Sydney water profile

Hi, How does my water profile look? Im thinking of brewing beerfans snpa clone andfwould like some expert advice on how suitable my water is.
Cheers :cheers: im not sure how to attach the pdf? here is the link

http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water- ... /index.htm

im at ryde

Welcome to the forum.

You have really good base water for just about any style it is very low in alkalinity and quite soft making it a breeze to adjust if needed.
It is slightly higher in Chloride than Sulfate so this means most beers will appear to taste more on the malty side. A quick bit of sulfate(gypsum) can either balance this equation or lean it over towards a more bitter profile depending on beer type. This same bit of gypsum or an addition on either lime or CaCl wll boost calcium. The biggest key is to have Ca around 50+ mg/L when mashing and adjust the alkalinity to desired PH of mash.

Have you seen the FREE Bru N water excel spreadsheet or Braukaisers application?
Both will help you to understand when or where to add minerals or acids or to avoid the use of anything depending on beer.
Martins summary on the first tab of his excel spreadsheet really spell out the majority of things you will need to understand to get going asap.
See:

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

And/ Or Braukaisers main page which speaks in depth to how these calculations in these apps were figured out and mashing/ sparging other asst brewing science works:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Braukaiser.com

Good app developed by braukaiser that is easier for the uninitiated:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemi ... alculator/

Wow thanks for the amazing reply!!! I will check out bru N water and buy all the supplied tomorrow :cheers:

I also have a carbon filter for my drinking water. Should I use this to filter my brewing water?

Without knowing your grist and methods of mashing/sparging I cannot spell it out for you and suggest reading the basics and work into the ideas at play here so that you can make your first foray into water adjustment/ correct mashing/ sparging PH etc… a success. There is no reason to rush until you understand. In the past it was a long learning curve to make sense of it all. With these free apps all the tools are literally under your nose and within a few minutes to an hour and fiddling about with the app/s will spell out the answers for you.

This being said most grists for SNPA will likely land you around the correct mashing PH asis. Although to be on point you want to boost Ca a bit and also adjust that SO4/ CL ratio I spoke to which brings the beer up to a balance/bitter profile. Without punching numbers it is probably around a half gram of CaCl and a gram of gypsum to hit what you need(add salts to the grain before mashing in.) But again do some brief research and it should lay out perfectly for you within the apps.

Oh, looking at your chlorine it is very low on the scale of things, so I would say you can safely use the straight supply without problem. But if the filter is up to date and can run off enough water then do it sure. One other thing you can use is a wine making additive called campden(potassium metabisulfite) which will dissipate chlorine on contact/ and or break the bonds of chloramines so it can dissipate by using a quarter tablet per 5 gallons of water.

Awesome thank you :cheers:

That is a fine water to use as your base. All the ionic content is fairly low. As mentioned above, boosting the calcium content is highly recommended for most beer style brewing. In the case of pale ale brewing, a substantial increase in calcium and sulfate is recommended. The Pale Ale profile in Bru’n Water is a tried and true profile used to create great PAs. Be aware that with your water’s low alkalinity, you will likely need to increase the mashing water alkalinity a bit to avoid an overly low mash pH due to the high calcium content. Baking soda is good for adding alkalinity in this case.

Thanks mabrungard! bru N water has some very interesting reading :cheers:

im just checking out brewers friend and im not sure which water profile to use for the snpa clone? anyone have a suggestion? cheers :cheers:

I would just use a balanced profile to start on your first adjusted beer.
You can use the light and hoppy profile if you wish, but I would do a balanced one first, and then you can always use the bitter profile later.

I typically use a balanced profile for all my light easy drinking APA’s under 40 IBU or go slightly towards the bitter side.
What I see in the light and hoppy profile on this app in particular drives the ratio towards the high side of bitterness, which may/ may not support your grain bill. So again maybe go balance for palette adjustment in general and then you can go to the bitter profiles if you feel balanced was too “tame” for your personal tastes.

I entered all the data from my water profile, selected balanced profile and im not getting a recommended addition of salts etc to match the balanced profile? am I doing something wrong? can someone please help :cry:

Also do I use the magnesium and calcium value or the magnesium and calcium hardness value in my water profile? its a little bit confusing :cry:

Use the actual concentrations, not the hardness values.

Thanks for your help mabrungard :wink:

Ultimately, you need to be adding enough salts to create the ionic concentrations in the kettle that are appropriate for the style. So adding first to the mash water to create the proper mash pH and ion content, and then adding more for the sparging water volume is necessary to end up with the desired ionic content. Some brewers prefer to add the mineral dose for the sparging volume, directly to the kettle. I feel there are advantages to adding the mineral dose for the sparging volume to the sparging water and not the kettle.