Hey All-
So I've been racking my brains on a water report we got on one of our finished beers. To set it all up, this was a pilot batch using RO water with minerals added back to get to a "target". We used gypsum, calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate to get to our target numbers. We also used acidulated malt in the mash to hit the targeted mash pH of 5.2. The number we got are:
RO Water:
Ca-0
SO4-0
Cl-7
Mg-0
Sodium-10
HCO3-22
Total Hardness-1
Alkalinity-19
pH-6.25
Bru'N Water Predicted after salt additions:
Ca-102
SO4-55
Cl-150
Mg-3
Sodium-13
HCO3-22
Total Hardness-267
Alkalinity-26
Finished Beer Results:
Ca-80
SO4-126
Cl-410
Mg-161
Sodium-38
HCO3-106
Total Hardness-871
Alkalinity-87
pH-4.5
So I understand that malt will contribute some salts/minerals and that some will be precipitated at various stages or consumed/complexed with yeast, proteins, etc. My question is why are some of these minerals are several times higher than calculated. Why did the hardness and alkalinity jump so much? This is perhaps the biggest concern as we are trying to dial in a softer mouthfeel for the beer. Should we be acidifying the mash with HCl or sulfuric to scrub more alkalinity? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. We will be capturing some of the water pre-mash to see if the salt adjusted water matches the predicted. Thanks!
Greg
So I've been racking my brains on a water report we got on one of our finished beers. To set it all up, this was a pilot batch using RO water with minerals added back to get to a "target". We used gypsum, calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate to get to our target numbers. We also used acidulated malt in the mash to hit the targeted mash pH of 5.2. The number we got are:
RO Water:
Ca-0
SO4-0
Cl-7
Mg-0
Sodium-10
HCO3-22
Total Hardness-1
Alkalinity-19
pH-6.25
Bru'N Water Predicted after salt additions:
Ca-102
SO4-55
Cl-150
Mg-3
Sodium-13
HCO3-22
Total Hardness-267
Alkalinity-26
Finished Beer Results:
Ca-80
SO4-126
Cl-410
Mg-161
Sodium-38
HCO3-106
Total Hardness-871
Alkalinity-87
pH-4.5
So I understand that malt will contribute some salts/minerals and that some will be precipitated at various stages or consumed/complexed with yeast, proteins, etc. My question is why are some of these minerals are several times higher than calculated. Why did the hardness and alkalinity jump so much? This is perhaps the biggest concern as we are trying to dial in a softer mouthfeel for the beer. Should we be acidifying the mash with HCl or sulfuric to scrub more alkalinity? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. We will be capturing some of the water pre-mash to see if the salt adjusted water matches the predicted. Thanks!
Greg
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