Very nice and easy to follow guide to brewing water. Here is a helpful hint, so you don't have to stir all the salts into a very full kettle. Grab a mason jar, dip it into the warm water, add salts to jar and put on lid. Shake vigorously and dump in kettle while lightly stirring. This method seems to work much better for me and dissolved the salts without so much effort.
I know I'm coming to this video super late, but thanks for this good gentle intro. I'm trying to crack into water chemistry for mead since it seems brutally underexplored in our space, and I think this was great info. If only for Bru'n Water, I absolutely loved finding this
Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video. Has helped me endlessly with explaining basic water profiles and how I can improve my brew days and overall beer quality. Legend!
A lot of the water processing done by your local supply will involve ADDING bacteria. It's partly a bio-chemical process. So the chlorine is partly added to kill those off.
Awesome! I been racking my brains trying to understand this. I’m a crane operator not a chemist but love home brewing just now diving into the water portion of the program after a few years of brewing. This makes a lot of sense thank you for putting it in layman terms!
Fantastic video. Made total sense and I have been able to work out my water profile and the adjustments I need to make for the common styles I brew. Thanks for the video!
This is a perfect video. Easy to understand and follow. I've got most of the stuff and will be attempting it on my next one. Interested to see how it goes
This is great! By far the most comprehensive and easy to follow guide on water chemistry I’ve seen. Am going to give it a go on my next brew. Nice job! :)
Thanks man! I actually recorded this before we met up and after trying out that lamotte kit you sent, I realized that my local water profile had actually changed, and that kit was great for dialing in the extra stuff. Thanks again for sending that over, cheers!
Im just wondering if you do end up using a charcoal filter wouldn't that make the water report pretty useless afterwards? It's probably going to take out some minerals right?
My little town ( Grant Alabama)water is only analyzed annually in April. I dont know how many stations or networks of who knows how old piping it goes through from its source ( TN River/Lake Guntersville) through the treatment system, before it exits my taps. I do know every sunday the clorine level is remarkably higher . So, i dont trust a one time April test result. What water test kit would you suggest . Link to a product welcome. Thanks. Keep up the great vids. Btw, i noticed your Ommegang shirt so i found a pack of the saison and tried it, never had one before but i thought it was quite enjoyable.
Great video. Sorry if I'm late to the party, but just wondering if you do anything to adjust the sparge water pH. I'm going to start adjusting my water chem on my next brew. Plan is to use distilled water, add the salts to all the water, then pump off the sparge water to another container. Just wondering if there's another step I should take with the sparge water, can't seem to find a definitive answer anywhere.
Wow. Very eye opening for my ongoing IPA journey. Just used fridge filter for the 1st time to remove chlorine. What a difference. So u treat strike and sparge water? Just increased from 10-20 gal. batches. BTW. Do u use hop spider for Hazy,s ?
Glad it was helpful! Yes I do treat both mash and sparge water, it is important for a lot of styles and especially hazies. I do use a hop spider in all my brews since I chill with a plate chiller now and I dont want to clog it with hop matter. If you're worried about not getting the most out of your whirlpool with the spider, just increase the amount of hops!
What do you think about 5.2 Mash pH Stabilizer, does it easy the process to match water to particular brew? Great videos, love all of them, thanks for posting them
Good question, I've never actually used it but I've heard mixed results. I'm considering using it though since my current water profile is very unfriendly to dark beers
@@TheApartmentBrewer I'm in same situation; I checked local water report and was trying to calculate my chemical addition and couldn't bring water to correct style, there was always too much Cl- or SO4 ions. I could adjust PH farely well but the rest was off
So what do I need to add to the water if I just start with distilled water? I know with the calculators you pick the beer profile and it gives a recommended range however is there just a blanket rule of thumb for what to add to distilled water for average brewing.
The calculator I'm using says to add 8.6 grams of gypsum for the mash, and then once I've finished sparging to add another 7.2 grams of gypsum along with 2.1 grams of table salt and 6.3 grams of epsom salt. Does it actually matter when you add all this stuff? Or will putting ALL the gypsum in the mash kind of ruin things?
I started brewing in April, 2020, a covid19 lockdown perk. I've completed 6 batches so far, 4 more not ready for drinking. My brother told me, after having my most recent brew, Nut Brown Ale, that he finds all of my beers to have a similar taste. Something that stands out for all of them, despite tasting good. I've been using kits so far, though I want to move on to all grain. Would you think that the water profile is what is causing this overpower/standout taste to my beers? They have been various styles from Ales, Shandy, IPA, Stout. Enjoy your channel! Good info for a new brewer. Thanks!
Thats a good observation and its very good to have an honest taster to let you know these things. This could be the result of two things, one of which absolutely could be your base water. The other possible thing could be the character of extract, if you are using that. I have found most extract beers I've brewed and/or tasted have had a background flavor that is similar, but some people are more sensitive to it than others. Glad you're enjoying the channel!
Do you have a recipe of brewing salts for 5 gal of ro water? I'm making Oasis esb/ipa from tallgrass ( they discontinued it) but I have it downloaded from Northern Brewer. I have always had a problem with my ph and brewing water. It's the hardest part of brewing. Also I just watched a video about it and they used pickling lime. Is there a basic amount you use of total salts for ipa's of some color like a bit orange?
Typically I have always built my water profiles off of my tap water, not off RO water. But I do have a video I did on an English best bitter that was really good. Should be similar enough to get the job done. If you want to, feel free to steal the water profile from that one! As far as pickling lime goes, I'm sorry but I've never used it so I can't speak to it
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks for the reply, I just winged it like usual. Added 1.2 tsp gypsum .5 calcium chloride .4 baking soda, .4 calcium carbonate and .25 tsp of pink hymalayin salt maybe 1/8. Skipped the pickling lime and couldn't find food grade Epsom. Do you think this is reasonable? I'm a modest brew in bag kitchen 3 gal Brewer. Converted to 3 gal keg/ co2 V's bottling after hundred brews.
So I typically will weigh out all of my brewing salts instead of just measuring them in volume. So I'm not 100% sure what the conversion is for each salts in volume vs weight, since they have different molecular weights. I am curious to know how this would turn out though, please let us know!
Hey bro! If you dont mind I have my water quality report but I'm not sure what tables to look at ? Do you perhaps have an email address that I can send you the PDF ? If you don't mind ! Thanks man !
That also helps it stay bacteria free, and it’s also why you want to pitch enough yeast. Fermentation will lower the PH not giving infections a chance, so you want that underway as fast as possible.
Very nice and easy to follow guide to brewing water. Here is a helpful hint, so you don't have to stir all the salts into a very full kettle. Grab a mason jar, dip it into the warm water, add salts to jar and put on lid. Shake vigorously and dump in kettle while lightly stirring. This method seems to work much better for me and dissolved the salts without so much effort.
Thanks! That's a great tip, thanks for sharing!
I know I'm coming to this video super late, but thanks for this good gentle intro. I'm trying to crack into water chemistry for mead since it seems brutally underexplored in our space, and I think this was great info. If only for Bru'n Water, I absolutely loved finding this
Thanks for putting this together dude! It's obvious how much work you put into it, it's great to have it all fit together so well in one video!
Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video. Has helped me endlessly with explaining basic water profiles and how I can improve my brew days and overall beer quality. Legend!
A lot of the water processing done by your local supply will involve ADDING bacteria. It's partly a bio-chemical process. So the chlorine is partly added to kill those off.
with this video, uve definitely covered the required basics for mashing in to adjust your mash ph.........cheers again.....
Awesome! I been racking my brains trying to understand this. I’m a crane operator not a chemist but love home brewing just now diving into the water portion of the program after a few years of brewing. This makes a lot of sense thank you for putting it in layman terms!
Awesome! I'm really glad you found it useful, cheers!
Thank you, nice video, but you should skip the background music on such theoretic topics.
Fantastic video. Made total sense and I have been able to work out my water profile and the adjustments I need to make for the common styles I brew.
Thanks for the video!
This is a perfect video. Easy to understand and follow. I've got most of the stuff and will be attempting it on my next one. Interested to see how it goes
This was so helpful as an entry point to water chemistry!
This is great! By far the most comprehensive and easy to follow guide on water chemistry I’ve seen. Am going to give it a go on my next brew. Nice job! :)
Really good, easy to understand well put together instruction video on adjustments in brewing water, very well done...
This is super insightful!
Awesome video. Thank you. I learned from your video. Appreciate it.
Nice breakdown of creating your ultimate brewing water
Cheers Steve
Thanks man! I actually recorded this before we met up and after trying out that lamotte kit you sent, I realized that my local water profile had actually changed, and that kit was great for dialing in the extra stuff. Thanks again for sending that over, cheers!
Im just wondering if you do end up using a charcoal filter wouldn't that make the water report pretty useless afterwards? It's probably going to take out some minerals right?
Beer pH is generally 4.0-5.0.*
Fantastic breakdown. Water is one of my weaknesses and you did a great job breaking this all down!
ooops, I was looking for "messing with brewing water chemistry" for coffee.
Me too
Thanks 😊
I saw Tito's car fuel in background ;) Happy brewing :)
My little town ( Grant Alabama)water is only analyzed annually in April. I dont know how many stations or networks of who knows how old piping it goes through from its source ( TN River/Lake Guntersville) through the treatment system, before it exits my taps. I do know every sunday the clorine level is remarkably higher . So, i dont trust a one time April test result. What water test kit would you suggest . Link to a product welcome. Thanks. Keep up the great vids.
Btw, i noticed your Ommegang shirt so i found a pack of the saison and tried it, never had one before but i thought it was quite enjoyable.
Excellent video... further down the rabbit hole we go...🤣🤣🤣
Glad you enjoyed it!
Brilliant video, thank you
Great video. Sorry if I'm late to the party, but just wondering if you do anything to adjust the sparge water pH.
I'm going to start adjusting my water chem on my next brew. Plan is to use distilled water, add the salts to all the water, then pump off the sparge water to another container.
Just wondering if there's another step I should take with the sparge water, can't seem to find a definitive answer anywhere.
Phosphoric acid or lactic acid ? I read about lactic acid having a distinct smell and taste ; what do you prefer/use?
That's why I was searching for
This video helped a ton thanks
I see you over there on the pH scale, pumpkin spice latte.
Do you adjust the sparge water as well?
Well done. Thanks for the video.
Thank you!
Wow. Very eye opening for my ongoing IPA journey. Just used fridge filter for the 1st time to remove chlorine. What a difference. So u treat strike and sparge water? Just increased from 10-20 gal. batches. BTW. Do u use hop spider for Hazy,s ?
Glad it was helpful! Yes I do treat both mash and sparge water, it is important for a lot of styles and especially hazies. I do use a hop spider in all my brews since I chill with a plate chiller now and I dont want to clog it with hop matter. If you're worried about not getting the most out of your whirlpool with the spider, just increase the amount of hops!
TheApartmentBrewer Any idea the % of hop increase when using hop spider?? I’m assuming you want to maintain the ratios with blended hops???
@@tman9338 if I had to guess, maybe 10-15% more
TheApartmentBrewer Thanks for your input
What do you think about 5.2 Mash pH Stabilizer, does it easy the process to match water to particular brew? Great videos, love all of them, thanks for posting them
Good question, I've never actually used it but I've heard mixed results. I'm considering using it though since my current water profile is very unfriendly to dark beers
@@TheApartmentBrewer I'm in same situation; I checked local water report and was trying to calculate my chemical addition and couldn't bring water to correct style, there was always too much Cl- or SO4 ions. I could adjust PH farely well but the rest was off
How much was too much? The ratio is really the important part
So what do I need to add to the water if I just start with distilled water? I know with the calculators you pick the beer profile and it gives a recommended range however is there just a blanket rule of thumb for what to add to distilled water for average brewing.
Cheers to great beers
Cheers! Mine have definitely been getting better since changing the water profile!
The calculator I'm using says to add 8.6 grams of gypsum for the mash, and then once I've finished sparging to add another 7.2 grams of gypsum along with 2.1 grams of table salt and 6.3 grams of epsom salt.
Does it actually matter when you add all this stuff? Or will putting ALL the gypsum in the mash kind of ruin things?
I've always just added everything before mashing in and that's worked fine for me
I started brewing in April, 2020, a covid19 lockdown perk. I've completed 6 batches so far, 4 more not ready for drinking. My brother told me, after having my most recent brew, Nut Brown Ale, that he finds all of my beers to have a similar taste. Something that stands out for all of them, despite tasting good. I've been using kits so far, though I want to move on to all grain. Would you think that the water profile is what is causing this overpower/standout taste to my beers? They have been various styles from Ales, Shandy, IPA, Stout.
Enjoy your channel! Good info for a new brewer. Thanks!
Thats a good observation and its very good to have an honest taster to let you know these things. This could be the result of two things, one of which absolutely could be your base water. The other possible thing could be the character of extract, if you are using that. I have found most extract beers I've brewed and/or tasted have had a background flavor that is similar, but some people are more sensitive to it than others. Glad you're enjoying the channel!
I’m trying to find where to go to get my water tested
Ward laboratories will do it wardlab.com
Do you have a recipe of brewing salts for 5 gal of ro water? I'm making Oasis esb/ipa from tallgrass ( they discontinued it) but I have it downloaded from Northern Brewer. I have always had a problem with my ph and brewing water. It's the hardest part of brewing. Also I just watched a video about it and they used pickling lime. Is there a basic amount you use of total salts for ipa's of some color like a bit orange?
Typically I have always built my water profiles off of my tap water, not off RO water. But I do have a video I did on an English best bitter that was really good. Should be similar enough to get the job done. If you want to, feel free to steal the water profile from that one! As far as pickling lime goes, I'm sorry but I've never used it so I can't speak to it
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks for the reply, I just winged it like usual. Added 1.2 tsp gypsum .5 calcium chloride .4 baking soda, .4 calcium carbonate and .25 tsp of pink hymalayin salt maybe 1/8. Skipped the pickling lime and couldn't find food grade Epsom. Do you think this is reasonable? I'm a modest brew in bag kitchen 3 gal Brewer. Converted to 3 gal keg/ co2 V's bottling after hundred brews.
So I typically will weigh out all of my brewing salts instead of just measuring them in volume. So I'm not 100% sure what the conversion is for each salts in volume vs weight, since they have different molecular weights. I am curious to know how this would turn out though, please let us know!
Hey bro! If you dont mind I have my water quality report but I'm not sure what tables to look at ? Do you perhaps have an email address that I can send you the PDF ? If you don't mind ! Thanks man !
Why the music, not helping
I did not know beer was acidic
That also helps it stay bacteria free, and it’s also why you want to pitch enough yeast. Fermentation will lower the PH not giving infections a chance, so you want that underway as fast as possible.
Thanks for the video. Background music too loud, very annoying.
I realize that with a lot of my older videos. Hopefully I can get around to remaking them