[xerotime]

I just recently moved and have all new water to contend with. In addition this will be my first attempt of a stout so I'm looking into how to adjust my water. Any input would be helpful as I'm just starting to get into water chemistry. Here's what I came up with for a 3 gallon batch...

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 39
Mg: 6
Na: 71
Cl: 138
SO4: 9
CaCO3: 54

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 3.5 / 2
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 3.5 / 0
CaSO4: 2.5 / 1.4
CaCl2: 0 / 0
MgSO4: 0 / 0
NaHCO3: 3 / 0
NaCl: 0 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 188 / 149
Mg: 6 / 6
Na: 133 / 110
Cl: 138 / 138
SO4: 114 / 114
CaCO3: 319 / 222

RA (mash only): 181 (20 to 25 SRM)
Cl to SO4 (total water): 1.21 (Balanced)

[Kaiser]

For a 20-25 SRM beer with about half the specialty malts being roasted malts, you should be able to get away with an RA of only 100-150 ppm as CaCO3. Here are RA guidelines I developed based on experiments. The table is valid for a mash thickness of about 1.4 qt/lb:


Beer color, alkalinity and mash pH

The lower RA can help you cut down on the baking soda. I'm not sure when you will notice the high level of sodium as salty.

Kai