Using brew water calculator

[kikid]

I live on Kangaroo Island in South Australia and have been brewing all grain for a couple of years. Apart from the odd stuffup the beer is good. Like many people I wish to brew a New England IPA and would like to try Weldwerks Juicy Bits. The brewer suggests the following water parameters - 175-200 chloride, 75-100 sulphate and 125-150 calcium. I obtained a water report to check the local water, something I haven't done before and set about using the calculator to see what I need to adjust and how to do it. No matter how I tweak the calculator I can't see what I need to do to reach the target levels. I have included a copy of my local water report and wonder if some patient soul would mind advising me how to get the results I want. It is obvious that the calculator is smarter than I am!!
Robert

 

[Yooper]

I'm on my netbook, and can't see the files.
You'll need calcium sulfate and calcium chloride (or sodium chloride if you calcium is already high). Can you type out the water report, just the amounts you have of calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate?

 

[jeffpn]

 

[jeffpn]

 

[GFHomebrew]

calcium 9.9 chloride 225 magnesium 11.6 ph 7.3 sodium 148 sulphate 52.4 bicarbonate 24.8

so youve got like 4:1 chloride to sulphate ratio very malty.

so your right for chloride as yiu exceed this you beed some sulphate (gypsum) i recon 5g or a teaspoon will bring you up too 100 ish. big drama is your calcium is crazy low which you can boost with calcium sulphate but probably not to the level recommended.

 

[kikid]

calcium 9.9 chloride 225 magnesium 11.6 ph 7.3 sodium 148 sulphate 52.4 bicarbonate 24.8

so youve got like 4:1 chloride to sulphate ratio very malty.

so your right for chloride as yiu exceed this you beed some sulphate (gypsum) i recon 5g or a teaspoon will bring you up too 100 ish. big drama is your calcium is crazy low which you can boost with calcium sulphate but probably not to the level recommended.

Thanks for the reply - if I bump my calcium with CASo4 won't my sulphate levels be way too high?

 

[GFHomebrew]

Thanks for the reply - if I bump my calcium with CASo4 won't my sulphate levels be way too high?

yes they will so i put your numbers into the calculator and as is its too malty .

and with my supposed gypsum addition of 5g

so bit higher than 100mg/l on the sulphate but it gives you near 50 calcium which the yeast need. ive no idea how else to up your calcium with out upping your other minerals. except if you dilute your water by half with demineralised water and build your main ions up from there maybe.

 

[Nosybear]

Holy crap, are you brewing with sea water (maybe desalinated)? That's a lot of sodium and chloride! You're seriously low on calcium - you need an additional 40 ppm. Add it as sulfate so you don't kick the chloride any higher. You might want to dechlorinate- 0.6 ppm isn't much but still could produce some chlorophenols. A tiny bit of sodium metabisulfite would do the trick, say a half to a quarter of a Campden tablet or about 0.2g of the powder.