general reading on this topic overall, in easy layman's terms for folks who took Earth Science and Biology rather than Chemistry in college?

Thanks in advance -

Ron

 

[kingwood-kid]

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/what-kind-of-water-do-i-need

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thank you very much - I appreciate the link!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

From the link above, provided by @kingwood-kid:

Bicarbonate (HCO3-1)...

Brewing Range:

0-50 ppm for pale, base-malt only beers.

50-150 ppm for amber colored, toasted malt beers

150-250 ppm for dark, roasted malt beers....

Dilution is the easiest method of producing low carbonate water. Use distilled water from the grocery store (often referred to as Purified Water for use in steam irons) in a 1:1 ratio, and you will effectively cut your bicarbonate levels in half, although there will be a minor difference due to buffering reactions. Bottom Line: if you want to make soft water from hard water (e.g. to brew a Pilsener), dilution with distilled water is the best route.

The Bicarbonate of my water is: 190.0 mg/L

If I am reading this correctly (and please correct me if I am wrong), a 50/50 mix of my water and this water will result in a Bicarbonate of 95; a second 50/50 mix of the resulting water RO water will result in a bicarbonate of 47.5, which puts it in the acceptable range for pale beers.

Or, in simpler terms, it looks like 1 gallon of my water will mix with 3 gallons of RO water, for a total of 4 gallons of water that has a Bicarbonate of 47.5.

Is this correct, or am I missing something?


EDIT - ppm to mg/L looks to be almost a straight conversion, at room temperature?

Thank you -

Ron