water treatment for homebrewing

I never worried to much on water treatment until I started brewing all grain.  The water when brewing all grain can make the difference between a good beer and a bad beer. It can effect your efficiency, color and taste, specially in darker beers.  Knowing how and what causes your water to be "hard" or too "soft" will greatly help you in all grain brewing.

 While brewing with malt extract or DME your water parameters are not as important. Using RO water (reverse osmoses ) will be fine. Using regular tap water will also be fine, it should have the ions needed to brew. Malt extract already contains the necessary minerals that were infused while it was brewed.  I would strongly suggest going with RO or any bottle water to dilute your tap water.  If your brewing water smells like chlorine, you can boil it to get rid of the chlorine. Your water may be treated with chloramines instead of chlorine, and boiling won't work. You can add a campden tablets to your brewing water.  Using a carbon filter will remove the chlorine taste from your water with out removing the minerals.


You will be to research your water parameters either on line or at your local city water department.  The important ion concentrations to find out are calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), sulfate(So4-s),  bicarbonate (HCO3), chloride (C1), and magnesium this effect the pH of the mash.
Sulfate, SO4-S <1 ppm (brewing range: 50-150 for normally bitter beers and 150-350 for very bitter beers, will accentuate hop bitterness, making it seem drier and crisper. Levels >400 ppm and the bitterness becomes harsh.)

Calcium, Ca brewing range: 50-150 ppm is important  in yeast, enzyme and protein reactions in the mash and boil. It promotes clarity, flavor and stability in finished beer and should be adjusted mainly for the enzyme activity in some mashes.

Chloride, Cl brewing range: 0-250 ppm It helps with flavor and fullness of beer. Chlorides are different than chlorine and levels >300 ppm from heavily chlorinated water, can give your beers a medicinal flavor.

Bicarbonate, HCO3 brewing range: 0-250 ppm: will determine brewing water chemistry

Sodium, Na brewing range:0-150 ppm. At 70-150 ppm, the sour/salty taste rounds out the flavors, accentuating malt sweetness. Above 200 ppm and the beer will taste salty.

 Magnesium, Mg brewing range: 10-30 ppm. It is very similar to calcium and is an important nutrient for yeast health. At >50 ppm will give a sour bitter taste to the beer and >125 ppm have a laxative effect.)

Depending on your water parameters you will have to adjust accordingly. There are several tools to assist you in determining if  you have soft or hard water. You can buy electric testers, test strips, and use software like Promash you assist you.

SOFT WATER has hardness of < 150 ppm. If the pH is <7, you have little bicarbonate alkalinity so you may need to treat with acid for mashing with pale malts. If the pH >7, up to 7.6 then the alkalinity is mostly from bicarbonates . You may need to treat mash water with acid to lower pH. Add calcium to match styles or correct deficiencies.

HARD WATER has hardness >150 ppm. If the pH is between 7.0-7.2 your hardness is permanent (or sulfate hardness).  If your pH is >7.2 with hardness between 150-250 ppm, it is just moderately hard. If your hardness is >250 ppm your water is hard to very hard and you should  boiling and/or adjust the mash pH with acids.

Temporary hardness or carbonated hardness usually means your water has very high alkalinity,  which can cause tannin extraction form the mash. This will cause your beer to have a very bitter and unpleasant taste. An easy fix is boiling your water. It will leave behind a white residue. I boil my water and leave it out over night. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!! ADJUSTING YOUR ALKALINE LEVEL WILL HELP YOU GET PROPER PH IN MASH.
Permanent Hardness  is water with high traces of sulfate any thing  above 500 ppm sulfates in water can cause strong bitterness. It should usually stay about 180-130ppm, Unless you want a hoppy beer then it can be up to  350ppm. You can manage adjusting the sulfates by diluting it with RO water.

The purpose of trying to get your water parameters corrected to to have a good mash with a correct efficiency % and have minimal tannins extracted. Proper water will also give you a good flavor and correct body of the beer. There are several products sold online or at LHB stores. One that I use is 5.2 buffer. It claims to help adjust your pH no matter how high or low it is. I don't think it does a great job but it helps. My first brew method was mixing approximately 50/50 RO water and boiled Tap water. Then add some 5.2 buffer to the mash. This seem to boost my efficiency and flavor as well as help with the body. I adjusted according to the beer.

Lastly the most important thing is getting a good routine down. This way you can keep proper track of your water adjustments and any residual side effects.

carbonating keg with priming sugar

Priming a keg with priming sugar or dextrose is perfectly ok. There are several reasons why people carb. with sugar instead of using Co2, weather is from  not having proper equipment, saving money or just personal preference. My first batches were all kegged using priming sugar and this are the steps taken.

1. Sanitation Once again one of the most important steps in brewing or kegging is sanitation. I can't stress enough the importance of properly cleaning your keg. You will need to disassemble your keg.
 Make sure theres no air/ pressure in keg by purging it.
 Remove your gas in and liquid out valve. Place them in sanitation  solution (liquid valve will have a long tube and air will have a short tube.
  Sanitize the inside of the keg, If using a non rinse solution like starsan there's no need to worry about the bubbles or left over solution in keg.
   Once sanitized put keg back together making sure you but all parts where they originally went. Make sure all O-ring were put in there proper place and lubed using food grade gel.

 2. Priming sugar. Boil about a cup of water. Once boiled, remove the water from the heat. add 1/2 cup of priming sugar. When kegging you actually require less sugar than you will bottling. If you add the standard 3/4 cup as in bottling, you will end up with an over carbonated beer.
  Add wort to bottom of empty keg. So when you add the beer it will mix properly

3. Transfer beer,  Transfer beer to keg making sure you don't aerate the beer.  Your hose transferring the beer should be completely submersed and should not be splashing any beer around. The beer should be just under the small tube. If the keg is over filled and goes past the gas in tube it will shoot out when you connect your gas line. This can potentially damage your regulator.

4. Enjoy. The process is similar to carbonating with co2. however you will need to let the beer carbonate for approximately 2 weeks and most importantly you do not purge the keg once carbonation has started. You will release the co2 and you will wind up with flat beer.
  
 

metallic flavor in beer?

As a new home brewer this was one of my major problems. I just could not figure out how i was getting the metallic flavor in my beer. So i started a process of elimination, First my pot. I re oxidized my aluminum kettle not only by boiling water for 90 min., but by placing it in the oven for approximately six hours @ 450*. Yet on my next brew i still had a small hint of metallic flavoring.  I pitched i yeast at low temperatures and fermented my wort at 65-68*. I then remembered there was on thing that would be causing the flavor, my submersible wort chiller. I have a coper submersible chiller i made for about $25. I in fact did originally oxidize it, however every time I brewed I would leave it soaking in Starsan. After several minutes in Starsan it actually clean the oxidation layer from the chiller causing the off flavoring.  I placed the wort chiller in a pot and boiled it for approximately 60 min., and to my surprise no more metallic flavor! Some times we get carried away wondering about correct temperatures and proper sanitation that we for get the basic things.  Just remember that when you have a problem with your brewing system just take your time and have a good process of elimination to figure out.

Aluminum Kettle!!

  Contrary to believe, aluminum pot will not cause off flavoring, if properly prepared. In other words the kettle must be oxidized. There are a few ways to oxidize your aluminum kettle. You can fill it up with water and boil it for about an hour or put it in an oven for approximately 45 minutes. What this does is creates a thin grey coating or barrier. This layer is crucial to help protect. DO NOT scrub this layer off! When cleaning use the non abrasive side of the scrubbing pad. Because it is oxidized you can not use cleaning products like oxy clean.
  A plus side to aluminum is it very cost efficient, and is more readily available. You can find one at your local Walmart/Target, for a fraction of the price you would pay for SS. It is a much better conductor of heat. Which means you will be able to boil and cool your wort much faster than stainless steal. My first brew kettle was a Tamale/ seafood steamer. The kettle was 40qt. For approximately $25 at target. Being to to homebrewing I could not afford a SS kettle. I had sever successful brews using an aluminum kettle.
  I feel like I should address some concerns most people have towards aluminum kettles. Aluminum is NOT link to Alzheimer's. A number of studies have been done since the late 70's. They have found zero links between Alzheimer's and aluminum pots. Like most americans, we drink our sodas and beer from aluminum cans.
Aluminum is used by several brewers around the world. Many will agree that brewing craft beer in aluminum kettles is perfectly fine and safe.

Top 5 mistakes new Homebrewers make

5. PITCHING THE YEAST- Cooling the wort as rapidly as possible (<80* F for ales or <60 for lagers) is crucial. once the temperature drops below 120*, the wort is susceptible to contamination. The longer you take to cool the wort the more risk your taking on contaminating. Although still a risk, once the yeast is pitched it help prevent contamination by, depleting the oxygen, consuming sugar, lowing the pH, and creating alcohol. Also pitching yeast at high temperatures can kill your yeast and create off flavoring.

4.USING DRY YEAST VS. LIQUID YEAST-Dry yeast is inexpensive, conveniont, and because the yeast is dried it has a shelf life of over a year. Also it's more tolerable to warm weather and shipping conditions than liquide yeast. Dried yeast does not require any yeast starter, and is ready for direct pitch, due to the nutrietion reserves. Although they both yeasts have there benefits, dry yeast simplifies and  cuts cost in homebrewing.

3.CLEANING AND SANITIZING- The easiest way to ruin your beer is not sanitizing or using the wrong products to sanitize. Im sure if you read any homebrew book or blogs you realize the importance of sanitizing, and the importance of using the correct product. Using soutions like Starsan is the easy way to clean and disinfect your equipment. Also using products like oxyclean to pre clean bottle, buckets, carboys. Do not use bleach and other home products, because they will ruin your batch. My experiance shows that no rinse sanitizers are not only easy but very affective.

2. USING AIRLOCK TO TELL FERMINTAION- Looking at the air lock for bubbles is a comman mistake bigginers use to see if there beer is ferminting. Bubbles in the air lock is just a small sign that your beer is ferminting, and just because it stop bubbling does not mean it stop ferminting. There can be serval reasons why there are no bubbles in your airlock. The only way to be 100% sure is to take a hydrometer reading. As long your gravity reading keeps dropping your beer is ferminting.

1. IMPROPER TEMPERATURE- Keeping the wort at the proper temperature will insure it will fermint properly. Each yeast has its ferminting temperature, wich should be on the label. To high or low temperatures will ruin your beer and prohibit proper fermintation, creating off flavoring. Your yeas will either ferment too quick or never start.There equipement that helps regulate and control the temperature. However a very inexpensive way is to keep your wort in an ice bath or wrapped in a warm blanket. Keep in mind it should be stored in a dark area to prevent any damage from the sun. I keep my carboyed in  my closet.