water advice

[marzen scorsese]

Why did you dump it richC? What was bad about it? I've never had to dump one yet but that's less to do with my brewing skills and more to do with my ability to drink any old stuff 

[RichC]

Its nasty piss marzen. Definitely one for the drain

[marzen scorsese]

Fertiliser so then  ah well chalk her down to experience and just be extra careful next time. Its no joke so when they say there is nowhere for off flavours or mistakes to hide with very light beers.

[Will_D]

Epsom salt 0.33 mg
Calcium Chloride 0.25 mg
Baking Soda 0.25 mg
Chalk 0.25 mg.
All added to the mash

Jays Mr D!
You must have an expensive balance to weigh at the micro gram limit -  0.25 mg is 250 micro-grams!

Did you mean 0.33 grams?

[marzen scorsese]

I just tested a natural spring up the road from me and there is no sign of magnesium or alkalinity in the water from salifert tests. Water tastes great and people have been using the water for generations for drinking water if that helps, not very sciencey I will admit but would it be worth giving it a shot for a pilsner. I've brewed with this water once and it was to see what would happen I brewed a stout and it came out sour or astringent. Couldn't be drank

[auralabuse]

I just tested a natural spring up the road from me and there is no sign of magnesium or alkalinity in the water from salifert tests. Water tastes great and people have been using the water for generations for drinking water if that helps, not very sciencey I will admit but would it be worth giving it a shot for a pilsner. I've brewed with this water once and it was to see what would happen I brewed a stout and it came out sour or astringent. Couldn't be drank

If the stout didn't do so well the pilsner may turn out nice as they both work best with water on opposite ends of the pH spectrum.  Unless it was something else of course

[marzen scorsese]

My thinking exactly  what could the something else be though    I reckon I'm going to have to do this experiment in the name of science (and tasty beer)

[neoanto]

I picked up an RO system on amazon.
Instructions were rubbish, but got it together.
I used that primer on HBT which is nice and user friendly.
Ive made a Pilsner (though i dont have the propper facilites to lager yet) and an ESB.
I was hitting the mash target using the basic additions mentioned on the HBT so that was promising.

Neither are ready to drink yet so I'm just hoping they turn out nice!

[marzen scorsese]

Well done mate hope they turn out well and make sure report back how it is. Pics are always welcome love some beer porn 

[biertourist]

RO systems are expensive and so is the maintenance (replacement membranes) and they waste a lot of water down the drain.


I'd recommend pre-boiling your water for 10 minutes and then transferring off of the precipitated chalk -submit this boiled water for a water analysis and it'll probably be much more acceptable.  -Then measure the pH in your mash closely on your next light colored beer and adjust with acidulated malt or 88% lactic acid (I believe the Malt Miller in the UK or maybe Hop & Grape is where I bought mine when I was living in Dublin) to get the pH so it's at 5.2-5.4 at room temp. (after making an acid addition mix like crazy and wait 5 minutes before measuring again; the acid+buffer reactions take a while to equalize.)


You want to make sure that you have at LEAST 50 ppm and probably closer to 100 ppm of Calcium for yeast nutrition and to aid yeast flocculation but beyond that just focus on mash temp.  -Then add more calcium chloride to make a beer seem maltier and gypsum to make it seem hoppier or half of each for malty and hoppy.

You just want to get that mash pH correct and then make FLAVOR-based salt additions in the boil kettle where it's easier to go into solution and where more of it will remain in the finished beer.


Adam

[marzen scorsese]

Thanks Adam excellent advice, very clear and precise. Next thing I must get is a pH pen so. There's no point brewing a pilsner without it I reckon and I'll get some strips too for good measure. It might be a good way of checking whether the calibration is out?

[biertourist]

Be careful with choosing your pH pen... An accuracy of +/- 0.1 pH isn't particularly useful for brewing purposes and that's exactly where most of them sit in terms of accuracy.

You want at least +/-0.05pH.

Checkout the Hach Pocket Pro+ (not the regular Pocket Pro which is only 0.1 accuracy).



Adam

[marzen scorsese]

Cheers Adam I'll check that out for sure

[biertourist]

The Hack Pocket Pro+ has the added benefit of not requiring storage solution for it's pH probe, too. (Unlike my Milwaukee mw102)  -The Pocket Pro+ also has a very simple single button calibration process. (I kind of wish I would've bought the Pocket Pro+ now.)


Adam