After my trip to San Diego looking to brew a killer IPA

My water’s total hardness is around 121. I believe San Diego’s municipal water is harder than that if I’m not mistaken.

My water’s total hardness is around 121. I believe San Diego’s municipal water is harder than that if I’m not mistaken.[/quote]

San Diego’s water is harder than that for sure.

Stone filters there water and blends with reverse osmosis water(made in house) they use a soft water profile 30 ppm calcium, 85 sulfate, 12 magnesium, 40 sodium

[quote=“gdtechvw”]

San Diego’s water is harder than that for sure.

Stone filters there water and blends with reverse osmosis water(made in house) they use a soft water profile 30 ppm calcium, 85 sulfate, 12 magnesium, 40 sodium[/quote]

I actually still diluted 50/50 only because, even with all the gypsum, I would have had to add a total of almost 4mL of lactic which was in danger of approaching the taste threshold for the average person.

My finished profile was: 135 Calcium, 5 Mag, 6 Sodium, 300 Sulfate, 9 Chloride.

This allowed me to achieve a 5.4 mash pH with no lactic added and only 1.3mL added to sparge.

I live 1 hr north of san diego I have to cut 50/50 and use 6.5ml of 85% phosphoric to get my mash ph to 5.3(10 gal batch) that’s with adding 12grams gypsum in the mash. I hate my water. :evil:

Finished profile. Calcium 137, mag 11, sodium 45, sulfate298, chloride 47.

When you have a mash pH of 5.3 for an IPA how do you treat your sparge water? What kettle pH are you shooting for?

I added .5ml 85% phosphoric (10 gal batch) to the sparge water. My kettle ph was 5.3. I wasn’t "shooting " for a specific kettle ph Just wanted my mash ph between 5.2-5-5, then added the acid to the sparge to not raise my ph too much if any.

So I took a gravity reading on this 9 days after I pitched and it came out a solid 1.008. Nice and dry and no sugar added. Hop flavor is amazing. Earthy and floral with a nice citrus finish. Aroma is good but a slight “peachy”. I’m hoping the 2+oz of dry hops should take care of that. it’s not necessarily undesirable just not what I was shooting for.

Can’t wait for this to be carbed up and ready to go. It’s shaping up to be the best IPA I’ve made so far!

Nice glad to hear! Keep us posted.

Matt, did you end up finding carapils or did you use the cara8?

I did find carapils at another LHBS so this was brewed as written. This is my first time using it so its hard to distinguish exactly what it did to the malt flavor but this has a very distinctive malt backbone. Not sweet at all but there is just something about it that makes it stand out. Really liking the flavor of this one so far.

I did find carapils at another LHBS so this was brewed as written. This is my first time using it so its hard to distinguish exactly what it did to the malt flavor but this has a very distinctive malt backbone. Not sweet at all but there is just something about it that makes it stand out. Really liking the flavor of this one so far.[/quote]

According to Briess website the carapils shouldn’t contribute much to malt flavor at all.

“Try it and you’ll find that it does a unparalleled job of consistently increasing foam, improving head retention and enhancing mouthfeel without adding flavor or color to your beer style.”

It did seem a bit less on the thin side this time but that’s a bit hard to discern if that will translate when its carbed.