Another noob Bru'n Water post

Been a lot of talk on the forum concerning water lately and I’ve read it all intensely. Thanks everyone!

When I brewed extract I always used distilled water. The last batch I did AG (NB Nut Brown Ale) with charcoal filtered tap water and it came out extremely bitter with an off flavor I can’t really describe. The malt flavor is there but only underneath the bitter flavor.

My water report says I have pretty soft water but have a high SO4/CI ratio of 3.4 which is off the chart bitter. Go figure…

My next batch is going to be NB’s Phat Tyre and I want to get the bitterness and malt balanced. So I plugged everything into Bru’n Water and came up with this. How does it look?

Also it looks like I never want a negative RA value. Is that correct? Without the pickling lime my RA would be about -15. So do I need to add that to every beer I make to boost RA based on the grain bill?

Thanks Guys.

Depending on the style being brewed, RA could be negative or positive. For many pale styles, a negative RA can be common. So don’t be afraid of a negative!

The sulfate/chloride ratio is only applicable when the chloride content is somewhere between around 25 and 100 ppm. Otherwise, the ionic content is either too small or too big to allow the ratio to be applicable. In the case of your water, its got too little sulfate or chloride content for the ratio to matter.

The main thing that matters in water adjustment is the mash pH. If it took a little lime to get the pH up for this beer, its OK. Do check what the pH will do if you delete the lime. If its going to be way low, then you really will need that lime. If its only a little too low, you might consider if you really need it.

Thanks Martin. With no additions at all my mash ph comes out to 5.27 but my calcium is only 8ppm. Way below the 40 minimum. After adding Calcium Chloride, the mash ph drops to 5.18. It’s a bit on the low side but might be ok there.