Adding gypsum generally increases the perception of bitterness, in my experience. When I want a hoppy beer like a pale or IPA and some UK pub styles, I use more gypsum than CaCl. When I want a malty beer like German lager or Brown Ale, it's the other way around.
I have been adding about 2g of gypsum to my brews.
An BTW gypsum and campden is all I am currently adding. Still getting acquainted with water chemistry calculator and water chem in general
yes so the issue is your hardness, you will need some acid of some kind, i cant say how much, each amout is different for each recipe, grain and water
Thanks. I will play around with the calculator. Not sure how to impact the alkalinity with phosphoric acid in the software.
you need to put your grain bill in and adjust your ph then see about adjusting the alkilinity
I am learning.
. I have a PH meter but have not ventured into using it yet. Just getting the process more predictable has been consuming.
You would probably be fine with acidulated malt in the grain bill (can also use small amount of citric or phosphoric) and acidifying sparge water with citric or phosporic. Your water PH is probably pretty high so adjusting sparge water can do you a lot of good not only for flavor but for mash and sparge efficiency.
I use the water chemistry calculator for mash liquor additions and sparge water acidification and the recipe calculator will adjust your mash pH according to the ingredients you use so it's easy to know exactly how much acidulated to use. For most 10 gallon recipes I end up with anywhere between 6 and 12 ounces if I recall.
The 5 gal home brew recipe at the SN site has changed over the decades (see the Internet Archives"way back machine"). There was a time when Magnum + Perle was used for bittering.
Municipal Tap -Yes
Great, do you drink your tap water?
Yes.
. Now that is behind a water softener, but the water out of the line before the softener has no real odor or off taste.
