Water for Bohemian Pilsener

[Jimmy Orkin]

I am brewing a Bo Pils Saturday. I am going to use RO water. I am going to add Calcium Chloride to get the Ca to 50 ppm. John Palmer says you need at least 50 ppm of Ca in your water.

Do I need to have any Magnesium in the water? If I add Epsom Salt I will get Mg but will also get Sulfate that I do not want.

Is there some other way to get Mg other than Epsom Salt? Yeast Nutrient maybe?

Do the grains have Magnesium in them that are extracted in the mash?

[donniestyle]

That's the big question. This is something that I have always ignored. I've just started using RO water, and have not been adding any salts. If I had added some, it's just a small amount of either CaCl, CaCO3, or CaSO4. The ions aid the mash enzyme activity and pH; is the pH the more important reason the enzyme activity is raised? They are also needed for yeast health, and probably more for growth. If you already have 18M/ml, you may have less to worry about. I found this on the brewery. Quickie Water Chemistry Primer. This is from that page.

Light Lager -- Very small amounts of ions; just enough to acidify the mash. Model: Mosher's "Ideal Pale Lager". 1 gram Epsom Salt, 0.5 grams baking soda, 1 gram chalk, 0.5 grams canning salt. Ca=21, SO4=21, Mg=5.2, Na=18, Cl=16, CO3=51, Hardness=74, Alkalinity=69.

The Pilsen profile is much less. If you are set on adding the calcium, go with the one that would accentuate the malt and not the hops.

[Jimmy Orkin]

I think I found the answer. There is a chemical called Magnesium Chloride. It is used for deicing and to add Mg to Aquariums. MgCl2 comes as MgCl2 Hexahydrate which means it has six water molecules attached. 1 gram of MgCl2 Hexahydrate added to 1 gallon of water will increase the Mg by 31.6 ppm and Cl2 by 70.8 ppm.

I won't bother with it this time.

[Guerra]

I did a Bo-Pils on Friday, I followed the "Pope's Teachings"(ref the Jamil Show, 04-23-07 Bo-Pils, on the Brewing Network) when it came to the water. I also followed the receipe from Brewing Classic Styles (aka the "Bible")

The Pope said mix RO w/ about 25% tap water. He says never use 100% RO because you will be missing minerals important to the mash and fermentation. I went ahead and used some "5.2" in my mash also.

Orlando