Water treatment

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gedburg101

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Hi all,

I know this is an important aspect of making good beer, especially for all grain brewing, but it's something I have to admit I know nothing about.

I've got 'How to Brew - John Palmer' which is amazing and goes into great detail on water chemistry but I'm still very much at the learning stage.

What are other people's experience in this respect? Do you find it makes a big difference?

Cheers!
 
Yes it does make a difference and it is not difficult, or something that should be put in the too hard basket, you can easily check your local water and I have found Brewer's friend calculations to be spot on.
 
It largely depends on your water source.

I personally found a noticable difference in quality when I started treating my water, as my water is high in carbonate.

Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk
 
Hi all,

I know this is an important aspect of making good beer, especially for all grain brewing, but it's something I have to admit I know nothing about.

I've got 'How to Brew - John Palmer' which is amazing and goes into great detail on water chemistry but I'm still very much at the learning stage.

What are other people's experience in this respect? Do you find it makes a big difference?

Cheers!

If I truly honest (after Steve taking time to explain to me-sorry Steve!) I'm still confused!
Maybe it's my brain that's broken or lack of trying the tests and then increasing adding this n that!! All confusing!
If there's a one off simple solution with less work I'd be happy every time...
I've manage to get the ph to about right..but not spot on.
A campton tab aswell.
Tbh I've made stouts, lager, wheat beer & IPA's and haven't notice the difference from the proper tests and got it spot on.
My ph meter is knackered and I use the ph stips to gauge the stike water! Then look at steves how to do for what style of beer, after the alkaline & calcium test still confused...but like I said it's just me.
I want to make a sour beer so I need the ph meter and my brain to be happy how to do the water treatment every time..
Steve said more times I do the tests etc gets easier!
There's a reason for it and I can't say in my opinion a bad brew to a great one...
Sorry if this is confusing, I could just say..."no difference!" And leave it at that lol
Bri
 
As a after thought!
Today I'm going to re-do the tests (alkaline & calcium) and see if I can adjust the levels accordingly with steves how to do!
Practice makes perfect I think lol
Bri
 
I didn't worry too much about water to begin with when I started brewing all grain and I made a few ok beers. By far my best early batch was a stout. After some more reading around I began to understand that my tap water is rubbish for brewing pale beers but ok for dark beers. My results have been a lot better since I started using bottled water with a few simple treatments.

The opening posts of these threads have a lot of useful and easy to follow information.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=64822

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=71451
 
If you start with bottled water that has the mineral breakdown printed on the sides then you don't have to do any maths at all. In Beersmith you enter the breakdown, pick a water profile you want to match, hit 'match target profile' and your salts are all calculated for you. Then just go to the mash tab and it'll tell you how much lactic acid to add to get your pH where it should be.

The interface could be easier to navigate but the functionality is all there. No maths, no tests, just weigh out your salts and go.
 

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