Why doesn't beer color provide a better guide for brewing water adjustments?

Many brewers know that darker beers generally need higher Residual Alkalinity and paler beers need less as indicated in Figure 1 below.  Although simple concepts like Residual Alkalinity (a function of water hardness and alkalinity) help a brewer grasp the need to adjust their brewing water, the processes that affect mash pH are more complicated than suggested by beer color alone.  The malts and grains added to a mash contribute varying degrees of acidity to the mash.  Generally, the amount of acidity contributed by a malt or grain increases as its color increases.  Darker kilned malts contribute more acidity than paler malts.  Beer color, alone, is not an accurate indicator of what Residual Alkalinity the brewer's water should provide to produce a desirable mash pH. 

Figure 1 Residual Alkalinity Chart (from work by AJ Delange)

The difficulty in using beer color to define an appropriate Residual Alkalinity for brewing water is largely due to the acidity of Crystal Malts. The higher acidity per color unit of Crystal Malt has the effect of boosting the overall acidity of a grist out of proportion to the beer color produced.  Roast Malts such as roast barley, chocolate malt, or black patent provide a relatively consistent acidity contribution that generally remains in proportion to the color they deliver to the beer.  

Figure 2 presents examples of how widely the amount of malt acidity can vary while still producing the same beer color. All the results were simulated using Bru'n Water by using identical malt quantities and water to grist ratios. The impact of Crystal Malts on the overall mash acidity should be apparent in the figure below. 

To illustrate this variation, Figure 2 presents four differing grist compositions that show how the acidity of a mash can vary even though their beer color is similar. A grist with only base malt and a portion of roast malt has a relatively linear increase in total malt acidity with increasing color (that is shown as the Red line in graph).  A grist that includes increasing percentage of dark crystal malt presents rapidly increasing total malt acidity (Blue line in graph). Adding a portion of crystal malt tends to bump the malt acidity up without an increase in color.  The figure presents malt acidity results when 10 percent (Purple line) or 20 percent (Green line) Crystal content is added to a grist.  Figure 2 below shows that there is a definite increase in total malt acidity of a grist as the crystal percentage increases.  Interestingly, the total malt acidity for these Crystal malt percentages tend to parallel the roast malt line as the color exceeds 20 SRM. This is because more roast malt is added to the grist to achieve the darker beer color. Fortunately, most brewers use darker, roasted malt and grain to produce the deeper color they desire in their beer. 

Figure 2 - Beer Color vs Malt Acidity 

The Blue line extending through the top of the graph presents how the malt acidity rises if a brewer added ONLY 150L Crystal to the base malt to add more color to the wort (you shouldn't do this in practice since the percentage of Crystal malt in a grist should generally be kept under 20 percent).  That Blue 150L Crystal line may represent a worst-case example of what total malt acidity could be.

An explanation follows as to how the various results in Figure 2 were calculated.  For the Base Malt with Roast and the Base malt with 150L Crystal malt, the color of the grist was increased by increasing the percentage of the colored malt while keeping the overall weight of the grist constant (in this case, 8 lbs total for a 5 gal batch). 

In the case of the 10 and 20 percent Crystal malt grists, the weight of crystal malt was held constant at either 10 or 20 percent, respectively.  The color rating (L) of the crystal malt was increased to produce the increased beer color.  As evidenced by the 150L crystal line, it becomes infeasible to increase the beer color with only crystal malts (line becomes vertical) at higher beer color.  Therefore, roast malt (500L) was added to the grist to produce the beer color greater than 20 SRM.  That is why the 10 and 20 percent crystal lines become parallel to the roast line when the beer color exceeds 20 SRM.

So as exhibited in Figure 2, the acidity of mashes that produce the same color beer can vary significantly.  To neutralize the malt acidity and produce the desired mash pH, the mashing water must have the proper alkalinity.  Basing the mashing water alkalinity (or Residual Alkalinity) on only beer color will not always produce a desirable mash pH.  

These are reasons why Bru'n Water includes advanced analytical measures to help the brewer get their mash pH right, the first time.

Why "If the water tastes good, you can brew with it" won't get you great beer.

Water would have to be very mineralized for it NOT to be usable for making beer.  The brewing process is quite tolerant of poor conditions and fermentation will probably occur and beer will probably be produced.  However, making great beer does require that the brewing process and ingredients are ideal.  Good tasting water is NO guarantee that the beer will be good or great.  Good tasting water can still make bad beer.

If we look at this truism: If the water tastes bad, it will make bad beer, we can understand that its difficult to take poor ingredients and create a great product.  Especially if that poor ingredient makes up over 90 percent of the product.  However, good-tasting water can still have characteristics that can keep a beer from being great.  Good tasting water can still make bad beer.

Successful brewers of great beer have learned the tricks, treatments, or limitations of their water source.  They don't necessarily stop and do nothing with their good tasting water.  They use techniques like pre-boiling their water, acid rests, acid malt or acid additions, and brewing with dark grains as components of their brewing skill and knowledge in brewing great beer.  Budding brewers are wise to recognize that water treatment might be a stepping stone to their producing great beer.  Good tasting water can still make bad beer!    

Why do you need to adjust your brewing water?

Water varies from place to place.  Along with hardness, important variation in alkalinity and mineral content affects how a brewer in one location can brew a particular beer style successfully, while a brewer in another location may not.  There is no water that is ideal for brewing all beer styles.  To brew a wide variety of styles, a brewer has to learn to adjust their water or their brewing practices to create great beer.  Understanding these factors is an important step in producing great beer.  The old advice of "add a teaspoon of gypsum to your brewing water" is not always good advice.  Understanding why that may be poor advice and how to do it right is the goal of Bru'n Water.  

Brewers should know hardness and alkalinity are not necessarily bad for brewing. Understanding how they interact to create the conditions needed for good mashing performance is an aspect of brewing water knowledge that Bru'n Water helps present and explain. 

How do you learn about Brewing Water Chemistry?

To help develop the understanding and appreciation of brewing water chemistry, a comprehensive introduction to brewing water chemistry is presented on the Water Knowledge page.  Enjoy the knowledge!

Water for Sanitizers

The quality of your water does affect your brewery sanitizers. You should know what sort of water you should use when mixing up a batch of sanitizer. Good water is necessary. This discussion focuses on good practices for Phosphoric acid-based and Iodine-based sanitizers.

Phosphoric acid-based sanitizers include products such as StarSan and Saniclean. They include a dose of phosphoric acid and other active ingredients to kill organisms. Since these products rely on acidification, using high alkalinity water means that it will take more of the concentrate to produce an effective solution. The solution pH must be brought under 3. These product’s use of phosphoric acid also causes water with high calcium content (aka: hard water) to form a slimy precipitate in the water that can settle on equipment that is left in the solution too long. Best practice in using these sanitizers is to use low alkalinity, soft water such as RO or distilled water for creating your sanitizing solution. In most cases, its best to assemble and use your equipment ‘wet’ immediately after soaking for about 30 seconds. For this reason, the water should have no chlorine or chloramine residual since that can make it into your beer if the equipment isn’t dried before use. Solutions made with soft water can be stored for fairly long time. Be aware that these sanitizers are effective against most beer spoiling organisms, but they are NOT effective against mold spores. If these phosphoric acid-based sanitizers are used after alkaline cleaning solutions such as PBW or Oxyclean, be sure that those cleaners are fully rinsed from the equipment so that the sanitizer’s acidity is not neutralized.

Iodine-based sanitizers include products such as IO Star and BTF Iodophor. Those products rely on iodine to kill organisms. Iodine is a halogen like chlorine, excepting that it has proven relatively tasteless in beer production. Like chlorine, iodine is volatile and it evaporates from the solution. So iodine-based sanitizers do tend to lose their effectiveness if they are left in an open container. Using cool water and keeping the solution cool helps improve its lifespan and effectiveness. Ultraviolet light also degrades these solutions. Because the killing power of iodine is enhanced in solutions with lower pH, most of these products include an acid in them to help drive the solution’s pH down. Therefore, water with high alkalinity is not desirable for making these solutions. However, the water’s hardness has little effect on this sanitizer’s performance. While RO or distilled water are well-suited for making these solutions, tap water that has been acidified to neutralize excessive alkalinity is also suited. The Sparge Acidification calculator in Bru’n Water is useful for figuring out acid dosing to neutralize excess alkalinity. While equipment sanitized with these solutions are supposed to be air-dried, the dry surfaces allow mold spores to collect on the equipment. Since these sanitizers will kill mold spores, it is more effective to assemble and use your equipment ‘wet’ after soaking for about 30 seconds in these iodine-based sanitizers. If using these sanitizers ‘wet’, it is best to use chlorine- and chloramine-free water to make the solution since those compounds can affect beer flavor. Be sure to fully rinse alkaline cleaning solutions off of equipment so that the iodine-based sanitizer’s acidity isn’t neutralized.

Dutching Beer

Many of you have heard my recommendations to brew your darker beer styles at the high end of the typical mashing pH range. It turns out that this finding has been known by chocolate makers since the 1800's. Since the reasons to roast malt and grain for brewing are similar to the goals of cocoa and coffee roasting, its no surprise that their applications and treatments are also applicable in brewing.

Dutching is the process of alkalyzing cocoa in order to produce a smoother, milder taste and darken the color. This is the basis of the chocolate that many now enjoy. Prior to the invention of this process, cocoa was mainly consumed as a beverage. Dutching brings the pH of cocoa to between 7 and 8. Higher pH produces darker chocolate. Cocoa pH is typically raised using potassium carbonate.

If smoother, milder, less acrid roast flavors are what you would prefer in your dark beers, then targeting a mashing pH in the 5.4 to 5.6 range should help. Be aware that reserving your roast additions until late in the mashing process does not do the same thing as properly modifying your water for higher mashing pH. Those late roast additions can still leave you with less desirable roast flavors.

So now you know that higher mashing and wort pH is an important feature for smooth and delicious dark beers.

Mash Schmutzdecke

Some brewers have problems lautering their mash and a common practice is to slice the top of the mash bed with a knife or similar instrument to get better flow. This article will show you a better way to improve flow through your mash.

The German word: Schmutzdecke (pronounced: shmootz deka) , is a great word for what's happening. It means 'dirty layer' and that is what forms on the top of your mash bed as you recirculate or vorlauf the wort. That layer is a collection of all the fine matter from your wort that is filtered and collected on the upper grain surface. It clogs the pores of the mash bed surface and forms a dense layer. Because wort can’t flow as readily through that layer as the rest of the grain bed, that layer is the limiting factor in getting good flow through the mash bed.

Slicing the mash bed in several places doesn't provide much flow improvement. Those slices represent a tiny percentage of the overall surface area of the bed. A better method for breaking up the schmutzdecke is to break it up and mix it into the upper couple of inches of the mash bed. That way, the layers of schmutzdecke are broken into chunks and get mixed with the coarser mash grist. Wort flows easily around that jumble of chunks and grist. No knife needed. Just take a brewing spoon, paddle, or rake and lightly mix the upper few inches of the bed. No need to mix it thoroughly either, just a few strokes to break up that top layer and mix it into the upper part of the mash. Wort will flow much better through that mash bed.

pH Measurement Temperature

A recent set of articles on 'Measure pH Correctly' in the October and December 2017 issues of Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine raised quite a firestorm on the internet and in the magazine. Most of the controversy centered on the issue of pH and its measurement temperature. A sidebar in the article said that the typically recommended pH range of 5.2 to 5.5 refers to mashing temperature measurement, not room-temperature. You’ll learn here, why the recommendations in those articles are incorrect and why you should ALWAYS CHECK MASHING PH USING A ROOM-TEMPERATURE WORT SAMPLE.

The first error in the article has to do with if current brewing research used mashing or room temperature measurements. Unfortunately, there is no consensus that researchers based their pH recommendations on mashing- or room-temperature measurement. Dozens of brewing studies have assessed a variety of brewing optima and effects, but not all researchers state what their wort temperature was during pH measurement. There is precedence regarding how brewers should check pH since the ASBC Method of Analysis for determination of wort pH directs that the wort sample be brought to room-temperature. In addition, placing a pH probe in and out of hot wort WILL shorten its life. All of these factors point to ROOM-TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT. So, measurement temperature is long settled. Now let’s talk about what the proper pH range is.

During the production of Palmer and Kaminski’s Water book, John Palmer sent a worried message to AJ DeLange and me that questioned if the typical brewing pH range referred to room- or mash-temperature measurement. AJ’s response follows: “If that range is supposed to be the optimum at mash temperature and mash pH is supposed to be 0.3 less than room temperature, the proper range at room temperature would be 5.5 - 5.9 and we would be hard pressed to explain the large number of brewers who noted great improvement in their beers when they got mash pH down to the 5.4-5.6 range. Certainly that has been my experience.” So, all of us agreed that our recommended range of 5.2 to 5.6 is based on ROOM-TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT.

To say that there is an "optimum" pH or temperature that we should mash at, is a fool's errand. There are a lot of "optimums" at work in the mash and its the brewer's prerogative to decide what those values should be for the brew at hand. Keying your “pH” optimum to mashing temperature is just chasing your tail. Find the room-temperature mashing pH that works for you.

The bottom line is that brewers should measure mashing pH with a room-temperature measurement and key that information to how the beer turns out. Successive brews at slightly differing pH will help define what the brewer really wants to target.

On a melancholy note, the brewer that posed the original question that generated this controversy in the October BYO article was one of my homebrew club members, Dave Allen. Unfortunately, Dave passed away about a month ago and that loss weighs heavily on many of us.

RIP, Dave.

Water for Yeast Rehydration

The increasing popularity and availability of dry yeast for brewing makes the issue of rehydration important. There are now several studies that show that yeast viability is increased when dry yeast is first rehydrated in water, instead of wort. While you can get by with sprinkling dry yeast into your wort, rehydration with water will mean that you'll pitch more LIVE yeast cells into wort. It also turns out that what's in your water matters too!

Research by (Rodriguez et al, International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2008) presented in an article: "Vitality enhancement of the rehydrated active dry wine yeast", tested a variety of rehydration water additives and found that Magnesium has a profound effect on improving yeast viability. That research evaluated a number of additives and ions and found that including a substantial concentration of magnesium in the distilled water produced the best improvement in viability. They assessed 5, 10, and 50 millimolar magnesium solutions and found that both 5 and 10 millimolar solutions outperformed all other treatments (50 was too much!). 5 and 10 millimolar equals 120 and 240 ppm concentrations. Producing those concentrations using Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate heptahydrate) is easy. 1 to 2 grams of Epsom salt per QUART of distilled water will do it. Since the lower concentration was almost as good as the 10 millimolar concentration, I recommend that brewers target the 1 gram/quart Epsom Salt dose to be safe and not overdo it.

This enhanced effect of magnesium on yeast is not a surprise since there is substantial research showing that magnesium is more beneficial to yeast than calcium is. My articles on Calcium and Magnesium requirements for Yeast that were published in Zymurgy and The New Brewer get more in depth on that phenomena.

These results also mean that straight distilled water is NOT ideal for yeast rehydration. The water needs some ionic content in order to improve viability. Starting with tap water or distilled/RO water is OK and adding Epsom Salt is recommended.

Water temperature matters too. Research by (Jenkins et al, Journal of the Institute of Brewing, 2011) showed that rehydrating dry yeast in water that is too warm will decrease viability. While some dry yeast instructions say to rehydrate in warm (around 100F) water, this research proved that room-temperture water produces the highest viability. So IGNORE any instructions telling you to rehydrate in warm water. I like to boil my rehydration water before pitching to help assure sterility, but I allow that water to cool below body temperature before adding the yeast.

I hope this research will help you dry yeast users to improve your brewing. Enjoy!

Bru’n Water Is Not Scary

The bowls of the internet howl with the news that Bru’n Water is hard to use…too intimidating…too scary. Users that have taken a few minutes to read the Bru’n Water instruction page and played with it for a few minutes know that Bru’n Water is actually easy to use!

Bru’n Water was purposely set up with several pages so that users would know where various inputs and outputs were. No searching across a busy and crowded page to find a tiny input cell. Separating the program into pages with logical division makes it easy to know where to look and the larger presentation that fits on your screen makes it quicker to find.

Many users get frustrated with the Water Report Input page since it actually checks your inputs to see if they are making sense and producing a ‘balanced’ concentration of anions and cations. While it would be easy to skip this check and allow the user to blindly assume that their inputs were fine…the beer would likely suffer. Using a program that helps you get your water report data input CORRECTLY is a real asset!

Brewers that use purified water such as RO or distilled water have it even easier since all they have to do is dial up the Dilution Percentage on the Sparging Water and Mashing Water pages to 100%. No water report to input at all. Distilled water has all zero concentrations and there is a stock estimate for RO water concentrations too. Of course, if you have test data on your RO water, you can update the stock data.

Once that water data is resolved, there are only a couple of Bru’n Water pages that you’ll deal with regularly. Those are the Grain Bill Input page and the Water Adjustment page. Since every batch is different, there is no getting around entering your grain bill. Enter type of grain (base, crystal, roast, acid), amount, and color. That’s it!

For water adjustments, select a stock water profile target and your amounts of mashing and sparging water and then start adding quantities of the minerals you have on hand. Check if that addition brings certain concentrations up to levels close to your targeted water profile and alter that initial guess until its close. Of course, monitoring and targeting your mashing pH is your most important duty. Adding an acid or base is probably required to get pH where it should be (between 5.2 and 5.6).

Don’t worry about getting concentrations exactly per the water profile. Plus or minus 10 ppm is often close enough. And remember: THE BICARBONATE CONTENT PRESENTED IN THE WATER PROFILE IS NOT YOUR TARGET, ADJUST BICARBONATE UNTIL YOUR pH is CORRECT.

So, there you go. Pretty simple stuff. More importantly, water adjustment is an important aspect to making great beer. The team at Brulosophy found that water adjustment is one of the most important and recognizable changes to beer quality.

Don’t be afraid!

Beer Adjustments in Your Glass

Water chemistry can influence how your beer tastes and is perceived. However, your opportunity to adjust your beer’s chemistry doesn’t end with brewing. You can conduct post-fermentation adjustments to your beer to help create the beer you really want. Adding minerals and acids to a glass of beer can help you determine what works and what the batch adjustments should be.

One problem in working with only a glass of beer is that the mineral and acid adjustments need to be very small or you will overdose the glass of beer and not give yourself a chance to assess if it improves the beer. To give you an idea of how small these mineral and acid adjustments are, I’ll give you examples.

For most people, the smallest unit their scale can reliably measure is about 0.1 gram. In a 16 oz glass of beer, 0.1 gram of either gypsum, calcium chloride, or table salt will boost the sulfate or chloride by over 100 ppm. That is a teeny amount, but a big jump in concentrations. So you do need to use care.

In the case of gypsum, calcium chloride, and table salt, my measurements show that all of those 0.1 gram amounts were roughly equal to a pinch (between index finger and thumb) of those minerals. While you should weigh your mineral additions, that example helps illustrate how small they are.

To decrease the dose size, I recommend that you measure out a full 0.1 gram on your precision scale and then visually divide the resulting dry salt into 2 or 4 equal piles to allow you to dose at smaller rates. Adding 0.05 gram of any of those salts and bumping the sulfate or chloride concentrations by about 50 ppm is a reasonable start to assess a difference in the glass.

If your beer tastes a little dull or lifeless, then dosing acid to your glass of beer can make a big difference. Again, you’ll need to be precise with your dosing. I recommend using drops of acid as your unit of measure. The first thing you need to determine is; how many drops are in 1 ml of your acid. You will need to use the actual acid and not water for that calibration since the viscosity and specific gravity of the acid influence how large the drops are (and the number of drops per ml). With the drops per ml knowledge, you’ll be able to scale your result into your batch of beer. Be aware that different droppers will produce a different number of drops per ml.

Through testing, I’ve determined that it takes over 3 times the acid to move beer pH as compared to that required to move wort pH the same degree. But, that shouldn’t matter to you since you’re using your tastebuds to determine what beer pH tastes best to you. To give you an idea of how much it takes to drop pH by 0.1 units in a 16 oz glass of beer, it may take about 0.08 ml of 88% lactic acid or 0.8 ml of 10% phosphoric acid.

You don’t need to settle for what comes out of your fermenter! Take this guidance and test if mineral or acid additions can make your beer better.

Enjoy!

Mashing and Finished Water Profiles

The Supporter’s version of Bru’n Water includes a somewhat cryptic report for both the Mashing and Overall Finished Water Profiles. As shown in the screenshot, the Mashing and Finished Water profiles are presented on the Water Adjustment sheet. While those profiles are usually identical, there are times when they aren’t and that can be to your advantage. Read on!

Why can they differ? Well, there are several reasons. The first is when you elect to add all your minerals directly to the kettle instead of to the mashing and sparging water. It’s pretty obvious why the mashing water concentrations would be lower than the finished water concentrations in this case. Bru’n Water has a setting asking if you want to “Add Hardness Minerals to the Kettle?” that lets the program know how you’ll be adding your minerals.

The second case may be a little more difficult to understand, but it’s a valuable technique when brewing delicate beer styles that benefit from a lightly mineralized water profile. Having low mineralization in the water can help the flavor in delicate styles stand out, but there are reasons to have higher mineralization in the mash. Specifically, the mashing water should have at least 40 mg/L calcium to aid in the removal of oxalate (which creates beerstone) from the wort. By selecting YES at the “Add Sparging Water mineral additions to the Mash?” prompt, the sparging water mineral additions are included in the mashing water additions to boost its concentrations. Making sure that the calcium content is above 40 mg/L is the goal. When the less-mineralized sparging water is added to the mash, the elevated mashing concentrations will be driven down to the Overall Finished Water profile.

The third reason why the Mashing and Finished Water profiles may differ is when alkalinity-increasing minerals such as lime, baking soda, or chalk are added to the mash. Bru’n Water assumes that alkalinity-increasing minerals are NEVER added to sparging water. Therefore, the calcium or sodium concentrations can be boosted by those additions to the mashing water. Their elevated concentrations are diluted when the less mineralized sparging water is added to the mash. This is especially important when adding baking soda, since brewers typically like to keep sodium content in wort relatively low. The Supporter’s version of Bru’n Water shows how the Mash’s high sodium level is diluted in the Finished profile.

So, those are reasons why there are differences in the Mashing and Finished Water profiles and how mineral addition strategies can aid your brewing.

Enjoy!