Jamil's Bitter Recipes In Competition

[KlosterFocke]

Glad you dredged this up, I figured this out years ago and never posted the solution. I have ridiculously soft well water, so anything darker than 60L was like adding chocolate malt to my beer. Carafa Special also is like black patent in my beers. I add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon of chalk to my mash (5 gallons) if I'm using darker crystal malts in my beers. I've also started using real English specialty malts (especially the 75 and 120) and the bitters are spectacular without any roastiness.

[John P.]

So do you think it might be an issue of the mash pH being too low? I notice that the two additions you are adding would both raise pH.


I've just started worrying about the water I use, as the local municipal supply seems a little unreasonable. I start with this:

Ca = 50
Mg = 28
Na = 161
SO4 = 202
Cl = 119
Alkalinity = 177

Then I dilute it with distilled water and then add gypsum and chloride to bring the calcium back up. Sounds like maybe I should add something to bring the pH up a little as well?

[KlosterFocke]

Try upping the the calcium first. It seems like a lot of chalk initially, but you lose about half of it in the mash tun anyway. It works well for me. Or go half and half between chalk and Calcium Chloride to help the malt shine a bit more.