Fore
Landlord.
My goal here is to have you speed through the long and difficult learning curve I went through. Donââ¬â¢t expect it to be easy though; itââ¬â¢s still not easy for me. Iââ¬â¢ll return to this OP and correct any mistakes found by others.
There are a lot of different on line tools and different water treatment approaches. To keep this concise, Iââ¬â¢ll concentrate on my preferred options.
Overview
The purpose of all this has 2 main goals:
1)To ensure we reach the correct mash pH by adjusting the water alkalinity (bicarbonates).
2)To ensure good minimum levels of calcium to aid yeast flocculation and health.
ALKALINITY: In my case I have very high alkalinity, at 258 ppm. One way to reduce this alkalinity is to boil the water for at least 15 minutes. This precipitates out Calcium Carbonate, off which the water can then be racked. As it was the carbonate part that caused my high alkalinity, boiling will help reduce my alkalinity, but it also has an undesirable side effect, as I will now have lost an unknown amount of needed calcium. So you see how boiling is not an exact science. In his book, Graham Wheeler advises this boiling approach, and his solution to the resulting unknown calcium level, is to throw some calcium back in, just to be safe. An alternative approach to reduce alkalinity, and my preferred method, is to add acid. The exact needed amount can be calculated, and it has negligible effect on the calcium level. Of course if you have the opposite problem to me, i.e. too low an alkalinity level, then you would need to add in some carbonates, using Calcium Carbonate, aka. chalk.
CALCIUM: 50 ppm is a commonly recommended calcium minimum, 60-100 is a good working range. In my case I have 37 ppm, so I need to add calcium, maybe you donââ¬â¢t need to. There are 3 options for calcium addition, i) Calcium Sulphate, aka. Gypsum, ii) Calcium Chloride, and iii) Calcium Carbonate (obviously this latter one only used when you need to increase alkalinity). There are maximum acceptable limits of sulphates & chlorides, so you need to know your starting profile before you play with these additions. A further consideration here is the ratio of sulphate to chloride in your finished water profile. A 2:1 ratio would emphasise the hop character, while a ratio more weighted towards chloride would emphasise the malt character. So the overall goal here is to ensure calcium reaches an acceptable level, while optionally adjusting the sulphate to chloride ratio to match the beer profile, while avoiding either of these exceeding recommended maximums.
Tools
Last basic local water report sent by your water company
Salifert KH/ALK test kit (alkalinity)
Salifert Ca test kit (calcium)
Brun Water, free on-line Excel tool
For water treatment (depending on your water profile)
Phosphoric acid (for alkalinity reduction). Safer and easier to obtain than Hydrochloric Acid or Sulphuric Acid, and better than Five Star pH5.2 Stabilizer, as with that you lose control of other factors such as the Sulphate to Chloride ratio. Phosphoric Acid has a lower flavour impact than Lactic Acid.
Calcium Sulphate, aka. Gypsum (for calcium addition and sulphate/chloride ratio adjustment)
Calcium Chloride (for calcium addition and sulphate/chloride ratio adjustment)
Calcium Carbonate, aka. chalk (for alkalinity increase and calcium addition; in my case I have high alkalinity, so I donââ¬â¢t need this).
Your water profile
Your water report does not reflect the water that comes out of your tap at any given time, and it won't give you some of the most important values. Of the ions (cations & anions) that you'll be needing, the most critical to brewing are calcium and bicarbonate. Bicarbonate is linked to alkalinity, so you see why we need a calcium test and an alkalinity test. Itââ¬â¢s acceptable for the other ions to be taken from your water report.
My own water report shows the following:
Calcium: this I can ignore as I calculate with the Salifert test.
pH, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Sulphate & Nitrate: all these figures I can use.
Salifert tests
The alkalinity and calcium Salifert tests are pretty cheap and easy to use. You donââ¬â¢t need anything other than your water. All syringes and measuring spoons are provided. The tests have a long shelf life of about 6 years. A test takes about 3 minutes and is just about mixing powders/liquids, then slowly adding a final liquid, measured drop by drop, and waiting for a colour change. The alkalinity result is provided in dKH; use an online tool to convert the result to ppm. Some recommend you do a test every brew, personally I think you can get away with periodic testing. I have done 4 tests over a period of a year; my calcium varied between 35-40ppm, my alkalinity between 250-258ppm. These variations are not significant.
On-line tool
Brun Water has just the right detail, but can be daunting for the uninitiated. Let me try and break it down.
1.Water report input
The important part is at the top, where you enter your water Cation and Anion values covered above. Enter your alkalinity ppm and water pH in row 13 to return Bicarbonate and Carbonate numbers which can then be entered also. The ion balance is just a test to be sure what you have entered makes sense. My own entries can be seen in the image below.
2.Sparge Acidification
I treat all my water the same, so I donââ¬â¢t use this sheet.
3.Water Adjustment
Select your desired water profile depending on what beer style you are planning. Your own water profile is presented just below. Then play with the water additions to get a close match to the target profile. In my next brew I need to add 0.01 g/l Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum), 0.1 g/l Calcium Chloride, and 0.4 ml/l Phosphoric Acid 75% strength. That brings my finished water profile in the green, and specific to my next planned beer, my residual alkalinity is brought down to near zero, and my Sulphate to Chloride ratio is set at 1:1.
4.Mash Acidification
Fine tuning. The grain used will of course have influence on the mash pH. This is entered here. More important if you use acid malt.
5.Adjustment Summary
The important value here is the estimated Mash pH. If this is green, you are good to go.
Take all necessary precautions when handling acids. Hope I haven't missed anything obvious. Hope it helps.
There are a lot of different on line tools and different water treatment approaches. To keep this concise, Iââ¬â¢ll concentrate on my preferred options.
Overview
The purpose of all this has 2 main goals:
1)To ensure we reach the correct mash pH by adjusting the water alkalinity (bicarbonates).
2)To ensure good minimum levels of calcium to aid yeast flocculation and health.
ALKALINITY: In my case I have very high alkalinity, at 258 ppm. One way to reduce this alkalinity is to boil the water for at least 15 minutes. This precipitates out Calcium Carbonate, off which the water can then be racked. As it was the carbonate part that caused my high alkalinity, boiling will help reduce my alkalinity, but it also has an undesirable side effect, as I will now have lost an unknown amount of needed calcium. So you see how boiling is not an exact science. In his book, Graham Wheeler advises this boiling approach, and his solution to the resulting unknown calcium level, is to throw some calcium back in, just to be safe. An alternative approach to reduce alkalinity, and my preferred method, is to add acid. The exact needed amount can be calculated, and it has negligible effect on the calcium level. Of course if you have the opposite problem to me, i.e. too low an alkalinity level, then you would need to add in some carbonates, using Calcium Carbonate, aka. chalk.
CALCIUM: 50 ppm is a commonly recommended calcium minimum, 60-100 is a good working range. In my case I have 37 ppm, so I need to add calcium, maybe you donââ¬â¢t need to. There are 3 options for calcium addition, i) Calcium Sulphate, aka. Gypsum, ii) Calcium Chloride, and iii) Calcium Carbonate (obviously this latter one only used when you need to increase alkalinity). There are maximum acceptable limits of sulphates & chlorides, so you need to know your starting profile before you play with these additions. A further consideration here is the ratio of sulphate to chloride in your finished water profile. A 2:1 ratio would emphasise the hop character, while a ratio more weighted towards chloride would emphasise the malt character. So the overall goal here is to ensure calcium reaches an acceptable level, while optionally adjusting the sulphate to chloride ratio to match the beer profile, while avoiding either of these exceeding recommended maximums.
Tools
Last basic local water report sent by your water company
Salifert KH/ALK test kit (alkalinity)
Salifert Ca test kit (calcium)
Brun Water, free on-line Excel tool
For water treatment (depending on your water profile)
Phosphoric acid (for alkalinity reduction). Safer and easier to obtain than Hydrochloric Acid or Sulphuric Acid, and better than Five Star pH5.2 Stabilizer, as with that you lose control of other factors such as the Sulphate to Chloride ratio. Phosphoric Acid has a lower flavour impact than Lactic Acid.
Calcium Sulphate, aka. Gypsum (for calcium addition and sulphate/chloride ratio adjustment)
Calcium Chloride (for calcium addition and sulphate/chloride ratio adjustment)
Calcium Carbonate, aka. chalk (for alkalinity increase and calcium addition; in my case I have high alkalinity, so I donââ¬â¢t need this).
Your water profile
Your water report does not reflect the water that comes out of your tap at any given time, and it won't give you some of the most important values. Of the ions (cations & anions) that you'll be needing, the most critical to brewing are calcium and bicarbonate. Bicarbonate is linked to alkalinity, so you see why we need a calcium test and an alkalinity test. Itââ¬â¢s acceptable for the other ions to be taken from your water report.
My own water report shows the following:
Calcium: this I can ignore as I calculate with the Salifert test.
pH, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Sulphate & Nitrate: all these figures I can use.
Salifert tests
The alkalinity and calcium Salifert tests are pretty cheap and easy to use. You donââ¬â¢t need anything other than your water. All syringes and measuring spoons are provided. The tests have a long shelf life of about 6 years. A test takes about 3 minutes and is just about mixing powders/liquids, then slowly adding a final liquid, measured drop by drop, and waiting for a colour change. The alkalinity result is provided in dKH; use an online tool to convert the result to ppm. Some recommend you do a test every brew, personally I think you can get away with periodic testing. I have done 4 tests over a period of a year; my calcium varied between 35-40ppm, my alkalinity between 250-258ppm. These variations are not significant.
On-line tool
Brun Water has just the right detail, but can be daunting for the uninitiated. Let me try and break it down.
1.Water report input
The important part is at the top, where you enter your water Cation and Anion values covered above. Enter your alkalinity ppm and water pH in row 13 to return Bicarbonate and Carbonate numbers which can then be entered also. The ion balance is just a test to be sure what you have entered makes sense. My own entries can be seen in the image below.
2.Sparge Acidification
I treat all my water the same, so I donââ¬â¢t use this sheet.
3.Water Adjustment
Select your desired water profile depending on what beer style you are planning. Your own water profile is presented just below. Then play with the water additions to get a close match to the target profile. In my next brew I need to add 0.01 g/l Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum), 0.1 g/l Calcium Chloride, and 0.4 ml/l Phosphoric Acid 75% strength. That brings my finished water profile in the green, and specific to my next planned beer, my residual alkalinity is brought down to near zero, and my Sulphate to Chloride ratio is set at 1:1.
4.Mash Acidification
Fine tuning. The grain used will of course have influence on the mash pH. This is entered here. More important if you use acid malt.
5.Adjustment Summary
The important value here is the estimated Mash pH. If this is green, you are good to go.
Take all necessary precautions when handling acids. Hope I haven't missed anything obvious. Hope it helps.
