[microbrewwater.com]

Let us know if you have any water quality questions so we can help you brew a better beer.

Ask Jim

www.microbrewwater.com

[darren]

I have very soft water.  10ppm Ca.  Every brewing resource I read says Calcium needs to be in the 50-100 ppm range.  Is this just lore that is copied from one source to the next or is this based on sound science or experience?  Pilsen seems to put out some nice beers with a similar water profile (and who knows if they're adjusting theirs).

Also, would my Calcium requirement change if I were decoction mashing?  Thanks!

[microbrewwater.com]

How did I miss this one? I'll be back in my office tomorrow pm and I'll get some info for u

[microbrewwater.com]

Darren, I just remembered an article that I read on this exact thing. Here is the link.

www.murphyandson.co.uk/brewingarticles/enzymes.htm

It's seems like maybe our nano filtration tank will work well for this application. I was looking into this when I developed one of my systems.

Jim

[microbrewwater.com]

Hmm having trouble with that link let me try it again

http://www.murphyandson.co.uk/BrewingArticles/Enzymes.htm

[microbrewwater.com]

That worked..

[mabrungard]

Interesting link to the resource.  I have seen other references to calcium helping to stabilize the alpha amalyse (Malting & Brewing Science)(The Biotechnology of Malting and Brewing).  Unfortunately, even the reference at the link above does not cite a minimum calcium concentration.  The other references don't either.  

Calcium is precipitated in varying degrees through a variety of reactions.  From my research, the amount of precipitation is proportional to the calcium concentration up to about 110 ppm.  Beyond that point, the amount of precipitation is again proportional, but on a lesser slope.  This has no bearing on the minimum level, but it has a significant impact on the concept of Residual Alkalinity.  That will have to wait for another day.  

Regarding the minimum calcium concentration, there does not seem to be a good reference with respect to alpha amalyse performance, yeast health and flocculation performance, or oxalate precipitation performance.  We know that malt contains some calcium and it can be somewhat liberated in the mash (especially decoction).  I don't know what the minimum calcium concentration should be, but I think the evidence suggests that its in the 40 to 50 ppm range.