Water Profile for British Brown Ale

[Mark Farrall]

Those are some rather big numbers. I make a lot of Porters and never pushed the Cl anywhere near that far. I may have to rethink my water additions.

I'm always astounded at the amount of salts the traditional English brewers put in their beers.

 

[Josh Hughes]

It was also in the September 2020 issue of the print magazine. BYO and Zymurgy are two magazines I subscribe to. Both are excellent and well worth the subscription price.

Craft beer and brewing is another good one. I really like it too. Completes the trinity

 

[Craigerrr]

Craft beer and brewing is another good one. I really like it too. Completes the trinity

I do subscribe to that one, probably won't renew when the time comes, but maybe...

 

[Megary]

I'm always astounded at the amount of salts the traditional English brewers put in their beers.

Yeah, 300ppm Cl is an eye-opener for sure. I’ll be making an English Porter in a few weeks but I really have no practical way of getting to that number. Still, I plan to kick up my Cl (and Ca and Na) until I get a little queasy about it. I really want to see if it makes a difference. I may get to 200ppm which would be about twice what I’ve ever used before.

 

[Josh Hughes]

Yeah, 300ppm Cl is an eye-opener for sure. I’ll be making an English Porter in a few weeks but I really have no practical way of getting to that number. Still, I plan to kick up my Cl (and Ca and Na) until I get a little queasy about it. I really want to see if it makes a difference. I may get to 200ppm which would be about twice what I’ve ever used before.

In the recipe builder the London porter setting is quite a bit lower than that I think. I’m going to use that profile when I make a porter in about a month. Bring the ph way down do Ill have to add some baking soda back. Will that affect much? Sorry to hijack.

 

[Megary]

My source for the above post (where you can view the unaltered chart image nearly 7/8 of the way down the page) is:

https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/resources/technical-articles/water-water-everywhere/

On first guess I would assume a UK Brown Ale to fall into the 'Mild' category.

Ok, I started reading that link a little more in depth and came across this interesting quote:

Sulphate and Chloride, it is convenient to discuss the effect of these two ions together. Much is made in brewing literature of the impact of these ions on beer flavour characteristics – sulphate gives beer a drier, more bitter flavour, whilst chloride imparts palate fullness and to an extent sweetness. However what must be noted is that it is the ratio of the concentrations of these two ions that is significant, rather than simply the actual concentrations. A ratio of about 2:1 sulphate to chloride is about right for a bitter beer, and it makes little difference if the actual values are 500:250 or 350:175 mgs/l.

That seems to go against everything I've read about the SO4:Cl ratio.
Now...maybe that statement only applies at those levels???

 

[Megary]

In the recipe builder the London porter setting is quite a bit lower than that I think. I’m going to use that profile when I make a porter in about a month. Bring the ph way down do Ill have to add some baking soda back. Will that affect much? Sorry to hijack.

Not sure I completely understand the question and sorry if you know all this already (I suspect you do). HCO3 numbers are never a target. Get your mash pH in line and don't worry about the final HCO3 number. With a dark beer, the malts should get you within a whisker of your desired pH level but some bicarbonate (baking soda) may be needed to balance the acidity added by the malts. The pH determines the final HCO3 number, not the London Porter profile.

 

[Craigerrr]

In the recipe builder the London porter setting is quite a bit lower than that I think. I’m going to use that profile when I make a porter in about a month. Bring the ph way down do Ill have to add some baking soda back. Will that affect much? Sorry to hijack.

For reference, my coffee porter gets 3 grams of baking soda (21L batch) to bring the pH up to 5.39, but my water profile is basically balanced.

 

[Josh Hughes]

For reference, my coffee porter gets 3 grams of baking soda (21L batch) to bring the pH up to 5.39, but my water profile is basically balanced.

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That works to help me. I probably didn’t ask correctly. Using the grain bill for a porter and adding gypsum and calcium chloride brings the ph down too low. I would be adding baking soda to bring ph back up. Didn’t know if baking soda does anything to affect flavor. I’d say not considering the dark malts and...you guys using both

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

That works to help me. I probably didn’t ask correctly. Using the grain bill for a porter and adding gypsum and calcium chloride brings the ph down too low. I would be adding baking soda to bring ph back up. Didn’t know if baking soda does anything to affect flavor. I’d say not considering the dark malts and...you guys using both

Sodium can often be flavor positive, so adding baking soda to correct the mash pH can actually be a plus (within limits).

 

[Craigerrr]

That works to help me. I probably didn’t ask correctly. Using the grain bill for a porter and adding gypsum and calcium chloride brings the ph down too low. I would be adding baking soda to bring ph back up. Didn’t know if baking soda does anything to affect flavor. I’d say not considering the dark malts and...you guys using both

The dark malts are acidic.

I believe (because, I don't know why) that baking soda is the best way to edge the pH back up. Slaked lime just sounds bad for a person... I mean, doesn't mama or papa put some in the batter when she/he is baking a cake?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

From some aging peer reviewed brewing literature I've read the commercial brewers of yore targeted 40 mg/L (ppm) sodium as optimal for lighter colored beers, and 80 mg/L (ppm) sodium as optimal for dark beers like Porters and Stouts.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The same literature implied that sodium ions work best when coupled with chloride ions, and not so well with sulfate ions, and it was further stated that Porters and Stouts do not require any sulfate ions to be present.

 

[Hawkbox]

I do subscribe to that one, probably won't renew when the time comes, but maybe...

I'm honestly bad for not reading them at all, but I like supporting them because I like what they're doing. So yeah bit of a tough call.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

From some aging peer reviewed brewing literature I've read the commercial brewers of yore targeted 40 mg/L (ppm) sodium as optimal for lighter colored beers, and 80 mg/L (ppm) sodium as optimal for dark beers like Porters and Stouts.

salt is good for everything in cooking as well as brewing, to a minimum anyway, too much swells up my feet