Celbridge water

[DEMPSEY]

Caco3 136.5 ppm
Calcium 100 ppm

[Dr Jacoby]

Lads, do you guys treat your water in any way? Interested to see how you deal with hard water - dilution? boiling? acids? leave it to mother nature?

[Kaymak (kev2403)]

I use crs and tehn build it back up calcium chloride, gypsum and epsom salts.

[Eoin]

CRS and DLS for me. maybe also a spoon of Gypsum into the boil.

pH 5.2 is a load of cobblers, never found it any good.

[DEMPSEY]

CRS and DLS for me. Running my first brew at the moment, so far OK the rest temp of 50c is running at 54c so I will need to adjust the next time.

[Will_D]

CRS and DLS for me. Running my first brew at the moment, so far OK the rest temp of 50c is running at 54c so I will need to adjust the next time.

At last a brew!

Monkey Butt Brown by any chance?

[DEMPSEY]

No just Vienna and some melanoiden. This is the first run out and so I am testing the system,already have a list of refinements that I have ID'd

[Dr Jacoby]

Are you doing a protein rest? If so, 54C is perfect. If you carry out the rest towards the lower end of the range you risk poor head retention.

It looks like CRS is the most popular way of treating hard water then. Have any of you looked into lactic or phosphoric acid? I'm preparing a short talk for one of the upcoming Capital Brewers events in TOG and wanted to see what brewers are actually using to treat their water. I'll do up an article as well, so if there's anything you like me to cover give me a shout

[Eoin]

I test my water every time, that said My calcium test didn't work this time so I presume it's too old.

[Hop Bomb]

Lads, do you guys treat your water in any way? Interested to see how you deal with hard water - dilution? boiling? acids? leave it to mother nature?

Last brew I did a scotch ale & tried to mimic the Edinburgh water profile from John Palmers How to Brew. I used all RO water from the filter system & added my salts to the boil kettle (gypsum, calc cholride, epsom & baking soda). I used 100g of acid malt (total grain bill was 4.06kg) in the mash to try hit the ph. It came in at 5.8 ph so will add more next time as the http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/ software is only a starting point really. I got lactic acid in HBW but havent used it yet. Next brew perhaps.

[Dr Jacoby]

it requires water to be tested for every brew at the amount of calcium varies so much.

That's a very good point. You wouldn't have the same problem diluting brewing water with RO I imagine since there's no upper limit to be avoided. Sure if you can get your hands on cheap RO water you might as well get enough for a full brew day and adjust the minerals to hit the correct pH and what not.

[Kaymak (kev2403)]

I use bottled water for my brews, the ingredients have pretty details info on the water composition. I use graham wheelers water treatment calculator to work out my crs and salt additions

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

[Dr Jacoby]

Last brew I did a scotch ale & tried to mimic the Edinburgh water profile from John Palmers How to Brew. I used all RO water from the filter system & added my salts to the boil kettle (gypsum, calc cholride, epsom & baking soda). I used 100g of acid malt (total grain bill was 4.06kg) in the mash to try hit the ph. It came in at 5.8 ph so will add more next time as the http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/ software is only a starting point really. I got lactic acid in HBW but havent used it yet. Next brew perhaps.

It's the pH of the mash that's really important, not so much the boil. If you had added the gypsum and chloride to the mash it would have helped to lower the pH further.

I've never understood the urge to mimic water profiles (not having a go! I just don't think it's required to clone a beer, except in certain extreme cases). The most important thing is to hit the correct mash pH and add the appropriate amount of minerals to help the enzymes do their thing and keep the yeast happy. Calcium, in particular, is extremely important in this regard.

Lactic acid is great for on-the-fly adjustments, especially for sparge water.

[Dr Jacoby]

I use bottled water for my brews, the ingredients have pretty details info on the water composition. I use graham wheelers water treatment calculator to work out my crs and salt additions

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

The EZ calculator that Hop Bomb mentions is much easier to use IMO. You should give it a go 

[DEMPSEY]

Thanks Hop Bomb,forgot to check the mash ph, just did and it comes in at 5.2ph