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water profile

arctic78

Grandmaster Brewer
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Apr 15, 2015
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Location
Tasmania, Australia
Not sure if this makes sense to anyone but was after some help/advise on my first attempt at treating my water for my next brew which will be an IPA.  The beer will be very hoppy and is 7.1%  I am after a bit of malt to balance it out but want the hops to really stand out. The OG is 1.062 and FG 1.008.

What I have below is my starting water profile in mg/l
then I have my target water profile.
the Actual is what I have got the profile to with some additions of
Gypsum:  8g
Magnesium chloride:  1g
slaked lime:  14g

I have most things in the ball park except Ca+2 which is way over the mark.
not sure if this will have much of an impact on what I am after with my beer ????
or how to correct this. As is abundantly clear to those of you who are more experienced in this side of brewing I have a lot of reading and learning to do about water chemistry . Maybe I am better of leaving my water as is for the time being ????  any help is much appreciated .  :)
 
           


Typical analysis (mg/Litre) 


Bicarbonate 260
Chloride 70
Sulphate 26
Calcium 86
Magnesium 9
Potassium 0.2
Sodium 35


target            10      5        10    50    150      0

                    Ca+2  Mg+2  Na+  Cl-  SO4-2  HCO
 
Actual          348.7    8.5    18.1  47.4  157.4  3.784 
  ▲       
difference    273.7  3.5      8.1  -2.6    7.4      3.8
 
Without knowing the batch volume or the grist composition, it's hard to be accurate.

First glance tells me the slaked lime is there to reduce alkalinity, but the amount your adding seems like it'll be counter productive.

Instead, I'd recommend dropping the slaked lime and adding 1 gm per gallon of CaCl to the total water used. Then, I'd add about 2% acidulated malt, which will bring the mash pH to an appropriate range.

With IPA, calcium levels over 100 are perfectly acceptable. The chloride level I've recommended will have the effect of boosting the impression of body, which allows for little to no crystal malt, as is the modern preference for the style.
 
Thanks for your response.
my batch volume is 23.5ltr (6.2G) total water volume is 33ltr (8.7G)
my grist is
82.8% Marris otter
7.8% Munich
4.7% Vienna
4.7% carra pils

So if I drop the slaked lime and instead add 6 grams of CaCL  is that correct? and do I keep the additions of gypsum and magnesium?
Then add some acidulated malt around 2%.
I have just got some PH strips so as I can test the mash and also the sparge water.
This water stuff is really a lot to take in but very interesting. I guess at the moment I am really just wanting to improve my water as best I can until I learn more about it all  :)

Really appreciate the help.
Cheers.
 
arctic78 said:
So if I drop the slaked lime and instead add 6 grams of CaCL  is that correct? and do I keep the additions of gypsum and magnesium?
Then add some acidulated malt around 2%.

Yes. Based on your recipe, I stand by my original advice.

The test strips are pretty coarse in their accuracy. Fine for knowing the region of the pH, but not accurate for actual pH. You'll be happier with a pH meter that has an accuracy of +/- 0.02.
 
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