Witbier water profile?

[pava]

Anyone have any good starting points for water profile for a witbier. . .I will be buying RO water and building from scratch so I can match most anything, just not sure what I should be shooting for. At minimum I am guessing something balanced (perhaps leaning toward malty) and suitable for a light SRM??

 

[Edcculus]

I would say balanced, get enough calcium and magnesium in there for the yeast, and something that will work for the light color.

 

[remilard]

Personally I would keep the RA at around zero and use acid malt at around 3-5% to get the mash pH down since I think the beer would benefit from a slightly above threshold lactic acid flavor.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Pierre Celis located his brewery in Austin because the water is perfect for brewing this style -- it's similar to the water profile in Hoegaarden. Acidulated malt can be used to drive down the pH, or you can use lactic acid per Palmer's spreadsheet to adjust the mash pH down to around 5.2 which is what I do because it's more precise.

Here's a sample Austin water profile:

Ca 15.0
Mg 17.0
Na 26.0
SO4 39.0
Cl 42.0
HCO3 62.0

 

[pava]

thanks for the suggestions!!

 

[millsbrew]

This Ca level seems lower than Bru'n Water recommends for good yeast health. Any thoughts?

 

[mabrungard]

This Ca level seems lower than Bru'n Water recommends for good yeast health. Any thoughts?

Hold on. Malt provides all the Ca that yeast need for their health. Additional Ca in the water is not needed. However, you may want to add calcium salts for flavor or to help ale yeasts to flocculate. Otherwise, low Ca is OK.