Beer Forum

I am going to build my H2O for a Triple from RO water. As I want to accentuate the malt, is it OK to get my Ca from CaCl alone or will having no SO4 negatively impact my beer? I was just going to add 1g CaCl per gallon to get an RA of -52.

Thanks!

I don't think being sulfate free will hurt you one bit. But bear in mind that the effects of sulfate are "stylistic" IOW they change the perceived flavor of the beer rather than effecting mash pH... so that you have to consider that my opinion reflects my personal dislike of what sulfate does to hops (to the extent that I installed an RO system solely to get rid of sulfate because my water is otherwise very nice). As the Belgian strong ales are brewed with diverse water I'm sure you'd get an authentic trippel with or without sulfate so it's really a matter of you preference. I'd say do a batch with and a batch without and stick with what you like best.

Thanks for the insight. I brewed the Tripel with just the CaCl. Let's see how it goes.