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Brewing Water

Square Kegs - 2012-08-30

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Why It Matters

Base Water: We are lucky in Chicago and have a clean municipal water supply. Just want to remove Chlorine to prevent plastic off flavors. Use Campden tablets (1 tablet treats 20 gal of water) or a carbon block filter.

Salt Additions: Impacts flavor balance between bitterness and "maltiness" and can impact the mash. (The mad science.).

Acid Additions: Lowers mash pH

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Chicago Water Profile

Calcium: 35.5ppm (50-150 ideal)

Magnesium: 12ppm (10-30 ideal)

Sodium: 8ppm (0-150 ideal)

Chloride: 15ppm (0-250 ideal)

Sulfate: 26.5 (50-350 ideal)

Alkalinity as Calcium Carbonate: 107ppm

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Extract Brewing

Extract is evaporated wort. The brewer who made the extract has already treated it with salts. You're better off not screwing with it.

Just use RO, distilled, or carbon block filtered water if possible.

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All Grain Brewing - Mash pH

Review: pH scale is 0-14, 0-7 = acidic, 7-14 = alkaline, scale is logarithmic, not linear.

Ideal mash pH - 5.2 to 5.6, higher pH can extract husk tannins and impede mash conversion. Add salts or acid to mash H2O to control mash pH.

Highly roasted malts tend to lower the mash pH

Residual Alkalinity in your water buffers the pH impact of those malts.

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All Grain Brewing - Boil and Fermentation

Proper calcium levels in wort:

Promotes pH of wort to fall during boil which in turn allows yeast to properly flocculate at end of fermentation.
Aids in binding proteins together to form hot break during boil.

Add CaCl₂ and/or gypsum to brew kettle to increase calcium levels if required.

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Malty or Bitter?

The ratio of Chloride (Cl₂) to Sulfate (SO₄) in your finished beer impacts whether malty flavors or bitter flavors stand out. Add salts to brew kettle to control Cl₂:SO₄ ratio.

1:2 (Cl₂:SO₄) >> Bitter (Pale Ale, IPA)

1:1 (Cl₂:SO₄) >> Balanced

2:1 (Cl₂:SO₄) >> Malty (Helles, Scottish Ale)

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Classic Brewing Cities Water

Dublin: Dry stouts mean that they have a highly alkaline water supply, so acidic dark roasted malt lowers the alkalinity of wort.

Munich: Very lightly toasted malts mean that they have a minimally alkaline water supply.

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Applications (The Mad Science)

Don't change your water until you've brewed a beer without salts.
Triangulate baseline alkalinity with salt additions and grain bill. Your salt additions also affect pH.
Treat mash water (pre or in mash?), treat sparge water.
Measure with a pH meter or brewing test strips.

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Resources

EZ Water Spreadsheet: http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

John Palmer Nomograph

http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f83.pdf

http://howtobrew.com/section3/Palmers_Metric_RA_ver3ptO.xls

Brewing Software