I’m getting ready to brew my first all grain batch and these water chemistry calculators are confusing me. I’m planning to brew the Northern Brewer Chocolate Milk Stout.
8# Rahr Pale Ale Malt
0.75# Fawcett Pale Chocolate
0.25# English Extra Dark Crystal
0.75# Weyermann Carafa III
My “base” water report is:
Na=16, K=1, Ca=32, Mg=9, Total hardness (CaCO3)=118, SO4=36, Cl=26, CO3=<1, HCO3=97,
Total alkalinity (CaCO3)=80. Ph=7.6
I haven’t nailed down the total volume for sure, but using 7 gallons I’m coming up with 12 grams of chalk and 1 gram of baking soda.
I need a reality check from you experienced brewers out there… am I anywhere near correct?
First, chalk is very unrliable since it doesn’t go into solution easliy. Pickling lime works much better to raise your pH. And is your SO4 really SO4-S?
Rather than add carbonate to the water, you could cut back on the roasted/dark grains in the mash and then add the remainder after 30-45 minutes of mashing.
Denny, thanks for the reply. I’ve got a batch of your (extract) Wry Smile in one of my fermentors right now and was very impressed on the last SpG tasting.
If you have any suggestions I’m all ears… (none of these calculators have pickling lime in them).
[quote=“Jebus”]Denny, thanks for the reply. I’ve got a batch of your (extract) Wry Smile in one of my fermentors right now and was very impressed on the last SpG tasting.
If you have any suggestions I’m all ears… (none of these calculators have pickling lime in them).[/quote]
Sounds like you need to get a copy of Brunwater. https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/. I’ve found it to be the most accurate one around, and it does have piclkling lime in it.
