Calcium addition to water

I’m not going to even begin to pretend that I understand all of the intricacies of water. Although I do know it is important, I have a “simple” question.

If the recipe calls for adding calcium as one of the ingredients, should you do it even if you really don’t know the actual calcium amount that is already in the water that you use?

Short answer, no.

1 Like

Often times I see that in recipes from BYO, websites , etc, and I think they are recommending that if you are building up from distilled or RO water. However if you are using tap water with unknown and possibly significantly hard or high calcium water content you could be making a bad situation worse. I would recommend getting your water tested or see if your municipal water is already available online…

I did the “magazine recipe says throw some gypsum in, so sure” approach once. The beer kind of tasted like Alka Seltzer.

Thank you. Since I have a whole home filtration system that strips the water of all minerals, Inchoae to use Kirkland Signature Premium water from Costco. I unsuccessfully tried looking online to see what the “added minerals” were that they advertise on the label. But I still can’t figure out what is in the stuff. So, I just use it because I figure it’s better than using my home water which I know is stripped of all minerals.

Yuck. That’s what I figured but I thought I would ask those who know more than I.

If you want to dabble, you could try something like this:

Use distilled or RO water, and this puts you in range. Worth a try… if you like the results, look into water treatment. A few salts on hand, a gram scale, and you’re in business.

1 Like

Are talking about RO water? That’s perfect water for brewing! Especially with extract as the minerals are in the extract from the manufacturer’s water!

If you have RO you are more than safe adding the calcium.

I brew AG and use RO water. I build every water to suit my needs.

1 Like

I also have RO water in my house. I am somewhat new to brewing (1year). So I didn’t want to start messing with water when I haven’t mastered other aspects yet.

Its part of the journey, learn what you can, then as it happens, dive in a little deeper. The only time limit is your life span… Sneezles61

Dude that’s not long enough for brewing stuff. Other stuff however…

1 Like

If you’re brewing extract you don’t have to mess with your water. The water is simply rehydrating the extract.

Thank you. I all grain brew.

Ahh ok. You’re right get your process down before tinkering with your water.

I have the beersmith2 mobile app and as far as I can tell, there is no efficiency calculator on it. Do you know if there is, and I am just missing it? Otherwise, do you know of a good online calculator for measuring efficiency?

On another mobile app, I assumed 70, designed, then brewed. After my OG was low, I went to the recipe and tweaked the efficiency down until it matched my OG. Not fancy, but it worked.

The book Home Brew Recipe Bible (ChrisColby, 2016, around $10 in ebook format) may be of interest.

It’s more than a recipe book as he ‘flavors’ the rather ‘dry’ recipes with ideas and commentary on the brewing process.

He also takes a relatively simple approach to adding minerals to distilled RO/water in the all grain recipes.

1 Like

I have both the Mobile App and the PC based version. I am almost sure I only bought the PC version. So maybe its available for you.