Hey all,
I'm brewing a Saison recipe this weekend which includes 6 pounds of belgian pils, 5 pounds of white wheat malt, 8oz cara 20, 8oz unmalted wheat, 1 lb. sugar
I've listened to both water chemistry talks from the Brewing Network Sunday session, read John Palmers how to brew section on mash ph and water chemistry, and Charlie Papazian's book as well and I think i am just getting the hang of water chemistry. I'm thinking about sticking with distilled/de-ionized water which looking at the water reports online from deerpark both have essentially zero minerals, so I will be building up the water myself. I did provide concentrations from my city water report as well. The task seems a little daunting since my previous batches have been extract and I haven't had to worry about it at all.
I was hoping someone could take a look at what I am attempting to do and let me know if I'm on the right path, or if you have a suggestion for the type of water chemistry I should be shooting for. I included the mineral concentrations below from my two sources and then what I get after running it through John Palmers Mash RA spreadsheet.I realize I should just relax and have some homebrew, but understanding this will also be a plus and make me feel a little better!
Deerpark distilled water (since it's concentrations are essentially 0 for everything I will just add what my salt additions will be)
3.75g Gypsum
.25g epsom salt
1.25g Baking Soda
.5g NaCl salt
This will provide me with the following according to John Palmers spreadsheet all in mg/L
Ca: 51
Mg: 1
NA: 33
CaCO3: 44
SO4: 129
CL: 19
Residual Alkalinity: 6
For my city water I want to add 4g of Gypsum, and .25g of Baking soda to achieve the following
mineral concentrations | Before Salts | | after salts |
Ca | na | | 55 |
Mg | na | | na |
NA | 31 | | 35 |
SO4 | 38 | | 169 |
Cl | 24 | | 24 |
CaCO3(hardness) | 23 | | 32 |
Residual Alkalinity | na | | -7 |
I'm a little unsure about a couple of things though:
1. If I decide to go with city water and use campden tablets to remove the chlorine/chloramine does that affect my chloride levels? and if so is there a way to know how to adjust for that?
2. I think I want to lean towards the sulfate side of the sulfate/chloride ratio but I also don't want my beer to turn out astringent or too harsh tasting and maybe when you look at the excel sheet you can tell if that is going to happen
Any help I can get would be great.
Thanks