Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

water treatment problem

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • water treatment problem

    I called the county for a municipal water report. They could not provide me with the specifics. All they could tell me was the hardness was 100 (as calcium 4.5-5ppm), and the ph is 7.8 (fairly close to nutural). I'm getting ready to brew a stout. I wouldn't mind a nice Burton profile for my water, and I'm reluctant to do anything without more information. I need to brew this in the next 5 days. I just arrived at the brewery (been there 1 week) and even if I had a lab run some tests, this does not give me adequete time to order all of the necessary minerals before the results are in. Does anybody have any suggestions? Is this enough info to work with for now, and if so, what and how much? Thank you in advance for your answers. I do use a high percentage (15-18% of the grain bill) of patent and chocoalte, so I am a bit worried about acidity.

  • #2
    Hi, David.........

    You really need to get a better analysis if you can. The Water District saying ".........this is hard by 100 [ppm]........." is a bit slow, in my humble opinion.

    However, you want to brew a Stout. What kind of Stout? A Northwest Stout (BIG.....chewy.......Hoppy), or an Irish Dry Stout (mmmmmmm.......session beer.....)?

    Generally, a 7.8 pH water is not neutral. It is slightly on the alkiline side.

    If you want to get the hardness out for an Irish Dry Stout, you need to boil the water and precipitate out the solids. However, many would debate this and say you would precipitate this when you boil the wort anyway, and I would add some Gypsum to the mash......maybe .5 grams per gallon.

    We have VERY soft water here in the Northwest and we make an Irish Dry that tastes very, very, smooth. "Mother's Milk".............my favorite.

    If you want to make a Northwest Stout...........meaning......a BIG Stout........with a starting OG around 1.065 or so..........then I wouldn't do anything except add a snick of Magnesium Sulphate to snap the hops up a bit..........and I mean a snick..........slightly less than .1 grams per gallon.
    This will bring the hop profile to a forefront and sharp edge on the pallet, and many will say, "This is a BIG Stout."

    Others may have a difference of opinion., and that's fine.

    Comment

    Working...
    X