Water Additions

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Evening all,

I'm looking at water additions for a Rauchbier that I've been meaning to try for a while now.

I found a water profile for Bamburg, please see below:

Calcium: 106.00 ppm
Sulfate: 241.00 ppm
Magnesium: 50.00 ppm
Chloride: 40.00 ppm
Sodium: 28.00 ppm
Bicarbonate: 281.00 ppm
PH: 8.34   

My own water profile for Bray is:
Calcium: 11.30 ppm
Sulfate: 6.30 ppm
Magnesium: 2.90 ppm
Chloride: 12.40 ppm
Sodium: 7.40 ppm
Bicarbonate: 40.30 ppm
PH: 7.48   

Have a look at what BS calculates when I add 33.5ltrs of water - surely all that Epsom Salts is too much?

I might play it a little safer and go with a Munich Dark Lager water profile, such as
Calcium: 82.00 ppm
Sulfate: 16.00 ppm
Magnesium: 20.00 ppm
Chloride: 2.00 ppm
Sodium: 4.00 ppm Bicarbonate: 320.00 ppm
PH: 7.00 (I couldnt find the pH of the Munich water)


If anyone has any feedback or opinion on this I'd be very greatful.
Thanks,
Colin

[Slev]

what is our gain bill?

will run it through brun water and see what comes out

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

5.2kg

Will check that out in the morning, cheers.

[Slev]

here are the values that brun water give, if using similar quantities to BS, or a wee bit of an alternative.
(just used 5.2kg of  pale malt at 5 EBC, which leaves your estimated mash ph quite high)

But basically, brun water isn't that far off BS.
Seems like a good dose of epsom salts. could think of it as an medicinal brew-for when the bowels need a tasty push!

(btw- the dude behind brun water advises not to use chalk , as it doesnt dissolve readily in water/mash)

[beerfly]

noticed no gypsum on the screen shot, that will give you calcium and sulfates so you can use less Epsom. still takes a good bit to get to the target magnesium level

using
3g gypsum (CaSO4)
0.5g table salt (NaCl)
16g epsom salt (MgSO4)
1.5g calcium chloride (CaCl)
2.5g baking soda (NaHCO3)
6g chalk (CaCO3)

Would give you

Calcium: 115.8 ppm  +9.8
Sulfate: 242.5 ppm  +1.5
Magnesium: 50.1 ppm +0.1
Chloride: 43.3 ppm +3.3
Sodium: 33.6 ppm +5.6
Bicarbonate: 201.1 ppm -79.9

you might be able to tweak it finer but it will be hard raising the bicarbonate without also raising the calcium and sodium levels too high, never used chalk but its supposed to be hard to dissolve so might give a lower return then whats on the sheets.

edit: forgot to add table salt

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

noticed no gypsum on the screen shot, that will give you calcium and sulfates so you can use less Epsom. still takes a good bit to get to the target magnesium level


Here's the original water profile, defo no gypsum.

[Slev]

Hope you didn't use pen all over your pc screen to cross out your salt additions. You could have just used tipp-ex

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Ah the magic of dry wipe markers 

[molc]

So I never use Epsom salts. But I start with RO. I remember reading in the water or yeast book that the malt gives everything you need for yeast health, so I just add calcium chloride and gypsum to get the ratio I want and consider it done.

[BrewDorg]

Same as molc above, except starting with Tesco Ashbeck instead of RO for now.

[cruiscinlan]

surely all that Epsom Salts is too much?



If anyone has any feedback or opinion on this I'd be very greatful.
Thanks,
Colin

Epsom salts has a laxative effect on many people hence the term 'go through you like a dose of salts'.  I'd be very wary of adding it.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Right, so I'll look at doing what Molc and Brewdorg have done.

[Slev]

Do folks use chalk additions?
In two of my brews i used it, but seemed to just sit at the bottom of the kettle (pre dough in). Then on further reading (in bru'n water), it talks about the difficulty of using chalk. Just wondering do folks use it and how?

[pob]

Epsom salts has a laxative effect on many people hence the term 'go through you like a dose of salts'.  I'd be very wary of adding it.

yep, if used 1 tsp in a glass of water; rather than 10g in 30L, which then react with the other minerals to give you your water profile.

[molc]

Do folks use chalk additions?
In two of my brews i used it, but seemed to just sit at the bottom of the kettle (pre dough in). Then on further reading (in bru'n water), it talks about the difficulty of using chalk. Just wondering do folks use it and how?

I've used it when I started but it precipitates out easily. I used to put it in the mash so it just would be in the grain instead of my HLT, for cleaning

I've just switched to RO and simplified my water so I don't need it anymore.