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Post by breakpoint on Apr 15, 2020 14:31:36 GMT -6
Hey! Making the migration now. Wasn’t really active on the blue board for many reasons work, family, time, the people there (been active on the whole covid thing because people are idiots).
Anyway, I’ve got malt, hops and yeast. My water is hard but I’ve never gotten a water report because I typically buy distilled and build from there. Well, I don’t have distilled water and I don’t want to go to the store for it, but I do have time to brew.
I’ve got mostly American hops and mainly IPA hops. Grains of all sorts - base, caramel, roasted. So, what do you think can be put together with hard water but no water report?
Thanks!
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2020 14:49:53 GMT -6
Hmm, I guess I would do something along the lines of an amber ale or something. Do you have good pH control? If you can make sure that your mash pH is okay then you should be fine unless your chloride or your sulfate is way, way out of line. Do you think there is a municipal water report for your source? An English Bitter could work but without knowing the sulfate and chloride level you're in the dark.
Glad you made it here. I do not recognize your name from the blueboard but it hardly matters. Welcome and please contribute. Cheers.
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Post by Leftympfrmde on Apr 15, 2020 15:13:22 GMT -6
Cant go wrong with a porter or amber with hard water. The water profile around my way is on the harder side, and those styles can be done with minimal water treatment.
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Post by breakpoint on Apr 15, 2020 15:18:46 GMT -6
Yeah, sorry, I’m on a well, so no municipal water report either. Thanks for the suggestions so far keep it coming
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2020 15:33:07 GMT -6
Yeah, amber ale, ESB or English pale ale, IPA, stout, porter. If you don't make any adjustments in terms of sulfate or chloride and the beers come out pretty good then you may be able to determine that the levels of those in your source water are around even... ish. I once had a guy email me saying that his beers were very harsh and coarse... not smooth. He also told me he was adding a tbsp of gypsum to each batch. Later he got back to me after getting a water treatment and his SO4 was already FIVE TIMES what his Cl was so he was compounding the problem by adding more sulfate. He started using CaCl instead and his beers came around. You know what I'll say next... send in some of that well water and have Ward Labs tell you what you're dealing with. Cheers and good luck.
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Post by jkor on Apr 16, 2020 7:56:28 GMT -6
Ward Labs is open!  |
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Post by Ken on Apr 16, 2020 9:07:23 GMT -6
Ward Labs is open! Essential business, yo.  |
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Post by SchwanzBrewer on Apr 17, 2020 16:21:46 GMT -6
Do you have any lactic or phosphoric acid? So long as you add some acid to get rid of the residual hardness you can make just about anything. I don't do anything to may water except remove the chlorine/chloramine and add acid to remove the residual hardness. I have very hard municipal water. Chlorine/chloramine (not chloride, very different) makes terrible beer and removing the residual alkalinity (hardness) allows you to get a lower mash PH and overall a crisper mouthfeel and less flabby/watery beer. If you want it malty add some calcium chloride. These are generalities. Getting a water test and using BrunWater is a good way figure out exactly what you need, but to be honest a pinch here and there works most of the time. Brew ON!
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Post by denny on Apr 18, 2020 13:41:46 GMT -6
"Hard" in what way? How does it taste?
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Post by bklmt2000 on Apr 18, 2020 13:53:02 GMT -6
Hey! Making the migration now. Wasn’t really active on the blue board for many reasons work, family, time, the people there (been active on the whole covid thing because people are idiots). Anyway, I’ve got malt, hops and yeast. My water is hard but I’ve never gotten a water report because I typically buy distilled and build from there. Well, I don’t have distilled water and I don’t want to go to the store for it, but I do have time to brew. I’ve got mostly American hops and mainly IPA hops. Grains of all sorts - base, caramel, roasted. So, what do you think can be put together with hard water but no water report? Thanks!
I'd check with your local municipality (assuming you're on city water) and ask where to get a copy of your local water report. If you're on well water, getting your water tested at a place like Ward Labs would be a good idea.
Building water from distilled is certainly a viable option, but I'd suggest doing what you can to determine what's in your water for a couple of reasons: distilled water may become more difficult to source, due to the pandemic, and without having an idea of what's in your water, adding acids/salts/etc. really becomes more of a shot-in-the-dark approach.
Just my $0.02.
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Post by breakpoint on Apr 20, 2020 17:43:17 GMT -6
Yeah, I'm on a well, so no local water report. I will look into get a Wards lab test since who knows how long we'll be stuck in lockdown. The outside spigot is not softened but the rest of the house is, so I've never actually tasted our "regular" water. Thanks for all the input.
I may just take a stab at something hoppy since I've got plenty of hops. Plus, we're getting dangerously low on baking yeast, so may be a good way to generate some other yeast to bake/cook with.
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