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Water Check - not Happy with "Pale Ale" profile

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blatz:
Hey all -

I've always used the "Yellow-Bitter" profile, but on a whim last time, I used the "Pale Ale Profile" in martin's sheet last IPA and I don't think I really cared for it - beer tasted a bit too minerally, sharp and the body was not what I was used to.   Could be other factors, but I am a little gun-shy to use that profile again.

Am brewing IPA again today and tomorrow for a big local festival, and was thinking of this instead:

8gal Mashwater:

starting with RO: add 10gm gypsum, 4.4 epsom, 2.6gm CaCl

resulting profile:

101.5 Ca
14.3 Mg
8.0 Na
242.0 SO4
46.1 Cl
16.0 Bicarb

Expected pH 5.3

I like the initial look of this prior to brewing since i still get a high Sulfate vs. Chloride ratio and more importantly, the bicarb is low while in the PA profile its almost 110. 

Thoughts?

nateo:
I'd scale back the epsom. You only want about 5mg/L of Mg.

michaeltrego:
I would go with only 5g gypsum and 2.5g CaCl.  I once attempted to augment the Mg in my soft water with Epsom and didn't like the resulting taste.  So I don't worry about Mg anymore.  Per Martin: "A typical barley or wheat mash grist should contribute more than 5 ppm magnesium to the wort for proper yeast flocculation so it should not be necessary to add magnesium to brewing water unless desired for its flavor effects. "

morticaixavier:
I'll give a +1 on skipping the epsom. never used it and never had a problem with the yeast not floccing

mabrungard:
That modest Mg content is probably not going to alter the taste that much.  The main objection is probably the sulfate and calcium.  The bicarbonate is there only as necessary to produce an acceptable mash pH.  I assume Paul adjusted it up or down to meet the needs of his mash. 

If that Pale Ale profile was not to your liking, I would reduce the sulfate even lower than 242 ppm.  A 60 ppm reduction is not that significant if you were used to (and liked) about 100 ppm.  I'd drop it to about 200, since that is midway. 

Remember if you find water profiles that are more to your liking, custom water profiles can be entered into the water profile table on the Water Adjustment sheet.  The table even has the ability to error check your ion totals to make sure that you enter a reasonably 'balanced' set of ion inputs.   

By the way, I'll be brewing my next SNPA using the yellow bitter profile.  I've always used the Pale Ale profile and like it, but AJ kept hounding me that better pale ales can be made with lower sulfate content.  I'll be finding out.  The good thing is that I can always add additional gypsum to the keg if I don't like the low sulfate taste!

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