69 replies to this topic

[positiveContact]

I usually aim for at least 50-75 ppm but it can be higher sometimes. I use about 5g of gypsum plus a little CaCl2 in my German. I have to use one or the other in a completely pale beer for mash pH because my water only has about 17 ppm Ca in it untreated. That goes for strong Belgian goldens, tripels, maibocks, helleseseseses, etc.

yeah - I'm starting at 6 ppm Ca. I can get the mash up to 75ish but I'd have to treat my sparge water as well if I wanted to get the wort up to those ppm levels.

[Big Nake]

In a recent conversation with AJ DeLange and Martin Brungard, we discussed the "50ppm minimum" thing (which came from the question of how do the Czechs brew with such soft water?) and Martin said that 40ppm of calcium overall (that's for all the water) is reasonable and that there was nothing magical happening at 50 that couldn't happen at 40. On my last Czech Pils (in primary now), I cut my water 50/50 and added just 2g or 2.5g of CaCl to the mash. There was much more chloride than sulfate in the water and I was concerned about the beer lacking crispness. AJ said, "just mash lower, like 149-150".

[aquahijo]

Would you mind posting the final version of this recipe?

[positiveContact]

Would you mind posting the final version of this recipe?

no problem. will probably be a couple of weeks.

[positiveContact]

no problem. will probably be a couple of weeks.

waking up my staro-prague yeast in 700-800 mL of wort on the stir plate. Then I'll really step it up for the actual beer.

[positiveContact]

so working on the water again. I have to add A LOT of calcium chloride to get my pH to 5.4. here are my resulting wort levels. how bad is this?
74.0 Calcium (mg/l) 3.0 Magnesium (mg/l) 29.0 Sodium (mg/l) 16.0 Sulfate (mg/l) 148.4 Chloride (mg/l) 29.3 Bicarbonate (mg/l) * 24.0 Alkalinity ppm as CaCO3

Edited by StudsTerkel, 24 December 2012 - 12:17 PM.

[Humperdink]

Honestly, I'd try to add some more gypsum rather than cacl to get closer to a balanced ratio. That's a lot of chloride, close to 10:1.

Edited by cose, 24 December 2012 - 12:28 PM.

[positiveContact]

Honestly, I'd try to add some more gypsum rather than cacl to get closer to a balanced ratio. That's a lot of chloride, close to 10:1.

according to palmer it's just "malty" and not "very malty". last time I made this I did use some gypsum and it came out pretty well. i wasn't sure if no sulfate would be better.

[Big Nake]

They say "no" or "low" sulfate for this style but it's up to you. Did you consider using less additions and getting your pH in line with acid? That 148ppm of chloride does look pretty high to me.

[positiveContact]

so i wussed out a little bit. I used a little less gypsum compared to last time and a little more calcium chloride. I figure I can just inch my way toward this and see what happens.