Which Beersmith 3 water profile for a saison?

[Tom R]

I'm learning to use Beersmith, and also how to adjust my water. I'll be brewing my first saison tomorrow, and I'm trying to determine the most suitable water profile match for the style. Would Antwerp, Belgium by my best choice?

 

[RealRayDizzle]

I have only been using beersmith 3 for about a year, but I personally like to disregard all the target profiles on the list instead of the basic ones (amber, yellow, brown, black) then modify slightly to suite the specific style and flavor I am going for. As an example, my west coast IPA uses the "yellow Dry" profile, then I adjusted the balance to make it more bitter.

but with that said, Antwerp, Belgium would be a good start, as it is similar to what I built for a tripple that turned out amazing

 

[Tom R]

I gave the Antwerp profile a try. I really have a lot to learn about water, but this is a start. Thanks!

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Honestly, I feel this is one area of info that is lacking when it comes to water chemistry. I don't like the idea of chasing regional water profiles (unless maybe you are shooting for a historical beer...but even then you don't know what water the brewery used or how they treated their water). The Bru'N Water "Color Full/Balanced/Dry" profiles are a decent idea (though I don't like the labels Full and Dry) but I don't feel they go far enough to capture different styles.

The Palmer/Kaminski book "Water" has tables with profiles by "Type / Color / Bitterness" (where "Type" captures Ale/Lager and alcohol strength). This makes more sense to me. The tables then specifically label styles for each category. Issues that I have with this table are 1) the ranges are often very wide (e.g 50-150) and 2) the recommended levels seem higher than most other recommendations.

The row that includes Saison (Medium Ale/Pale/Moderate,Assertive) says:

• Ca: 50-150
• Alkalinity: 40-120
• Sulfate: 100-400
• Chloride: 0-100
• (note, other minerals are covered in the text and not style specific)

This is the same row that includes styles like American Pale Ale and IPA. I am not sure that seem right. I suspect I would not want 300+ ppm of Sulfate in a Saison.

I know that mineral levels are a bit of a personal preference, but I feel like there should be better sources for baseline profiles for each style.