We finally got our well on line and received the water analysis back from Ward Labs at the startup I'm working on in Guatemala. The water is very soft (not what we expected) and I'll be needing to add CaCl and CaSO4 back into the brewing water.
Here's the numbers from Ward
Ca 16
Mg 17
Na 24
SO4 6
Cl 7
HCO3 170
ph 7.3
I'll be using acidulated malt for ph control in the mash. This is my first stab at real water treatment (besides throwing some gypsum in the kettle while home brewing) and I'm using Bru'n Water, Brewers Friend and Beersmith to kinda cross reference each other it figure the target profile and mineral additions for each style of beer I'm brewing.
So here's my questions -
1. If I'm hitting my mash ph with acidulated malt and most of my mineral additions are for "flavor enhancement" and post mash improvements i.e. cold break, yeast performance, clarity, etc., should I add the CaCl and gypsum to the kettle? Or is it better to dilute and mix in water and slowly add to mash and sparge? I'd rather not adjust the whole HLT but I can if that's best.
2. The only gypsum we can find here in Guatemala is "fertilizer gypsum" with a chemical analysis of:
CaSO4 74-78%
with Ca 21-25% and S 18-20%
Is this the same as brewers gypsum? I'm guessing not as BSG lists their gypsum as 90-98% CaSO4. Do I need to smuggle in the "good stuff"?!
Really hoping to improve the taste of my hoppy beers, the small test batches I've done with the water here haven't had any "hop pop". I know my pale and IPA recipes are good and the lighter beers have turned out nice and the darker beers have promise (but not great).
My brain hurts from all this water chemistry (haha) so any input and advice would be great!!
Here's the numbers from Ward
Ca 16
Mg 17
Na 24
SO4 6
Cl 7
HCO3 170
ph 7.3
I'll be using acidulated malt for ph control in the mash. This is my first stab at real water treatment (besides throwing some gypsum in the kettle while home brewing) and I'm using Bru'n Water, Brewers Friend and Beersmith to kinda cross reference each other it figure the target profile and mineral additions for each style of beer I'm brewing.
So here's my questions -
1. If I'm hitting my mash ph with acidulated malt and most of my mineral additions are for "flavor enhancement" and post mash improvements i.e. cold break, yeast performance, clarity, etc., should I add the CaCl and gypsum to the kettle? Or is it better to dilute and mix in water and slowly add to mash and sparge? I'd rather not adjust the whole HLT but I can if that's best.
2. The only gypsum we can find here in Guatemala is "fertilizer gypsum" with a chemical analysis of:
CaSO4 74-78%
with Ca 21-25% and S 18-20%
Is this the same as brewers gypsum? I'm guessing not as BSG lists their gypsum as 90-98% CaSO4. Do I need to smuggle in the "good stuff"?!
Really hoping to improve the taste of my hoppy beers, the small test batches I've done with the water here haven't had any "hop pop". I know my pale and IPA recipes are good and the lighter beers have turned out nice and the darker beers have promise (but not great).
My brain hurts from all this water chemistry (haha) so any input and advice would be great!!
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