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All Grain Brewing / Fun with Water
« on: March 27, 2017, 03:40:07 PM »
So sometimes I feel like too much knowledge truly is a dangerous thing. I feel John Palmer's book on water may have been a mistake at my level of brewing. Even knowing that I can't stop reading brewing articles and books, I figure I still have a great deal to learn. Onto my question.
I live in Atlanta. After researching the local water and looking into the rough profile of the water this is what I get too. The few sites that discuss it come to this.
Beer Smith Water Profile:
Calcium(Ca): 6.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 1.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 3.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 7.0 ppm
Bicarbonate(HCO3): 19.0 ppm
PH: 7.2 PH
First time I tried all grain I went with Distilled Water and used brunwater to determine my salt additions. It did well but after talking with some other homebrewers that said Atlanta water was a good starting point I decided to try that. I'm on my second batch just using Atlanta water and I'm having difficulty hitting my Mash pH. I follow the burnwater to the letter on salt additions (gypsum, calcium chloride, etc.) to hit the numbers but my pH is still coming in high around 5.8-6. Haven't tried using lactic acid or acid malt to try and bring it down. Has anyone else had similar issues with hitting target pH of ~5.2? Any suggestions?
Additionally I use a one vessel BIAB system currently.
I live in Atlanta. After researching the local water and looking into the rough profile of the water this is what I get too. The few sites that discuss it come to this.
Beer Smith Water Profile:
Calcium(Ca): 6.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 1.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 3.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 7.0 ppm
Bicarbonate(HCO3): 19.0 ppm
PH: 7.2 PH
First time I tried all grain I went with Distilled Water and used brunwater to determine my salt additions. It did well but after talking with some other homebrewers that said Atlanta water was a good starting point I decided to try that. I'm on my second batch just using Atlanta water and I'm having difficulty hitting my Mash pH. I follow the burnwater to the letter on salt additions (gypsum, calcium chloride, etc.) to hit the numbers but my pH is still coming in high around 5.8-6. Haven't tried using lactic acid or acid malt to try and bring it down. Has anyone else had similar issues with hitting target pH of ~5.2? Any suggestions?
Additionally I use a one vessel BIAB system currently.