BUILDING WATER PROFILE FROM REVERSE OSMOSIS

[BrewinBrian44]

Hi Guys,

Long story short, I recently moved to a house with a well. After the move, I realized how much I took my old, soft city water for granted. This well water is nasty, even after going through softener. Definitely not made for brewing/distilling.

I purchased a RO water system made specifically for brewing. Literally strips EVERYTHING out. Just fired it up: 0 TDS. Now I gotta build something back for a healthy ferment / mash performance.

Here are my thoughts: Using Bru'n water and adding my grain bill for a batch of Honey Bear Bourbon, with no adjustment to the water, the mash PH would be out of range, so I'll need to add some lactic acid and a bit of Calcium.

My plan is to use enough Calcium Chloride to get to 50ppm Calcium, for yeast health and mash ph. The idea for CaCl instead of Gypsum is to get calcium I need with no sulfur. After the salt addition, it'll take 5ml lactic acid to get to my target mash ph of 5.3.

Is this sound logic? Normally for brewing I'm adding all sorts of other salts to influence flavor, but with stillin' I'm wondering if that really matters for the final product?

For the ferment I'm planning on either adding some DAP or Fermaid K and fermenting with DADY distillers yeast at 85 degrees F.

Any insights are greatly appreciated. You guys have been a huge help for all my endeavors so far!

[Hambone]

Nasty how? My hard well water is perfect for distilling. Not so much for water fixtures…

[still_stirrin]

Carbonate and Bicarbonate (CO3 and HCO3)
Carbonate is considered the most important ion for all grain brewing. Carbonate (or bicarbonate), expressed as “total alkalinity” on many water reports, is the ion that determines the acidity of the mash. It also is the primary determinant in the level of “temporary hardness” of the water. If carbonate levels are too low, the mash will be too acidic, especially when using darker malts (which have higher acidity). If carbonate is too high, mash efficiency will suffer. Recommended levels are 25-50 mg/l for pale beers and 100-300 mg/l for darker beers. Note that bicarbonates and temporary hardness can be reduced by pre-boiling the water – the precipitate that falls out after boiling is primarily bicarbonate.

Sodium (Na)
Sodium contributes body and mouthfeel to the beer, but if used in excess will result in salty seawater flavors. High sodium water often comes from household water softeners, which is why most brewers recommend against mashing with softened water. Sodium levels in the 10-70 mg/l range are normal, and levels of up to 150 mg/l can enhance malty body and fullness, but levels above 200 mg/l are undesirable.

Chloride (Cl)
Chloride, like sodium, also enhances the mouthfeel and complexity of the beer in low concentrations. Chlorine is often used in city water supplies to sanitize, and can also reach high concentrations from use of bleach as a brewing sanitizer. Heavily chlorinated water will result in mediciny or chlorine-like flavors that are undesirable in finished beer. Normal brewing levels should be below 150 mg/l and never exceed 200 mg/l. If you have heavily chlorinated city water you can reduce it using a carbon filter or by pre-boiling the water for 20-30 minutes before use.

Sulfate (SO4)
Sulfate plays a major role in bringing out hop bitterness and adds a dry, sharp, hoppy profile to well hopped beers. It also plays a secondary role to lowering Ph of the mash, but the effect is much less than with carbonates as sulfate is only weakly alkaline. High levels of sulfate will create an astringent profile that is not desirable. Normal levels are 10-50 mg/l for pilsners and light beers and 30-70mg for most ales. Levels from 100-130 mg/l are used in Vienna and Dortmunder styles to enhance bitterness, and Burton on Trent pale ales use concentrations as high as 500 mg/l.

Calcium (Ca)
Calcium is the primary ion determining the “permanent hardness” of the water. Calcium plays multiple roles in the brewing process including lowering the Ph during mashing, aiding in precipitation of proteins during the boil, enhancing beer stability and also acting as an important yeast nutrient. Calcium levels in the 100 mg/l range are highly desirable, and additives should be considered if your water profile has calcium levels below 50 mg/l. The range 50mg/l to 150 mg/l is preferred for brewing.

Magnesium (Mg)
Magnesium is a critical yeast nutrient if used in small amounts. It also behaves as calcium in contributing to water hardness, but this is a secondary role. Levels in the 10-30 mg/l range are desirable, primarily to aid yeast. Levels above 30 mg/l will give a dry, astringent or sour bitter taste to the beer.

Adjusting your Water
Different styles of beer require different water profiles. Often a particular beer is associated with the water profile of the city in which the beer originated. For a listing of water profiles for popular brewing cities of the world, you can visit our water profile listing. If you have a target profile in mind, you can adjust your water to match that profile.

You can dilute your local tap water with distilled water if some ion counts are too high for your target water profile. Similarly you can use additives to increase the level of key ions. Popular additives include table salt (NaCl), Gypsum (CaSO4), Calcium Chloride (CaCl), Epsom Salts (MgSO4), Baking Soda (NaHCO3), and Chalk (CaCO3).

Unfortunately the additives do not add a straightforward amount of ions to the water profile, so its best to use some kind of water profile tool to adjust your local water supply to reach a target profile. Usually only a few grams of additives is required to achieve your target profile. BeerSmith has a water profile tool available to perform this very function. Other water profile tools are also available online.
ss

[BrewinBrian44]

My well water has a lot of dissolved solids and some hydrogen sulfide, nasty stuff. I’m actually biting the bullet and installing an oxidizing filter to remove some of the metals and sulfur which should help my situation.

SS, Thanks for that info. I’m aware of some of it for brewing beer, which has given me great results over the years. I had it pretty easy with my tap water before as it was a pretty blank slate. All it took was a bit of gypsum/CaCl and a bit of acid to make great beers. I’ve never started from scratch before with RO. I guess I’m wondering if my bare minimum approach will get me good results for a distilled product.

With my other bourbon mashes, I always added some chalk to the mix before pitching yeast to avoid a ph crash, seemed to work well. I’ve also used Oyster shells too.