AJ
Thanks so much for all your advice. It’s really a big help. I am concerned about the sulfate and have considered dilution. You’re exactly right . . . I just wasn’t all that happy with the bitterness of my last amber, and my hopping rate wasn’t all that high. I guess I’ll think about that a bit more seriously. Without my own testing, I have to trust that the City water report (San Diego) is reporting the ion concentrations correctly, but it didn’t occur to me to check the balance of the values in the report. Great suggestion. I’ll have to take a look at some of the water reports from other years (I just took the most recent). I too am a bit concerned about the low Ca levels. That’s why I was considering adding both CaCl and acid to get the alkalinity down. Now maybe I’ll think about dilution, CaCl, AND acid. Is there a minimum value for Ca or Mg I should be trying to stay above (I’ve read 50 ppm for Ca and 10 ppm for Mg, but don’t know how “strict†that is)?
I definitely wouldn’t buy acid from the hardware store (never even considered it) and have started to look for food grade HCl, but no luck so far. I’m not overly concerned about handling the acid myself. Not that I couldn’t make a mistake, but my degree actually is in Chemical Engineering and have a fair amount of lab experience, although I haven’t worked in the field for about 15 years so I’m a bit rusty (that’s also why this is so much fun – I need to dig out those gloves, goggles, and pipets! – that’s also why I should remember things like Baume’ scale). I can easily get food grade lactic acid from my local brew shop. My only concern there is how much is too much in terms of souring my beer (I am hoping that ~0.5 ml of 88% per gallon isn’t too bad)? Since this is a wit beer, a little lactic seems appropriate, but is there a rule of thumb for how much lactic acid can be added before you really start altering the flavor?
I also wasn’t planning on gypsum because of the sulfate. I haven’t been following the “Crappy Water†thread but will definitely take a look. In any case I appreciate all your suggestions (I’ll also have to look into the proteolytmalz). You’ve given me a lot to think about and I think I’m just going to have to try something this next batch and see how things turn out. This will be the first time I’ve really tried to alter my water chemistry any, so just about anything will probably be an improvement.
By the way, I’ve started reading your articles on
http://www.wetnewf.org/. Good stuff (although the site seems to be down today). Probably will find a lot of the answers when I get through it all.
Thanks