Adjust water chemistry for beer kits?

[AndySI]

Hello all, recently new to homebrewing and am getting familiar with best practices and have just brewed and bottled my first kit (Mangrove Jack's Mango Pale Ale).

Having watched hours and hours of YouTube as a fantastic entertainment and educational tool prior to getting started, I have seen most mention to adjust the water chemistry for their full grain brewing (or BIAB) but haven't seen it mentioned when it comes to kit brewing.

For my first ever kit I wasn't so bothered about adjusting the water chemistry as I just wanted to get started, though using tap water I did add Pure Brew (2 in 1 yeast nutrient and water treatment). It got me thinking that while kit brewing is fairly simple and I can see it suiting me just fine (due to time and space restrictions), after spending good money on all the equipment and bottles etc, buying the beer kit, and taking time out of my day to brew a batch / bottle, I would like to achieve the best possible brew results...

THE BIG QUESTION: Should you bother to adjust the water chemistry for kit brewing?

If the answer is yes, is there anything different that should be taken into consideration compared to BIAB? What are the best and simple resources to get started?

I have attached my water profile and look forward to the responses :)

 

[AndySI]

Further to my original post, here is more info about my water:

Hardness
5.81

Calcium CA2+
26.4

Magnesium Mg2+
4.03

Sulphate SO4
38.6

Chloride Cl-
8.61

Sodium Ma+
11.8

Hardness
CaCO3 = 83.00
HC03 = 101.26
Ca = 33.20

PH
7.47

 

[Pennine]

I think the issue with water additions when using malt extract is you don't know the water profile they used when mashing to produce the malt extract. In order to accurately know your starting place you would need to add those minerals to your water quantities.

Having said that, I can't imagine it would hurt and may help to start small and add a bit of gypsum and a little less Calcium chloride. Your Ca, Cl and sulphate are on the low side.

 

[klaus]

I must admit never bothered looking at my water profile, all I know it's a hard water area I'm in...
Have done on and off beer from simple kits to all grain BIAB and nine times out of 10 was pleased with the results. Suppose if you really want to get into brewing as a serious hobby definitely explore it. But worrying about too much not worth it, unless your water quality is really bad.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I would just add a campden tablet to your tap water.

 

[Graz]

I've never bothered but the water round here is fairly soft, tastes ok, and I don't have issues with any off tastes in my kit brews. If I though it was causing an issue then I might investigate doing something. An online homebrew shop I use seems to suggest buying this stuff with every kit I put in the basket, not sure if it would help or not and I don't feel the need: Harris Pure Brew Water Treatment - Beer, Wine, Cider

Other thought is to brew a kit using mineral water (e.g. Tesco Ashbeck) and see if it makes it taste any better, if so then it might be worth looking at treating your tap water.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Definitely worth treating water with metabisulphite to get rid of chloramine.

The rest is like seasoning your food. I didn't bother for years, then moved house and suddenly my beer was poor, so I started treating the water and it made a huge difference.