Why can’t I add my acid to heated water?

Bru'n Water users may have noted that the program tells them to add their acid to the water before its heated. Here is the reason why you should heed that recommendation or revise your process.

When we have an accurate tap water report, the amount of acid calculated for the acidification dose is based on the alkalinity from that report. When you heat water, you start reducing that alkalinity. Adding the acid dose that was calculated based on the original alkalinity means that you will end up overdosing the acid.

However, it is OK to add acid to hot water, but you will need to determine what the alkalinity of that heated water is in order to properly calculate the acid dose. If you prefer adding acid to your hot water, it's recommended that you obtain a water report for that heated water so that the reduced alkalinity is used in your acidification calculation.

It's not the temperature, it's the change in alkalinity that produced the original recommendation!

Care and Use of pH Meters

A pH meter is really a voodoo machine with its various electrical and chemical mechanisms. So it's no wonder that they require special care.

pH meters can easily suffer a shift in their calibration and then all your readings could be in error. So calibration prior to each use is important. My meter is fairly stable, so I only calibrate once prior to each brew day.

The first thing to do is warm up the meter. I find that 10 minutes of warm up helps settle down my meter. Then it's ready for the calibration procedure.

pH 4 and 7 calibration solutions are needed for working with a meter for brewing. Since these solutions have a limited life, I use 'capsules' of 4 and 7 buffer made by pHydrion that are added to distilled water to create fresh calibration solutions. They will keep for 6 to 12 months when tightly capped. This is a less expensive way of maintaining fresh solutions. Although refrigerating the calibration solutions will extend their life, it is imperative that the solutions be at room-temperature (20C to 25C) before use.

Some meters have specific calibration requirements. However, most calibration is conducted by checking and setting the meter in the 7 solution first. After trimming the meter to read 7.01, move to the 4 solution to dial in that range. Repeating the 7 and 4 checks is recommended. Of course, rinse off the probe with distilled or RO water to remove all traces of the preceeding calibration solution. I recommend blowing off the bulb area of the probe by mouth to move excess water out of that recess. Then blot the probe dry with a paper towel before inserting probe into the next solution.

To reduce the volume of calibration solution used, use as small a container as your pH probe will fit in to for the calibration checks. Fill that container with enough solution to fully submerge the bulb of the probe. My probe is small [there, I said it ;-) ] and I am able to use the small caps of my buffer storage bottles as the containers for my calibration checks.

After the calibration is completed, discard the used solutions. Do not return the used solutions to their bottles since that could alter their accuracy.

The meter is now ready for use.

pH Meter Recommendations

Although using Bru'n Water reduces the need for checking mash pH, it is still useful to have a good pH meter available to double check things. Here are some thoughts for those of you interested in buying a meter.

A quality meter and probe are desirable, but high quality often comes with a high price. On top of that, buying a very expensive meter doesn't avoid the fact that pH probes DO wear out and have to be replaced. So moderating the meter price is a good idea. A meter that costs around $100 can serve well.

I recommend buying a meter with a resolution of 0.01 units that helps the user tell when the pH reading is settling down. Sure, you don't really need to know the pH to a gnat's a$$, but it's nice to know the reading is stable. In addition, a meter with a replaceable probe can extend your investment. For that reason, I suggest that getting a meter and probe that uses a BNC-type connector will allow you to replace the probe with widely-available after-market probes. I find that a meter connnected to the probe with a cable is a little more versatile than the all-in-one units.

Something you WON'T need on your meter is Automatic Temperature Compensation (ATC). That feature only compensates for the response of the pH meter's electrode with varying temperature. That feature does not compensate for the actual pH shift produced chemically in the mash. All mash pH measurement should be performed at room-temperature to avoid the measurement errors created by the temperature effects on the probe and chemically in the mash.

Add Minerals to Sparging Water or the Kettle?

A popular question regarding brewing water mineral adjustments is whether to add those minerals to the sparging water or reserve them and add them to the kettle.

As most brewers know, if you want a certain water profile, you will need to add minerals in proportion to the total water amount used in your brewing session. The question is when to add those minerals? For the mashing water, we generally will add minerals to that water since they often have an effect on pH. For sparging water, some brewers reserve the mineral additions calculated for that sparging volume and add them directly to the kettle. Here is why that may not be the best approach.

For brewers using water with little mineralization, there is a clear advantage to adding calcium salts to the sparging water. The extra mineralization added to the sparging water provides a couple of benefits. The first is that the increased osmotic stress on the cells of the grain from the higher mineralization should help reduce the extraction of undesirable components like tannins and silicate from the grain. Another benefit is that extra calcium in the sparging water helps complex with oxalates from the grain and helps keep them out of the kettle. So these are benefits from increasing the sparging water mineralization.

Now there is a drawback to adding calcium salts to the sparging water. The calcium ends up complexing with phytins from the malt. Some of that calcium is lost in the mash, but that is a minor price to pay for the benefits mentioned above. If the overall calcium content of the wort is going to be lower than desired, its a simple thing to add more calcium salts to make up for that loss.

So the message is clear...add the minerals calculated for the sparging water volume to the sparging water and not into the kettle.

How do I know which category I should enter my grains as?

Grain classifications are fairly easy in Bru'n Water. Here is how to consider the classifications and make your decisions:

1. Acid Malt is easy. Its been acidified by natural or sprayed-on lactic acid. Sauer, Sour, or acid malt designations mean that the setting should be Acid Malt in Bru'n Water.

2. Roast Malt is almost as easy. That is a malt or grain that has been kilned to a substantial degree and it probably has some roasty characteristics. A minimum color rating of about 180 Lovibond helps separate the roast malts from other categories.

3. Crystal Malts and Base Malts can be tougher to differentiate. The good thing is that the acidity characteristics of either malt category is similar and the difference in the pH prediction will be minor. Crystal malts are slightly more acidic than base malts of the same color rating. The big differentiator is that base malts are fairly light colored while some crystal malts can have much more color. Crystal malt color peaks around 200 Lovibond for Special B malt.

4. Base Malts have diastatic power and can convert starches to sugars. Since kilning can destroy diastatic enzymes, base malts tend to have limited color. The maximum color rating for base malts is around 10 Lovibond.

Bru'n Water users can always get a guide to malts by hovering their cursor over the Grain Type column heading on the Mash Acidification page. The pop-up comment has a summary of grain types. Although there is some overlap in the color ratings for Roast and Crystal malts, the difference should be obvious. Crystal malts are focused on contributing sweetness while Roast malts are focused on contributing roasty flavors.

Chalk None Up For Chalk

It is less common, but some water supplies have LESS alkalinity than needed for brewing beer styles with a lot of crystal and/or roast malts. The popularity of RO water use in brewing has increased the number of brewers that need to increase the alkalinity of their mashing water for some brews. Brewers have tried using chalk to add alkalinity to their mashing water in the past. This discussion will present why chalk is not a good resource for brewing.

Chalk will dissolve (eventually) and contribute its alkalinity. However, the problem is that it is a very time-dependent dissolution...and its time scale is FAR longer than we have in the typical mash. Dissolution is on the order of hours to days and a mash is only about an hour long. So chalk does not end up contributing much alkalinity for a mash.

Kai Troester presented some excellent work on pH in brewing in his 2009 paper posted on Braukaiser.com. Reviewing that paper, you will find that his data shows that chalk does increase mash pH by about 0.1 to 0.2 units. That effect quickly plateaus and adding even more chalk will not increase the mash pH. This response suggests that there is a small quantity of strong acids in the mash that will quickly dissolve chalk, but the phytic acid created from malt is not strong enough to quickly dissolve and react with the chalk. So, chalk is not a good fit for brewing.

There are numerous cases in which brewers have used chalk and found that they could not effectively increase their low mash pH. There is also a hypothesis that chalk can only deliver half of its calculated alkalinity when it has not been fully dissolved into water. While assuming that half-strength response helps, it does not correctly or fully describe the alkalinity contribution of chalk. The plateauing pH response cannot be modeled properly with the half-strength response.

Bru'n Water users should note that chalk is assumed to be FULLY-DISSOLVED in water prior to use in brewing and 100% of its alkalinity is delivered to the mash. To get chalk into solution, it takes time and CO2. If that sounds like a PITA, it is. For that reason, I recommend that brewers utilize other minerals like pickling lime or baking soda when their mash requires more alkalinity.

Forget chalk!

My water tastes good. Why can’t I just brew with it?

Good water is the gateway to great beer. However, a brewer may need to take the steps necessary to treat their water to enable them to make great beer.

Understand that there is no such thing as great water since a water can only be great for a small range of beers and it will not be great for other styles.

So good water that can be relatively easily treated is what a brewer should be happy with.

GOOD TASTING WATER CAN STILL MAKE BAD BEER.

What RO system should I buy?

My strong recommendation is to avoid proprietary water treatment systems that will force you to buy their replacement filters. RO systems are a 'mature' technology and they are simple. Virtually anyone can craft together the various system components and create a system that performs very well.

Assuming a brewer is looking at modest RO production of less than 100 gal/day, a system composed of standard 10-inch undersink filter housings for the particulate and activated carbon cartridges is a better option. DO NOT get a system with small filters that are typically called 'compact RO systems'. Those filters will be exhausted too quickly.

The most important component is the RO membrane. It is important to buy membrane cartridges that are 'name-brands'. Dow Filmtec or GE are pretty much the only name brands producing membranes for the residential market and Filmtec is prevalent. These membrane cartridges are a standard size for the residential market and they all fit a standard RO housing. Nothing special here, but know what you are buying.

Since the production rate for these residential RO machines is typically slow, you may not want to wait for the system to produce enough water for your current need. Having the system produce water prior to your need and storing it will improve the convenience of the system. Having a storage tank is an important component for delivering enough water on demand. The tank size should be large enough to supply the immediate demands. For brewers, the storage volume will typically be equal to the total of your mashing and sparging volumes.

There are two options for storing RO water, in a pressurized tank or in an open container. For best RO machine efficiency, discharging RO water to an open container is recommended. However, if you need to distribute the RO water, a pressurized tank might be best for you. Be aware that pressurized tanks cannot store and deliver the total volume they are rated for. There is a volume of air in those tanks that reduces the actual water storage capacity of the tank. The typical water storage volume available for pressurized tanks is about half the stated tank size. So a 4-gallon pressurized tank may only deliver about 2 gallons before it's exhausted. If your brewing day requires 10 gallons of RO water, then you may need to incorporate a 20-gallon pressure tank into your system. If you are using an open container, then its capacity would only need to be 10 gallons in this case.

A final consideration is to have a way to assess the performance of your RO machine. By appearances, most RO users will not know when their machine has started to fail and is no longer delivering the low-mineralization water they are expecting. The best protection for monitoring your machine's performance is to test the RO water for its Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) content. TDS meters are relatively inexpensive and can either be hand-held units or in-line units that can constantly monitor the water quality. In general, a properly operating RO system will deliver water with less than 25 ppm TDS. The actual reading will depend on the tap water quality feeding the RO system. By monitoring the TDS reading throughout the RO system's operation (often measured in years), the user can tell when the water's TDS is rising and membrane replacement is required.

The replacement of the particulate and activated carbon filters should be performed on a more regular basis. I feel that replacing particulate filters is a bit overstated. As long as the water still flows through the system, there is no strong need to replace the particulate filter(s). Particulate filters actually improve their filtering capability as they become clogged with fines. They only require replacement when they can't deliver enough water through them.

Activated carbon filters are another issue all together. Their most important purpose in a RO system is to remove all chlorine-based disinfectants from the water so that they won't destroy the RO membrane. 10-inch activated carbon cartridges are often quoted with a treatment capacity in the 1000 to 5000 gallon range. Fortunately, the capacity is dependent upon the contaminant being removed. In the case of chlorine compounds, the capacity of the filter can be quite high if the flow rate through the filter is very low. The flow through a RO system is quite low and therefore the capacity of the activated carbon filter is high. Since the purpose of this filter is to protect the membrane, regular replacement is appropriate. An annual replacement interval may be appropriate. If the RO membrane is failing in less than a couple of years, you may need to increase the activated carbon filter replacement frequency.

This should help out in purchasing and maintaining a RO system. Enjoy!

Brewers, Don’t Be Afraid of Sulfate

A number of brewers have been indoctrinated into the thought that sulfate is rarely desirable in brewing water. The lore is that the beers will be too bitter, harsh, and the taste of noble hops will be degraded. This discussion will help dispel these notions.

Noted brewing scholar, David Taylor authored a chapter in a recent brewing text that included a mention of the sulfate/chloride ratio. He used the terms "malty" and "bitter" in discussing that ratio. In my opinion, he did a great disservice to the brewing community with that use. An older text, "Malting and Brewing Science", discusses that ratio, however it used the terms "fullness" and "dryness" to describe the effects of those ions.

After reviewing the effect of those ions on my own, I agree much more with the later description. That is especially apparent for the effect of high sulfate where it is not truly enhancing bitterness. In fact, the sulfate content is enhancing the dryness of the finish and that allows the bittering to be more noticeable. But, this is an important point that is applicable to malty beers too. A lack of sulfate can leave the finish of a beer too full or malty, possibly leaving the drinker with a sweet or cloying finish.

Concentrating on including only chloride in a beer can leave the brewer with a beer that does not dry out enough. And one thing I have found in almost every great commercial beer is that they dry out 'adequately' and don't leave the drinker with a cloying palate. Sulfate IS NOT a bad component when it comes to brewing. Just be sure to use it appropriately.

I suggest that providing a minimum sulfate level of around 40 ppm can help many beers (even malty ones) dry out adequately in the finish and produce a more palatable and pleasing beer.

I use 300 ppm sulfate in my hoppy beers regularly. It is the secret to having a hoppy beer that 'pops' as mentioned above. However, that doesn't mean that all drinkers will appreciate that level. I am enjoying a pale ale that I purposely brewed with only 100 ppm sulfate to check the effect. It is a fine beer, but it does lack the pop that I'm used to. I suggest that a sulfate level in the 100 to 300 ppm range will be admired by a wide range of drinkers...you just need to find what pleases you.

Don't be afraid of sulfate!

Magnesium in Brewing Water

An old brewer's adage warns brewers to NEVER add magnesium to their brewing liquor. In some respects, this can be taken as truth since brewing malt adds significant magnesium content to the wort and it is sufficient for yeast health. However, there are cases where the brewer may want to increase the magnesium content of the brewing water for flavor.

One note on adding magnesium to your brewing water. It is critically important that you know what the starting magnesium content of the water supply is before adding additional magnesium. The story below is a case in point.

While I was assisting with the Water book, co-author Colin Kaminski commented that he often adds magnesium to his brewing liquor for hoppy beers. In talking with his fellow professional brewers, some warned that they had tried adding magnesium and it totally ruined their beers. With a bit more investigation, Colin found that their water already had high magnesium content and there was no need to add more. The recommended upper limit for magnesium in brewing water is around 40 ppm and above that the beer flavor is severely affected. Apparently those brewers had exceeded that level with their magnesium additions.

I recommend staying well below that 40 ppm limit for magnesium to avoid problems with beer flavor. There are virtually no waters from historic brewing cities that have magnesium that high. Only Burton water can be found at that level and it is typically diluted to reduce the level somewhat. I suggest that around 20 ppm magnesium may be a safe level to add to brewing water in order to enhance the perceptions of bitterness in the beer. While that would be counterproductive in a malt focused beer, it could be welcome in a bitter or hoppy beer.

If you are having difficulty achieving the bitter edge you want in your beers, possibly boosting the magnesium concentration in your brewing water will be something you should try. Enjoy!