Munich?
My existing water profile:
Ca - 26.5
Mg - 7
Na - 19.5
K- 1.4
Bicarbonate - 79.6
Carbonate - 0.1
Sulfate - 14
Chloride - 35.5
Nitrate - 0.2
Total Alkalinity - 65.5
pH 7.6
I’d shoot for 50ppm calcium, somewhere around 75ppm sulfate, and 50-75ppm chloride. Schwarzbier is one of my favorite styles…soooo good and smooth.
[quote=“Pietro”]Munich?
My existing water profile:
Ca - 26.5
Mg - 7
Na - 19.5
K- 1.4
Bicarbonate - 79.6
Carbonate - 0.1
Sulfate - 14
Chloride - 35.5
Nitrate - 0.2
Total Alkalinity - 65.5
pH 7.6[/quote]
IMO, you’ll be much better off using a color/flavor profile than a city profile.
[quote=“Denny”]
IMO, you’ll be much better off using a color/flavor profile than a city profile.[/quote]
Do you have a more specific ‘O’ than that? :mrgreen:
I’d try black malty or black balanced.
I’d go with what Denny and Nate said. I avoid “city” profiles because you can’t be sure they didn’t treat their water. Even boiling it in advance will change the water.
nice thanks! Just because I’m a water n00b, can you tell me why you are shooting for those numbers (other than ‘black balanced’ in Bru’n has similar %ages)?
[quote=“Pietro”][quote=“Denny”]
IMO, you’ll be much better off using a color/flavor profile than a city profile.[/quote]
Do you have a more specific ‘O’ than that? :mrgreen: [/quote]
Nope, it’s your “O” now! 
Obviously, it’s gonna be black, so decide if you want to lean malty, hoppy, or balanced.
+1 to the color choice vs city.
I’ve got a color/flavor choice for every beer I do and I use RO water, so the additions are consistent. A couple dozen brews later, I can just copy/paste the water profile from a previous beer of the same color/flavor profile and it’s all set.
This water stuff is fascinating, and the 2nd best thing we did to get better beer. The 1st being ferment temps.
Not to be a total maniac, but do you ever have the RO water tested? I’ve read elsewhere that unless its a $100k+ system, it is not truly filtering down to 2 H’s and an O, and you are better off using charcoal-filtered tap water that has been tested by Ward, then adjusting from there.
Its a totally new frontier for me, so again, not meaning to nitpick.
Kostritz is nowhere near Munich and the water is not likely yo be similar. So don’t use that profile!
I’m guessing that the Brown Malty profile is going to be somewhat similar to water in the Kostriz area. I doubt that the water would need much bicarb since a schwartzbier grist has liitle dark malt.
nice thanks! Just because I’m a water n00b, can you tell me why you are shooting for those numbers (other than ‘black balanced’ in Bru’n has similar %ages)?[/quote]
It’s what I prefer, I guess. It’s a pretty balanced profile for a balanced beer. The beer I have on tap now was done to those specs and is quite delicious. I’m trying not to drink it all up in a week’s time.
What I normally do is mash with the pilsner malt and a little acidulated malt and add the roast malt at vorlauf.
so what mash pH do you get with that method?
I don’t actually measure my pH, but in Bru’n water, I shoot for 5.3. Whether I actually hit that or not is anyone’s guess, but the beer turns out really good, so I don’t worry much about it. I’ve been trying to avoid buying a pH meter.
[quote=“Pietro”]Not to be a total maniac, but do you ever have the RO water tested? I’ve read elsewhere that unless its a $100k+ system, it is not truly filtering down to 2 H’s and an O, and you are better off using charcoal-filtered tap water that has been tested by Ward, then adjusting from there.
Its a totally new frontier for me, so again, not meaning to nitpick.[/quote]
I get the water from our grocery store…they have an RO dispenser in the water aisle. They list out the PPM of all the different things in it - and you’re right, it’s not completely out…but the levels are so miniscule that I don’t think they really have much of an effect at all.
I suppose I could import their water profile into the program and adjust from there - but, what I’m doing now isn’t broken…so I’m not gonna try to fix it!
