I've brewed for about 3 months now, I've been aware of this, but not bothered because I'm new. Now I'm looking into it after brewing yet another underwhelming beer. I do use tap water, but it's not chlorinated at all in my area. The water here is really soft, not much of any minerals, chlorides or sulfates. The tap water does taste great or perhaps more accurately it doesn't taste anything at all.
For NaCl (i.e., sodium chloride or salt), use pickling salt vs table salt because table salt contains anticaking agents and other impurities. Pickling salt is pure granulated sodium chloride. Also, pH is temperature dependent. As temperature increases, the pH decreases. When discussing pH, all numbers are mentioned at 60F (15.5C; unless otherwise noted). So to target a mash pH of 5.2, the sample should be cooled to 60F (15.5C). Or you can get close just by knowing the pH will be lower at a higher temperature. For example, to hit a pH of 5.2 at 150F (65.5C), you would shoot for around 5.05 if measured at 150F. Excellent video. Thanks for sharing.
Here we go again, another video that relates to my "next" steps in brewing. Thx man! I'm always looking forward to seeing what you're putting out there.
An excellent video on a subject that has a lot of home brewers (such as me) mystified . I still don’t do much for adjustment personally. I don’t enter competitions and I am not really trying to replicate a particular regional beer or brand of beer. As though eluded to good tsp water can make good beer but rarely will it make “great” beer. I am happy I found your channel, I have been brewing for a while and kind of just did things the way I did them but I find a lot of information in your videos that I either didn’t know or didn’t remember . Thanks for your content.
More awesome information from TheBruShow! Lol, water adjustment is one of those rabbit holes that I'm afraid to explore! I just put a water filter under my sink to a special tap and brew with that!
Dude thanks man. I was really intimidated by stepping into this but dude you really did a great job. Great video and I think I’m gonna try dabbling in this
I'm a little new to brewing, only been doing small batches. But i'm about to do my first batch using water chemistry. My batch will only create a gallon of beer, my question is what should i do after the boil? I lose water that isn't quite a gallon, so I've been adding water when it cools down after the boil. Should I just not care if I lose less than a gallon, or should I add treated water?
Got that book you mentioned at the end, really really good information in there, very in depth.cant wait to implement water chemistry into my next batch. Cheers!!! 🍻
Thanks for the info, I’ve been wanting to dabble into using distilled water for brews. All of my batches of beer have been done with bottled drinking water from Costco, since they sell the one gallon jugs in 6pks.
Just found your channel. Great content, amazing shots and really enjoyable all together. Hope that this UA-cam channel will grow since it's seriously interesting!!
Do you think you could release some sort of 'QuickGuide' or 'step-by-step' for popular water brands like "Crystal Geyser" or "Aquafina" or "Dasani" ? Or do all these vary by bottle? I'm not sure how to tell or what to input. Of course a "water tester" would solve some of this, but then again I'm curious about your input.
There's a spring that comes out of a mountain up the road from me and it runs year round. That's where all my brew water comes from - makes the best beer on earth.
@@TheBruSho Come to Maine - anything except the major rivers has perfect water. Props for a great video - I'll be looking in to incorporating some of this in future brews.
How often can you adjust the PH during the brewing process? I treated my water for the first time on my most recent brew. I followed Brewfather and ended up overdoing the lactic acid addition, lowering my Ph to 4.8. I didn't realize it was that low until my mash was done (before the boil). I wasn't sure if I could add baking soda at this point, but I did anyway. So i brought my Ph up to 5.3 before the boil. After the boil it was down to 5.1, so i added a little more baking soda again before i pitched the yeast. All that to say, is this normal?
Usually I only adjust mash pH, if you can nail that the rest you dont really need to be worried about, it will fall in line. And what you did is normal, next time just add less lactic acid and test every few minutes to see if you need to add more. That way you don't overshoot
I think it’s totally usable! If you can find a water report for the spring water you use then you can know where your starting from. They tend to have some mineral content
i cant figure out how to use beer smith. im wanting to brew a mexican light lager but i have no idea of what water profile to use. should i maybe use like 1 g of calcium chloride and 1 g of epsom salt? do you know of a good one?
I'd just say go for the "light" profile or something similar. Or maybe there is a lager profile? Been a while since I used Beersmith specifically but I know they have some presets.
@@TheBruSho ok cool thank you. was thinking american light lager water profile would work since the styles are almost exact. im trying to create a beer i had in mexico that i liked but no info on it what so ever i know its pilsner, vienna, and maize. with herkules hops and possibly tettnang but still searching online
Great video! I used bottled water for the first time with my all grain recipe. The label reads purified/reverse osmosis technologies. My fermentation was not strong for this recipe…could it be because of the water I used? If I use bottled drinking water what type of water should I use? Thank you.
It could be just the lack of minerals that support a healthy fermentation. Things like magnesium or calcium are important to a healthy fermentation so those could have been lacking. I’d recommend trying to find some water report or info about what is in that water for future brews. That way you can attempt to make adjustments for an improved beer!
Mission accomplished. I think you’re right about the simple approach. I have been looking for, but haven’t seen anyone really keep it focused on the “what all does this even do?”.. I guess the natural follow up is “so what do each of these salts actually do when I add it?”
U add your magnesium sulfate in the water before u heat it up. I just bought a bag of magnesiumsulfate and it says u can add it after u boil the water...i'm confused now...first boil the water, add the sulfate and then let it cool to the mash temp ??
You can dechlorinate your tap water by letting it sit out for 24 hours. I put water in 5 gallon bucket with a towel over it for a day or so. I started doing this when I started hydroponics and making sourdough breads..
Ooh that’s a great question I haven’t played much with water chem in kombucha, but I always try to use filtered water for the best tasting results. I’ll look into it thanks!
Have you ever heard of RO water eating metal fittings my stepfather said when he worked at Briggs & Stratton they use RO water for some of their machines and it would eat all of the copper fittings they had to change them all the time
One thing I'm curious about is, how to measure out the correct amount of each mineral, for the amount of water. I understand the PPM amount but my question is what is an easy way to measure? teaspoons/ tablespoons, that kind of measurement. Thanks.
Hey my German pilsner turned out magnificent at least to my standards. Also, I entered it into a state competition and won a silver medal. I guess my first go at water chemistry worked out alright. Thanks for the video content. It was super helpful. 🙌
Is that an American thing because of the bad water quality in the US? I have not heard anybody doing here in Austria, but we get our water from springs in the alps.
I don’t think it’s exclusive to the US but definitely people should be aware of their water quality and source. Sounds like you’re one of the lucky ones!
Excellent video! You've opened my eyes to the importance of water chemistry. As a beginner, these concepts will help me make better beers. Nothing's free in Waterworld!
@@TheBruSho And thank you! I'm still in the research phase for brewing beer. I love the tiny details/polish that really brings the final product together. Saving up for the Anvil 4 Gal and it's been fun watching and planning so far.
I don't think there is need to invest in a PH meter. If you just stick to your water source and calculation of the target PH using calculators you can use the PH stripes (the ones with less range) to get a pretty close value
You failed to mention that when chemicals are added, they only work in a brewing method that causes chemical precipitation to occur upstream of the boiler, or that chemicals are added when a brewery uses distilled water for increasing the life cycle in steam boilers. There's enough chemicals in malt for you to learn about before turning into Pierre Currie.
Sure! Some people don’t even care about adjusting ph and they make good beer. But I find it easy enough to make an adjustment with acid while I’m waiting for the mash to convert
Hi, i'm studying my last exam in hydrogechemistry for my degree in geology. I don't understand what is TOTH for proton balance but i have found nothing on web...can you help with a comment or a video?Thank you
Do you make water adjustments? Or it this new to you? Let me know!
Knew people did it. I haven't cause I'm binge video learning before starting BIAB. Bag got here from Amazon an hour ago.
I've brewed for about 3 months now, I've been aware of this, but not bothered because I'm new. Now I'm looking into it after brewing yet another underwhelming beer. I do use tap water, but it's not chlorinated at all in my area. The water here is really soft, not much of any minerals, chlorides or sulfates. The tap water does taste great or perhaps more accurately it doesn't taste anything at all.
Lucky enough to either get spring water or well water don't need it
For NaCl (i.e., sodium chloride or salt), use pickling salt vs table salt because table salt contains anticaking agents and other impurities. Pickling salt is pure granulated sodium chloride. Also, pH is temperature dependent. As temperature increases, the pH decreases. When discussing pH, all numbers are mentioned at 60F (15.5C; unless otherwise noted). So to target a mash pH of 5.2, the sample should be cooled to 60F (15.5C). Or you can get close just by knowing the pH will be lower at a higher temperature. For example, to hit a pH of 5.2 at 150F (65.5C), you would shoot for around 5.05 if measured at 150F. Excellent video. Thanks for sharing.
Great call outs thanks for the comment! 🍻
I can not stress enough how much this helped me. Thank you!
This is the clearest and most useful water chemistry video I’ve watched. And I’ve watched a lot.
Thanks so much, glad to hear that!
Here we go again, another video that relates to my "next" steps in brewing. Thx man! I'm always looking forward to seeing what you're putting out there.
Thank you so much! Glad to hear it was enjoyable! Have a good one!
An older video, but wanted a refresher on some of the basics! Great video, again!
Very interesting! All your videos are of the correct length.
You really deserve more subscribers
Another great video! Cheers Trent🍻
Thank you Brian! Cheers man!
Trent, I’m finally upping my game and paying attention to pH and minerals. This video was extremely helpful, thanks for doing it!
Amazing! Glad to hear it, best of luck
Insane production quality and great content, thanks!
Thank you! Cheers
Another informative & easy to follow video! 🍺
Thank you!! Cheers!
An excellent video on a subject that has a lot of home brewers (such as me) mystified . I still don’t do much for adjustment personally. I don’t enter competitions and I am not really trying to replicate a particular regional beer or brand of beer.
As though eluded to good tsp water can make good beer but rarely will it make “great” beer.
I am happy I found your channel, I have been brewing for a while and kind of just did things the way I did them but I find a lot of information in your videos that I either didn’t know or didn’t remember .
Thanks for your content.
Thanks so much for that, I am glad you found this channel as well. I'm happy you got something out of it!
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. So underrated video & channel
Thank you for saying that!
Thanks for the video! I love all your Brewing Tips videos. They’ve been so helpful as I’ve journeyed past extract kits.
That is great to hear! I enjoy making this videos as well so I will definitely be making more tip related videos in the future.
More awesome information from TheBruShow! Lol, water adjustment is one of those rabbit holes that I'm afraid to explore! I just put a water filter under my sink to a special tap and brew with that!
That’s totally fine! I wonder how much water chem has an impact on Mead, I’m sure there’s something to it
@@TheBruSho Knowing my luck, it makes a huge difference! lolol
Great video Trent!
Thank you Steve! 🍻
Thanks for the breakdown. I moved and now my water source is a bit tricky to work with.
very clear and consise video. thanx
Dude thanks man. I was really intimidated by stepping into this but dude you really did a great job. Great video and I think I’m gonna try dabbling in this
Love to hear this! Best of luck
Good and clear to understand vdeo, this is my next step to do many thanks👍🍻
Thank you, that was my hope! Good luck!
When boiling the wort for so many minutes does the evaporation make a difference to your readings
SHOUTOUT RECEIVED!
Never even thought about using those glacier water fillers until you, so thank you for that!!
I'm a little new to brewing, only been doing small batches. But i'm about to do my first batch using water chemistry. My batch will only create a gallon of beer, my question is what should i do after the boil? I lose water that isn't quite a gallon, so I've been adding water when it cools down after the boil. Should I just not care if I lose less than a gallon, or should I add treated water?
Got that book you mentioned at the end, really really good information in there, very in depth.cant wait to implement water chemistry into my next batch. Cheers!!! 🍻
That’s great to hear, a lot more on the subject that you can dive into!
Great video as always ! Cheers Amigo 🍻🧪
Gracias hombre! Appreciate it!
My city water is 1.3 PPT and my new filters in my RO bring it to 60PPM and now I can add my own salts
Great video man, really appreciate this knowledge
Glad it was useful!!
Been doing lots of research over the last couple weeks and finally took the dive into Water Chemistry! Thanks for making it so easy
That’s great! Your beers will be that much better by taking the little extra steps. Cheers Jus!
Thanks for the info, I’ve been wanting to dabble into using distilled water for brews. All of my batches of beer have been done with bottled drinking water from Costco, since they sell the one gallon jugs in 6pks.
Nice glad to be of some help!
Another awesome video my friend I wish I would’ve started messing with water chemistry way sooner !
Thanks Bradley, yeah me too honestly but there were more important things to get a hold on first!
Just found your channel. Great content, amazing shots and really enjoyable all together. Hope that this UA-cam channel will grow since it's seriously interesting!!
Thank you so much, I hope so too!
Silly question…..do you need to match the sparge water chemistry with the mash water?
I would say yes for best results. But I don’t always do it and haven’t noticed any particularly big difference
Brilliant man cheers
I have a simple activated charcoal filter on my water source. If I send in a water sample should I send the filtered or unfiltered?
I would send it whatever you plan to use to brew with, which I would think would be the filtered one
Excellent bideo
Do you think you could release some sort of 'QuickGuide' or 'step-by-step' for popular water brands like "Crystal Geyser" or "Aquafina" or "Dasani" ? Or do all these vary by bottle? I'm not sure how to tell or what to input. Of course a "water tester" would solve some of this, but then again I'm curious about your input.
Boa noite você pode me explicar gue pó branco é esse colocou na cerveja
thanks. so when we get a sample from our mash to check pH? after waiting 10 minutes or etc.? thanks.
Yeah 10 mins is a good spot
great work.
What about bottled spring water?
Again, very good video ! ;)
Thank you cheers! 🍻
There's a spring that comes out of a mountain up the road from me and it runs year round. That's where all my brew water comes from - makes the best beer on earth.
Damn that sounds amazing. I need to move towards a mountain!
@@TheBruSho Come to Maine - anything except the major rivers has perfect water. Props for a great video - I'll be looking in to incorporating some of this in future brews.
How often can you adjust the PH during the brewing process? I treated my water for the first time on my most recent brew. I followed Brewfather and ended up overdoing the lactic acid addition, lowering my Ph to 4.8. I didn't realize it was that low until my mash was done (before the boil). I wasn't sure if I could add baking soda at this point, but I did anyway. So i brought my Ph up to 5.3 before the boil. After the boil it was down to 5.1, so i added a little more baking soda again before i pitched the yeast. All that to say, is this normal?
Usually I only adjust mash pH, if you can nail that the rest you dont really need to be worried about, it will fall in line. And what you did is normal, next time just add less lactic acid and test every few minutes to see if you need to add more. That way you don't overshoot
@@TheBruSho Thank you so much!
What do you think about using spring water?
I think it’s totally usable! If you can find a water report for the spring water you use then you can know where your starting from. They tend to have some mineral content
Thank your ❤
i cant figure out how to use beer smith. im wanting to brew a mexican light lager but i have no idea of what water profile to use. should i maybe use like 1 g of calcium chloride and 1 g of epsom salt? do you know of a good one?
I'd just say go for the "light" profile or something similar. Or maybe there is a lager profile? Been a while since I used Beersmith specifically but I know they have some presets.
@@TheBruSho ok cool thank you. was thinking american light lager water profile would work since the styles are almost exact. im trying to create a beer i had in mexico that i liked but no info on it what so ever i know its pilsner, vienna, and maize. with herkules hops and possibly tettnang but still searching online
Great video! I used bottled water for the first time with my all grain recipe. The label reads purified/reverse osmosis technologies. My fermentation was not strong for this recipe…could it be because of the water I used? If I use bottled drinking water what type of water should I use? Thank you.
It could be just the lack of minerals that support a healthy fermentation. Things like magnesium or calcium are important to a healthy fermentation so those could have been lacking. I’d recommend trying to find some water report or info about what is in that water for future brews. That way you can attempt to make adjustments for an improved beer!
Does the 5.2 - 5.6 range go for all types of beer? Stouts, IPAs etc.
Yup as far as mash ph goes that’s the best range for good efficiency
Dude you absolutely NAILED this topic. This is SO well done! Thanks for covering this with class!
Thank you so much! Really wanted to take a simple perspective on the subject to at least get the basic knowledge across!
Mission accomplished. I think you’re right about the simple approach. I have been looking for, but haven’t seen anyone really keep it focused on the “what all does this even do?”.. I guess the natural follow up is “so what do each of these salts actually do when I add it?”
@@ChuckUnderFire yeah definitely more to cover on the topic. Maybe later down the road I will do a even deeper dive. Thanks and cheers!
So glad, that German water isn't chlorinated! I had to taste french water a few times and it has always been chlorinated - almost undrinkable!
U add your magnesium sulfate in the water before u heat it up. I just bought a bag of magnesiumsulfate and it says u can add it after u boil the water...i'm confused now...first boil the water, add the sulfate and then let it cool to the mash temp ??
I add all water salts as my water heats up for the mash
You can dechlorinate your tap water by letting it sit out for 24 hours. I put water in 5 gallon bucket with a towel over it for a day or so. I started doing this when I started hydroponics and making sourdough breads..
I just leave my water out overnight and add a minimal amount of Campden to be sure... 0.15g/20L
Can you link me to your scale to measure salts please 🙏
Yeah there’s links in the description to the stuff I mention, including the scale!
How does this translate for kombucha? I'm working on improving overall quality and consistency.
Ooh that’s a great question I haven’t played much with water chem in kombucha, but I always try to use filtered water for the best tasting results. I’ll look into it thanks!
Have you ever heard of RO water eating metal fittings my stepfather said when he worked at Briggs & Stratton they use RO water for some of their machines and it would eat all of the copper fittings they had to change them all the time
I haven’t heard that. I wonder what about RO causes that to happen?
Just make sure any vieeo you condone says not to use copper pipes which most plumbers use....
One thing I'm curious about is, how to measure out the correct amount of each mineral, for the amount of water. I understand the PPM amount but my question is what is an easy way to measure? teaspoons/ tablespoons, that kind of measurement. Thanks.
A gram scale is best since in most cases you’re only adding a few grams of each for a 5 gal or 19L batch
@@TheBruSho Thanks for the reply! I experimented with it. Beer is fermenting right now. I'll you know how it turned out!
Hey my German pilsner turned out magnificent at least to my standards. Also, I entered it into a state competition and won a silver medal. I guess my first go at water chemistry worked out alright. Thanks for the video content. It was super helpful. 🙌
At what temperature you measure your mash pH?
I usually check it a few minutes after starting the mashing process. So right around mash temp
I only use rainwater
Is that an American thing because of the bad water quality in the US? I have not heard anybody doing here in Austria, but we get our water from springs in the alps.
I don’t think it’s exclusive to the US but definitely people should be aware of their water quality and source. Sounds like you’re one of the lucky ones!
I fucking love liquid bandaids
Excellent video! You've opened my eyes to the importance of water chemistry. As a beginner, these concepts will help me make better beers.
Nothing's free in Waterworld!
Thank you so much! It doesn’t have to be overly complicated and even the smallest changes can make the biggest difference.
@@TheBruSho And thank you! I'm still in the research phase for brewing beer. I love the tiny details/polish that really brings the final product together. Saving up for the Anvil 4 Gal and it's been fun watching and planning so far.
I don't think there is need to invest in a PH meter. If you just stick to your water source and calculation of the target PH using calculators you can use the PH stripes (the ones with less range) to get a pretty close value
That’s a valid point, thanks!
can we get a brewing from scratch video?
Sure what aspect of brewing from scratch? I do a lot of grain to glass videos
@@TheBruSho I was thinking minimum/no purpose equipment wine
(I've been bored recently and don't want to do cleanup)
You failed to mention that when chemicals are added, they only work in a brewing method that causes chemical precipitation to occur upstream of the boiler, or that chemicals are added when a brewery uses distilled water for increasing the life cycle in steam boilers. There's enough chemicals in malt for you to learn about before turning into Pierre Currie.
Can't you just mash a little longer, instead of lowering PH?
Sure! Some people don’t even care about adjusting ph and they make good beer. But I find it easy enough to make an adjustment with acid while I’m waiting for the mash to convert
The best water chemistry for beginners is to not do chemistry. If your tap taste suck, then either get RO or mineral water
Hi, i'm studying my last exam in hydrogechemistry for my degree in geology. I don't understand what is TOTH for proton balance but i have found nothing on web...can you help with a comment or a video?Thank you
Hey im sorry im not actually a water chemist so I have no idea, I just make beer ha
@@TheBruSho ahahah no problem🤣