Plan to brew using R/O water. 12 lb. 2 row and 2.5 lb Caramel 80 L. Will use app. 14 to 15gal water.
What do I need to use to adjust the water?
How much do I add?
Where do I add, mash, sparge or boil?
Do I need to worry about ph? Don’t have a meter.
I tried EZ Water but I am using 100% R/O .
I’d add maybe one or two teaspoons of CaCl2 to the mash water. Maybe also a pinch of Epsoms salts and a pinch of sea salt for flavor.
With that grist (which seemds like an awful lot of crystal malt, BTW) I’d shoot for an RA of ~50 ppm CaCO3. So first I’d use 0.75 g/gal CaCl2 and/or CaSO4 - depending on what you’re brewing - to get to ~50 ppm Ca and ~-30 RA. Then add 0.6 g/gal NaHCO3 to bring the RA back up to ~50.
Without any alkalinity in the water, adding only the calcium salts might drop your mash pH out of the desired range.
I would get either a meter or some ColorpHast strips, depending on your budget and how often you brew. Being able to check the mash pH will be really helpful in the long run.
Thanks guys.
This is a low gravity beer with the receipe calling for 5 lbs M O and 1 lb 80l for 5 gal. I am making 10 gal. so I increased the grains in order to raise the gravity . My eff. usually runs 75%. Think I still need to add more grain to get O G to around 1.045. Will be splitting into 2 pails of 5 gal. and using 2 different yeasts. I don’t make starters so need to keep gravity low enough dry yeast.
To get 10 gal of 1.045 wort at 75% efficiency, you’d need about 17 lb of grain.
FWIW, a fresh, rehydrated pack of dry yeast should be good for an ale up to 1.070 or so.
