Making your water from the gods

[winstonia]

What do people add to their water in Dublin for hoppy styles?

Eustace well

I'm thinking of boiling it the day before then adding 2% of acid malt to the grain bill and tsp of calcium chloride and gypsum per 5 gallons of water for mashing

[beerfly]

You probably don't need the acid malt unless your ph is high, I never had that problem. I have added some Epsom salts before usually around 5g

[molc]

What is high? Mine always comes out around 5.6...

[armedcor]

Have you a breakdown of your water?

I wouldn't just add salts etc unless I know exactly what the water was. I'm using EZ water spreadsheet which is super helpful.

Each brew is different pH wise so it really helps. My last beer I required 15g calcium 5g Epsom salts and only 50g of acid malt. The brew before that was a red and didn't need any acid malt.

[beerfly]

Ph is affected by the type of grain your using, more dark grains and the ph goes lower. You want to keep it between 5.2 and 5.6.
There is a water profile in the capital Brewers section, can't link it at the moment but it's called dublin City center water profile it's probably on the second page.
I used the dublin profile on beoir and used my bicarbonate and ph readings. We checked the calcium another time and that was the same

[johnrm]

If there's a bunch of you on the same supply, why not get 50ml analysed by Murphys? Split the e40 cost.

[Qs]

What do people add to their water in Dublin for hoppy styles?

Eustace well

I'm thinking of boiling it the day before then adding 2% of acid malt to the grain bill and tsp of calcium chloride and gypsum per 5 gallons of water for mashing

I'm in Wicklow but thats exactly what I do more or less. I use 1/2 tsp for the calcium chloride though and 1 to 1.5 tsp of gypsum for hoppier styles. If the beer has 2% or more roasted malt I don't bother with the acid malt. If it has absolutely no crystal I move the acid up to 2.5%-%3. This has worked out well for me and gives me consistent mash PH of 5.3/5.4. If its a malt forward beer sometimes I completely leave out the gypsum too.

Its not the most scientifically accurate method in the world and I have had beers I percieved as too gypsummy when I was figuring this out. That cleared up a bit with age though IIRC. I found 2tsp of gypsum to be the absolute limit before it starts tasting funny.

Thats just my experience and I did have some old water reports a friend had gotten to start me off with a vague idea where I needed additions.

[winstonia]

If I boil the water the night before brewday will that make a difference to what I should be adding

[johnrm]

Guys, you're shooting in the dark without water analysis.

[winstonia]

There is a water analysis, but I was wondering if boiling the night before will mess up any online calculators?

Calcium: 20.00 ppm
Sulfate: 35.00 ppm
Magnesium: 1.50 ppm
Chloride: 25.00 ppm
Sodium: 12.00 ppm
Bicarbonate: 32.00 ppm
PH: 6.80

How do I use this calculator?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/

Add the values in and?

[johnrm]

Boiling WILL alter your water profile. CaCO3 is going to drop out.

[winstonia]

Cheers,

For the calculator I listed, is there a bog standard amounts I can enter for beer styles?

Going with what yooper has listed here

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=502259

[armedcor]

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com

This is the calculator I use and the one that seems most recommended on HBT etc.

As far as specific water styles I can't help. I just get my values within Palmers recommended ranges and leave it at that.

[Endatheworld]

I use the calc below. It has general beer styles you can choose.  http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php

[Will_D]

Just remember its not the water's pH thats important, its the pH of the mash!

Knowing your brewing liquors pH is important but the malt bill is equally important!