Beer Forum

I am going to send my water away to wards, to have it tasted. My question is about building a water profile how do I do it for instance if my water has too much calcuim for a perticular type of beer how do I reduce it, I know this would be along drawn out answer so if there is any sites I can look at that would help me. I have read palmers water section on how to brew and still really did not get it.

Or does it really matter since i use a ph stabilizer and my ph ranges around 5.3 or so each time I have brewed no mater what was going into the mash.

You can always dilute with RO or distilled water.

Wayne

Let's wait and see what Ward Labs has to say about your water. From what I have seen it is very rare, if at all for a water report to have to much calcium. I think if you had calcium over 150ppm, precipitate would be coming out of your tap! Your bigger issure probably would be your bicarbonate and alkalinity.

There are lots of ways to reduce your alkalinity. Adding salts, acids, and as Bug said, dilution. From my own personal experience and that of others, 5.2 is far less superior than the other methods and gives a salty tast to the finished product. Also, it depends on the beer you are going to brew and your water.

Let's see what Ward Labs says about your water report before we put the cart ahead of the horse. If you are consistently hitting 5.3 on your mash pH despite not knowing your water, I would say you are ok and to not do anything. That is, unless you want to accentuate hops or malt. In which case, you may add gypsum or CaCl depending on the beer.

Hoser

They asked me to put together a "sticky" for another site on this general subject and it is here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewin ... er-198460/

As some wag on that site put it 5.2 mash pH stabilizer works great unless you have a pH meter.

I tell you what this water thing is a bitch. I was arguing with myself on one main point. Should I even send my water away, because when I get the results I know I am going to want a better understanding of this, and boy for a lack of better words it sure is a mouthful. I apparently have had sucess keeping my ph in the right range with the stabilizer. But I guess it would not hurt to just take a peek at what is really in there.