![]() These contain lots of minerals and salts that can play havoc with your beer. Store-bought waterįor the most part, store-bought water is the safest option and is also very consistent. Well and surface waters can contain lots of metallic ions, like iron, which can add a metallic taste to your beer. This treatment can harm the growth and health of your yeast. ![]() Most municipal water sources are treated with chlorine or chloramines to stop the growth of bacteria as the water travels between the treatment plant and your house. There are, however, some water sources to be aware of. The general rule of thumb for beginner brewers is: if your water is drinkable and tastes good, it is suitable for brewing. However, in reality, it is made up of complex chemicals like salts, ions and minerals that can be evaluated and modified during the brewing process. Water may seem like a rather straightforward ingredient. We look at water sources, the different ions present in water, and the effect they have on your beer. In this article, our brewing experts talk you through water chemistry in beer brewing. It’s often said that the difference between a great beer and an amazing beer lies in the chemistry of your brewing water and how this matches the beer you are brewing. Water is important as it makes up more than 90% off your beer. But what about the more mysterious fourth ingredient that is often overlooked? Yes, we’re talking about water. Most brewers can name three key ingredients in beer brewing: malt, yeast and hops. I do full volume BIAB and have found the BW 5.3 pH predictions to be lower than either of the above so I've stuck with 4.The Importance of Water Chemistry in Beer Brewing The ion concentrations between the two programs are almost always within 5 ppm of each other, the only thing that varies is the predicted pH. I build my recipe and water in BS3 and transfer the values to BW to match the same grist, liquor, salts and lactic acid amounts. When I have checked, I have never really found a significant difference in pH between 20 minute samples and samples taken later in the mash although I understand that many advocate for later samples. Samples are taken at 20 minutes into the mash and cooled to room temperature. First column is BS3 prediction, second is BW 4.2 prediction, third is actual pH measured with an Omega PHH-7011 meter, calibrated every brew day. But you need to keep actual records and let them be your guide to learning how the software does or doesn't help you, and how to adjust your use of it.įWIW, here are my results over several brews. This is how the algorithms in the software are developed and refined, but you can develop your own in your head, as it were. But with considerable experience under my belt before I ever used software, I usually find I can do all my calculations by hand guided by experience and intuition and get consistent and accurate results, because I am applying accumulated real world experience. Moreover they all need to rely on certain generic assumptions that simply don't apply universally in the real world though derived from empirical data they are still generalizations (hence the disclaimer about just getting you in the ballpark.) The software can be very useful for getting an idea of how a completely new grist might need to be approached. Brewers Friend gave acid recommendations that were absurd in some cases and I just don't trust it. All of these programs are explicitly intended only to get you in the ballpark BW says you ought to be within 0.2 pH units, and indeed my actual measured pH is generally approaching 0.2 lower than the prediction (and very occasionally further off) even though I do not rely on generic city water reports but actually test regularly. My advice would be to do like KellerBrauer says and trust but verify. I don't use BeerSmith but I do use Bru'n Water and have tried the Brewers Friend software. The brewer formerly known as alestateyall. You need both tools to assume the same type CaCl to get the same Ca and CL values. Both tools are made by smart people.Įdit: fixed how to note sparge additions and added bit about dihydrate CaCl. Regarding pH prediction, I think BeerSmith uses a different pH model (it’s based off different data.) For my brews, BS3 (and BS2) estimates significantly larger Lactic acid amounts than Bru’n Water. You need both softwares to use dihydrate CaCl if you want both to report the same Ca and Cl values. You need to list the sparge water salts as going into the sparge.Īlso, Bru’n Water has a setting for type of Calcium Chloride. When I imported an old recipe it assumed all my salts were added to the mash (not split between the mash and sparge or mash and boil.) Because of this, the reported water chemistry looked much higher than Bru’n Water reports. In BS3, the water tab reports the mash water chemistry.
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