Water Treatment

BCB meet on the 1st Monday of every month at 8pm in the Royal Navy Volunteer, King Street.
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alikocho
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Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:31 am

Re: Water Treatment

Post by alikocho »

MapperMatt wrote:
Check how alkalinity is expressed. It can be put in tables as HCO3 as well as CaCO3.
OK, so in the regional profiles you provided in your talk it looks like alkalinity is being expressed as HCO3. I couldn't find the source for this table to check but that would certainly make more sense....
Yep, those values are HCO3
Ali

BJCP National Judge
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American Homebrewers' Association International Subcommittee
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Bimster
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Re: Water Treatment

Post by Bimster »

I attempted water treatment in my last brew, following receipt of my water information from Bristol water.

The CRS calculation was straightforward, I used the Brupaks website to do it manually and obtained a similar figure from one of the calculators on Ali's handout - think it was the craft brewers one but could be mistaken.

However, when it came to the DLS additions, only this one calculator accomodated DLS rather than Gypsum and other salt additions which is why I chose this one.

Brupaks stated to use DLS in the mash tun (based on mash tun water volume) and in the boiller, to use the whole brew length - mash tun water volume. The calculator stated something different (based on starting boil volume). I went with the calculator as the Brupaks seemed overkill as not all the liquid in the mash tun will end up in the boiler.

I did a quick search on JBK and found someone was asking a similar question to our mate, GW. He seemed to completly ignore the question in his answer which was no real surprise.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me as well?
James

BJCP Certified Judge
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MapperMatt
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Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:33 am

Re: Water Treatment

Post by MapperMatt »

Brupaks stated to use DLS in the mash tun (based on mash tun water volume) and in the boiller, to use the whole brew length - mash tun water volume. The calculator stated something different (based on starting boil volume). I went with the calculator as the Brupaks seemed overkill as not all the liquid in the mash tun will end up in the boiler.

I did a quick search on JBK and found someone was asking a similar question to our mate, GW. He seemed to completly ignore the question in his answer which was no real surprise.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me as well?
Bim, I noticed this a few months ago and have switched to doing it the Brupaks way. IE DLS is calculated based on the total mash liquor not just the boil volume. To be honest I have not noticed a great deal of difference.
In real life I measure alkalinity on the day using a salifert kit to get alkalinity as CaCO3, then multiple that result by 0.4 to get a Ca number for by DLS addition. If my water report happened to be accurate for that day, using "Hardness as Ca" for DLS would significantly underestimate the DLS addition.
Paul, you are right, the numbers in the CBA spreadsheet do not stack up. As you say, Brupaks recommend using CaCO3 * 0.4 to obtain Ca levels for DLS calculations. Looks like I will be amending my spreadsheet.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? For info link to brupaks page is here: http://www.brupaks.com/water%20treatment.htm and link to CBA water treatment spreadsheet is here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... aakE#gid=1
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vacant
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Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:33 am
Location: downstairs

Re: Water Treatment

Post by vacant »

I'd like to add CBA fact sheet number 1 which is James McCrorie's advice from Hilary Kane of Murphy's Lab. This recommends adding all the DLS to the grist for the brew length. Brew length seems to still be Murphy's current advice (pdf).

What I haven't found is any theory on the recommended Ca levels i.e. is "180" Pale Ale ideal for the mash, hop extraction/flavour, yeast fermentation?

Anyway, I guess the rule of thumb is "insufficient Calcium has an adverse effect, a little too much won't matter".
When a man is tired of beer, he is tired of life; for there is in beer all that life can afford
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