Ask the Experts

Homebrew expert Brad Smith, author of the Beersmith homebrewing software and the voice behind the Beersmith podcast, answers questions about water profiles, going all-grain with your recipes, and hops varieties (and techniques) that impart tropical flavors.

I’ve been reading up on water profiles, but the topic is complex. Should I try to match my water to a particular city for a style of beer or use another method?

Water chemistry is, indeed, a complex subject. Many years ago, the recommendation was for brewers to try to “match” a particular city’s water to brew a style of beer. So, if you were brewing a Pilsner, you would try to match the water profile from Pilsen; if you were brewing an Irish stout, you would match the water profile from Dublin.

While this can still be an effective method for targeting a narrow style, many commercial brewers have moved away from this “water-matching” approach because our understanding of the underlying water chemistry has improved. Also, some of the traditional water profiles may not match the water actually used at the breweries in question. I encourage brewers to focus on a few basic water concepts, outlined below, rather than blindly “matching” a water profile.

First, I recommend you test your water to make sure it is in the “good” range for brewing. You can get it tested with a brewing-water kit or by sending it to a brewing lab. The water report should include the six key ions: calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate, chloride, and bicarbonate. The “good” brewing ranges for these are: calcium: 50–150 ppm, magnesium: 10–40 ppm, sodium: 0–150 ppm, sulfate: 50–250 ppm, chloride: 0–250 ppm, and bicarbonate: 0–250 ppm. If your water is below these ranges, you can add some salts to adjust it; if your water is above these ranges, you may need to dilute the water with distilled or reverse-osmosis (RO) water.

Second, if you are an all-grain brewer, you want to control your mash ph during the conversion step of the mash. Ideally, you want to maintain it in the 5.2–5.6 range during the mash. The ph is determined by your water profile and grain bill, and generally lighter beers run the risk of having too high a ph. Proper mash ph will enhance the flavor stability of the beer and provide a brighter finish to your beer. You can use either software to estimate your mash ph or a ph meter to measure and adjust it. To lower mash ph, most homebrewers use lactic acid because it’s readily available and

won’t alter the flavor in the small quantities needed to adjust your ph.

Finally, understand the impact of the sulfate-to-chloride ratio on the beer you are brewing. This is simply a ratio of the sulfate ions (in parts per million) to the chloride ions from your water profile. A low ratio (more chloride than sulfate) will give the beer a malty finish, and a high ratio (more sulfate than chloride) will enhance the bitterness. You can adjust this ratio to match the style of beer you are brewing.

Using these three concepts, you should be able to brew just about any style of beer with good results.

I want to transition to all-grain brewing. Brewin-a-bag looks like an inexpensive way to get into all-grain, but are there any disadvantages?

Brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) is an excellent way to start all-grain brewing on a budget. In fact, my home system is a Blichmann Breweasy, which is essentially a fancy stainless BIAB system. For the average extract brewer, all you need to purchase to step up to BIAB is a large pot, a grain bag, and some kind of propane burner.

The concept behind BIAB is to perform the mash and boil all in a single large pot. You heat up some water in a large pot, add a fine-mesh grain bag, and mix in the grains to get them to your desired mashing temperature. Then you maintain that temperature for an hour or so to complete the starch-tosugar conversion. When you are done, just lift the grain bag out, which separates the grains from the wort, and then boil the wort. The rest of the process—adding hops, boiling, chilling, and fermenting—is the same process you use for extract brewing.

If we compare BIAB to a traditional brewing system where you have three separate vessels for mashing, boiling, and heating water, the cost savings can be substantial. In addition, BIAB usually saves you some time as you don’t have a lengthy sparging process (just lift out the bag), and there is less

equipment to prepare and clean. So, a BIAB system saves you both time and money.

As far as disadvantages, some BIAB systems do have slightly lower mash or brewhouse efficiency, though the same can be said for many traditional systems. I don’t consider this a big issue at the homebrew level since we’re often talking about a pound or less of extra grain if your system has lower efficiency, and in fact, the grain crush has a larger impact on efficiency in most cases.

Some brewers say that BIAB can lead to a slightly “thinner-tasting” beer. This may be due to the high water-to-grain ratio you use when adding all the water up front in the mash, which can result in a more complete sugar conversion and higher attenuation during fermentation. However, the Germans have been doing traditional decoctions at high water/grain ratios for hundreds of years and still produce some great malty beers. As I said, I brew on a BIAB system and have not had an issue with this.

Some of the new IPAS have tropical, fruity flavors from the hops. How can I get those flavors in my beer?

There are a few ways to get those flavors into your beer. One is by careful hops selection, particularly for whirlpool and dry hopping. My favorite varieties for promoting tropical flavors are many of the New Zealand varieties such as Motueka, Pacific Jade, and Nelson Sauvin. Unfortunately, some of these hops are in short supply. Many U.S. hops—including Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo, Galaxy, and Simcoe—also have fruity or citrusy finishes.

The key to bringing out these aromas and flavors is to use substantial quantities in the whirlpool (or post-boil steep) as well as at dry hopping rather than in the boil. Most of the fruity, tropical, and citrus aromas are derived from aromatic hops oils, which by their very nature are volatile and don’t like to stay in solution. So boiling them will erase most of the oils you are trying to get.

There is also a cutting-edge method many breweries have been experimenting with to add tropical flavors during fermentation—a technique I recently discussed with Randy Mosher on my podcast. This involves dry hopping during active fermentation, usually with hops that are high in compounds such as geraniol. The hops are added shortly after peak krausen, while the yeast cells are still active. You don’t want to add them too early, or the CO2

coming off the fermentation will remove a lot of the aroma compounds. Adding hops during active fermentation encourages a number of bio-transformations that enhance fruity, tropical-aroma compounds from the hops and produce great results in fruity IPAS as well as New England–style IPAS.

If you have a question for the experts or want to share your expertise, email us at info@ beerandbrewing.com or visit our website at beerandbrewing.com.