[mabrungard]

Somewhere in the 100 to 350 ppm sulfate range is probably OK.  As many brewers reading these forums know, I recently brewed my house SNPA clone with a reduced sulfate level of 100 ppm from my normal 300 ppm.  All I did was reduce the gypsum addition and kept all other mineral additions at my normal levels (Pale Ale profile in Bru'n Water). 

It is a fine beer with no apparent brewing or fermentation faults (saying this just so you know its not F'd Up), but the finish is a little fuller and 'wetter' than I'm used to. The reduced sulfate level keeps the beer from drying out like it typically does.  An unscientific dose of gypsum in the glass restored the drying finish.  But the bottom line is that sulfate is an important tool for assisting in creating an appropriately dry finish.  One thing I notice about great commercial beers is that they all have an appropriate level of dryness in the finish.  A beer that leaves the palate too wet or malty is not going to encourage that drinker to buy the second and third glasses. 

[hopfenundmalz]

Some time back I went from 200 to 300 and liked the results. Have done some English style beers at 350 and like the results. Did some IPAS with water from the recipes in Steele's book and those had that certain dryness that I like.

[cornershot]

Is 300 ppm the amount added to the mash or the amount in the finished product? Because you're talking about the effect of sulfates on the finished product. But if that's the ppm in the mash, then grist ratio will impact ppm in the finished product. So a beer made with a grist ratio of 1.5 quarts/# will have roughly half the sulfate of a beer made with 3 quarts/#?

[cornershot]

In other words, do we calculate the amount of sulfate added to the mash based on post boil volume?

[malzig]

The flavor ion concentrations are based on the mash and sparge volume, not the post boil-volume, since the assumption is that the concentrations are those in your source water.  If you are adding salts to the kettle, you can calculate them based on the pre-boil volume.

[cornershot]

Ah ha! Makes perfect sense now! Thanks for clearing that up!