Water Profiles

[Rhyno]

Hi all,

Anyone out there able to give us a little advice on water profiles. I have decided to do an IPA from BCS and I want to try and get the minerals and PH right for this style.

Been playing around with Brun and Beersmith to get what I think I need, although I don't have much experience in this area.

Base water is                        Target is

Ca:3.1                                    140

Mg 0.64                                  18

Na 10.5                                   25

SO4 3.2                                  300

CL 8.2                                     55

HCO3 23                                110

Alkalinity CaCO3 is: 19ppm

Not sure on PH, not in report, am guessing 8

Additions at this stage for a 30L Mash (BIAB) are:

Gypsum 11.3g (0.38 g/L)

Epsom Salt  6.3g (0.21 g/L)

Baking soda  2g (0.07g/L)

Calcium Chloride 3g (0.10 g/L)

Chalk 1.8g (.06g/L)

I have a PH meter from Dick Smith, about 4 years old and not that well looked after (lent it to a friend, came back mouldy) although from what I they cant be that trusted anyway, so am trying to use the brun water spreadsheet to work things out for me.

At the moment, estimated room temp of mash is 5.7, do I need to use lactic acid or similar?

Does this sound about right, or am I going to mess it up?

Cheers

[Smiffy]

First, let me say I think it is well worth the effort. The first time I tried an identical recipe IPA without then with water correction, the result was conclusive. With water correction, the IPA was hoppier an maltier. Since then, I have always one it.

I have put your data into the spreadsheet that I use and everything looks spot on.

pH says 5.46 and desirable range 5.4 - 5.7, so I don't think you need any acid, but it does depend on your grain bill.

(Those pH meters do need calibrating in a buffer solution before every use.)

Smiffy

[Rhyno]

Cheers Smiffy,

I have tweaked it again, this time removing the HCO3, and Brun now has it down around 5.4 so I'm happy with that.

Thanks for having a go over it, as I haven't done a lot of mash additions before its nice to know I'm heading in the right direction.

I did an apa the other week without any additions, when I bottled it on the weekend I was a little underwhelmed by the hop character. Hopefully this might help sort it out

:)