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Author Topic: Brewing Water Adjustments  (Read 2291 times)

Offline kdziok

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Brewing Water Adjustments
« on: November 01, 2012, 09:23:53 am »
Hey all! I've just begun venturing into the world of water adjustments and I'm not sure if I made my calculations correctly. After the 4+ hours of BN's Waterganza, tons of articles and JP's How to Brew info, I thought I had a good enough grasp on it. After tasting my beer last night out of secondary has me second guessing though. The beer was super bitter (even for a DIPA) and almost had a mild salty vibe to it. It's not horrible, just really caught me of guard! If anyone has a free sec, could someone look over my water and salt adjustment numbers to see if there are any red flags or maybe make some recommendations? I'd be eternally grateful!!!

Below is a screen shot of the additions. The 5.3gal addition was for the mash and the 5.0gal addition went into the kettle after the sparge. Also the hop additions for a 90 min boil were 1oz Galaxy (14.8alpha) @ FWH, 20, 10, 5, FO so it's not too over the top! Any insight is greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
-Ken


Offline a10t2

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Re: Brewing Water Adjustments
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2012, 09:55:34 am »
The salt additions look fine. Where did you get the source water report? The sodium is already fairly high (most sources recommend <50 ppm) and if it's increased due to seasonal variations that could be contributing a salty flavor.

Are you sure it's bitterness? Some people perceive astringent compounds as being bitter. Hop bitterness will fall off pretty significantly during fermentation and conditioning, so in a couple weeks it may not even be an issue.
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Offline kdziok

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Re: Brewing Water Adjustments
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2012, 11:28:49 am »
Thanks for the reply and I'm glad the additions were ok! I had the water tested by Ward before I started playing with the adjustments so I could have a good baseline. I'll just leave it to do it's thing and see how it turns out once it's bottled up and conditioned. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something way out of whack!

Thanks again for your help!!!
Cheers!