Hello all, I am looking to brew a Saison and while my previous batches were good, it did not seem to have the FEEL i was looking for. This is my current water profile.
CA: 34
MG: 7.3
NA: 77
SO4: 63
CL: 46
Alk: 135
HCO3: 162.8
Id like to create a fairly hoppy Saison, so looking at a CL/SO4 ratio of 2:1.
My "perceived" problems are my water Alk sucks, it's way high, NA is high and CA is low. I need to use acids (lactic/malt) to lower my PH, but this causes my HCO3 to drop down into the negatives just to get me at PH 5.4. Im under the assumption that for this style you want a decent amount of HCO3, is this correct? What does HCO3 actually do for the beer? I was under the impression that overall it not really desired.
Any help on some good numbers for what i'm looking for would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!