First time water correction for IPA. Did I do it right?

[T23]

Hi,

I have brewed all grain (since begining) 6-7 times.
Now I made an IPA and for the first time experimented with adjusting the water chemistry. But this is such a complex subject so I'm not sure if I did it correctly, so any help and hints would be much appreciated. Also I don't want to poison myself or anybody :lol: :shock: :mrgreen:

I have tried to 'burtonize' my tap-water. I got a water report from the municipal waterworks and used the calculator.

I was in doubt about the boiling of the water (precipitating chalk) but what I ended up doing was to boil ALL the water and then add salts to it. Is this the 'correct' way? I did put a check in 'Boil Water'. I was in doubt wether I should add salts to all the water or just the mash etc.

I wanted to reach about 500 mg/l SO4 and the 240 mg/l Ca seems ok. The Overall Water Report at the bottom is what I was looking at. But actually I now just noticed the 'Water Report Before Dough-In' which says 1212 SO4 ! So should I have used the report before dough-in (and made that 500 SO4)? or is it correct that I used the Overall Water Report as a guide to reach the 500 SO4?

The calulator report is here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?id=2FPX2DX

The beer is currently just going into secondary and tastes pretty good. Just dry hopped with 60g simcoe and columbus.

So would you say it looks 'ok' or did I screw up the procedure? can I pretty much count on the target of 500 SO5 and 240 Ca when I have done as I did?

Thanks for any help.

Toby

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

water hardness and ppm and ph varies so much per city or house that there is no real concrete answer unless the person answering lives where you do. But as far as adding salts to water you have to remember that some grains will lower ph in the mash but not in the sparge, that even gets more complicated and boiling water to get chlorine out doesn't work unless you pull the water off the white solids that you just boiled out

all I can say is what I have done with success using a good charcoal water filter and I use 2 in line now removes my high mineral, lime and the chlorine flavor completely, changed my bitterness levels in the finished product an all beers are more flavorful including ipa's and now I can brew lite beers perfectly

So in most cases your not going to notice a huge difference unless your a judge in a contest

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00024 ... UTF8&psc=1

 

[Nosybear]

I attempt to control residual alkalinity only. Attempting to "Burtonize" water is rather futile, you'll never get the same chemistry. For IPAs I generally don't bother except to bring calcium up a bit with gypsum. My water supply only has 34 ppm calcium and most references indicate 40 is the minimum for good mashing. The RA you need depends on the color of the wort. Key is to keep your mash pH from about 5.2 to 5.6. To do so I have to acidify very pale beers and add carbonates to very dark ones. My favorite microbrewery does nothing to their water. As with most things brewing, answers to questions are generally "depends." But water chemistry is very far down the list of contributing factors to the outcome of your beers (fourth or fifth at best). So if you're getting good results, go with it.

 

[surfmase]

I'm just curious Nosybear; how would you prioritize the list of contributing factors?

On the topic of water, we have hard water. Unfortunately I have not yet decrypted the information that the local authorities gave me in order to be certain that the calculators are correct. I often use the brewn water xcell sheets. The result is diluting with distilled water and compensate by adding gypsum and epsom salt. I dilute more when using lighter malts, and less when using darker ones. I have not yet boiled the water before adding minerals. I just add them when heating the water for mashing and sparging.

 

[Nosybear]

Contributing factors to beer flavor (in order of importance as determined by Moi for my system):

1. Sanitation. You get this wrong, nothing else matters. You'll get a carboy full of swamp water.
2. Yeast selection. Determines whether you get a hefeweizen, a saison or an American wheat, for example.
3. Fermentation control. That includes pitch rate, temperature and oxygenation. Most important here is consistent temperature.
4. Fermentation time. Making sure the beer is done before you do any packaging or other operations to it.
5. Mash control. Includes temperature, time and drift. Note drift isn't as important as anything else.
6. Sparge temperature and pH: Controls astringency.
7. Recipe. Here my rule is keep it simple, avoiding a general "brown" flavor from too much working at once.
8. Boil time. Controls kettle caramelization.
9. Water chemistry. In general, falls under mash control. Important to keep mash pH in the proper range but also general contributions from the flavor of water.
10. Everything else.