Brewing Water for Extract Brewing

ktheavner

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Been brewing for years. Only do extract kits. Should I have my brewing water tested and adjust if needed? I filter my water and never really seem to be a problem but would testing and adjusting make better tasting beer? Thanks, KT
 
It can't hurt. I'd consider testing both your filtered and unfiltered water to check the differences and the usefulness of the filter system.
Maybe your results will lead to adding some obvious water additions to the mash, maybe not. Either way, at least you'll have the results to do with as you see fit.

Happy brewing!
 
Best is distilled or RO water. All that's removed from extract is pure H2O. But any low mineral water will work fine.
 
what brand of extract are you using? I've been doing some reading on what minerality is in Briess extract and will help out if you plan on adding more minerals. It's best to start with DI or RO water, but Briess extract has somewhere close to the following, I THINK.

Ca: 75-100ppm ... Mg: 0-10ppm(?) ... Na: at least 100 ... Cl: ~30ppm ... SO4: ~60ppm
 
what brand of extract are you using? I've been doing some reading on what minerality is in Briess extract and will help out if you plan on adding more minerals. It's best to start with DI or RO water, but Briess extract has somewhere close to the following, I THINK.

Ca: 75-100ppm ... Mg: 0-10ppm(?) ... Na: at least 100 ... Cl: ~30ppm ... SO4: ~60ppm
Oliver Thanks for the reply. Brand of extract varies according to where I order from.
 
Best is distilled or RO water. All that's removed from extract is pure H2O. But any low mineral water will work fine.
This is the best advice you can get in regards to water for an extract brew. The mineral content of the water of the manufacturer is unknown and it's assumed they have modified their water to get the proper pH in the mash, so it's to their advantage since they will get a higher efficiency with the proper pH.

Just use distilled or RO and use the extract's minerals. You can add chloride or sulfates to enhance the malt or the hops, but even then I would let it go. If anything you could check the pH and adjust it as needed, but that may not be necessary either. It's the Ron Popeil way of "set it and forget it".
 

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