Do I need to adjust the following water profile for making Hefeweizen

[rpetterson]

Hi All,

I'll be making my first AG beer next Saturday and thought I'd have a go at making a Hefeweizen. I wanted to ask anyone out there if I need to do anything to my water profile to make this:?

For the CaC03 I measured this using a proper titration kit which gave me 1.2dKH (which I worked out to be 21.4 ppm CaC03 - I think this is right conversion?)


For the other elements, I got my water authority report from online:

Calcium (Ca)   ?? ppm
Magnesium (Mg) 1.4 ppm
Sodium (Na) 22.8 ppm
Sulfate (S04) 30.9 ppm
Chloride (Cl) 43.5 ppm
Bicarbonate (HC03) 156.00 ppm

I couldn't see a value for Calcium (Ca) in the report...... is this the same as the CaC03 value I worked out from my titration kit of 21.4 ppm???

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Rob

[MaltLicker]

Palmer has a spreadsheet on his site; I think it is section 15.3, that explains additions very well and does all the math for you.  If you want to do water chemistry it's a great tool. 

Mg is needed by yeast, and should be around 15.  Calcium is critical, so I'd invest in a test to verify everything.  www.wardlab.com is $17. 

The chloride:sulfate ratio leans heavily to malty, which is OK.  Some epsom salts would boost the Mg, and add some sulfate, balancing the C:S ratio for you. 

But I'd recommend you plug all this into the spreadsheet and start to play with it.  Have fun.

[rpetterson]

Thanks for the info. I've ordered a test kit to check out the Ca level.
I was thinking of filling up the kettle the night before brewing - maybe this will help let some of the chlorine evaporate.
I've played around with this calculator:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

I dont want to get too deep into water chemistry, but I think its good to play around with it a bit. It's a bit of mucking around to get the values but once its done its done.

[glienhard]

Water is one of those things that I have seen guys get into very heated arguments over; everyone has their opinion.  I personally subscribe to the KISS method, and say that if the water tastes good and looks good, then it will be fine.  Is your water well or municipal water?  for municipal water, it is always a good idea to draw it off the night before and let it sit to allow the chlorine to evaporate.  Again just my opinion and two cents.

Cheers!