What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[JoKing]

Professional... We are in awe.

[denimglen]

Aye?

[JoKing]

CaCl2, CaSO4

Some of us just use tap water...

Nah - kidding... great coice of salts for a light lager.

Where did you get the Chloride from in the end?

[James P]

Replace the mel, and munich with carapils and the koppafloc with irish moss and that is damn near my "house" lager.....

I now have another beer to brew for Oktoberfest! Thanks DG!!!

[denimglen]

Ah that's a JZ recipe so should be a good start :-)

[denimglen]

Craftbrewer. Emailed that cheese shop that got mentioned and they only had it as liquid and didn't know the concentration, all the other websites were listed as selling as 25kg bags only.

What's the tap water like in your hood mate? 'Tis extremely soft here so it's acid rest or Ca additions for me. And Ca is easier :-P

[Martin Bridges]

Hmmmm, I assume my water is similar to yours, and I'm planning a Bohemian Pilsner for some time over Easter. Sounds like I should figure out how to work Mr Palmer's spreadsheet!

[denimglen]

Haha have fun!

I found the RA/pH side of things quite easy, but the ion balance gets confusing.

At the moment I'm using this to get my profile sorted and then checking it all in Palmer's to figure out where to add to get my correct mash pH.

In that MH I'm chucking all the CaCl into the mash to get my pH right then the CaSO4 into the sparge water.

[James P]

Martin, get hold of your local council for a water report. Our one provides us with all the mineral make up, which is great!

[Martin Bridges]

Yeah, I've got the report via Watercare, it's just figuring out what I need to do to it that's the tricky bit!

[James P]

If need be, post the water report and one of us can plug it into BeerSmith and see what it shows?

[James P]

Our PH is between 8.2 and 7.8, so I tend to use a little CaCl2 / lactic acid combination.

I have yet to look into the full ppm per mineral etc, however talking to Wigram, they tend to use lactic acid and CaCl2.