Water Treatment Calculator - Lager Problem

[danwlx]

I hope no one minds Mr reposting this from the liquor section. I'm hoping for some help before I brew on Wednesday.

Hi all,

I'm planning a marzen this week and so am using the lager target liquor on the calculator. However I get a message that the target liquor cannot be matched with current sulphate and chloride values.

I've looked at the calculator notes but am still unsure how to resolve this. For ref my values are:

Alkalinity - 17 CaCO3
Calcium - 20.43
Magnesium - 3.200
Sodium - 10.11
Carbonate - 10.19
Sulphate - 49.72
Chloride 18.66

In terms of carbonate reduction I use none, however I do use campden tablets so am unsure how this affects things.

As you can probably tell from the above, water treatment is a little confusing for me so al help is gratefully received!

Cheers
Dan

[gregorach]

I think that your problem is that your sodium and sulphate levels are a little too high... They're not that far out though. If you just increase the target sulphate value to match your current sulphate value, then hit the "Balance Mg/Na" button, you should be good to go. I'd probably ignore the recommended Calcium Sulphate and Calcium Carbonate additions and only use Calcium Chloride. Actually, I'm not entirely sure you need to bother with any water treatment at all... The sodium level is a bit high though.

[danwlx]

Thanks for the reply! It confirms advice I've been given in the water treatment section.

I'll proceed as advised. I guess there is no easy way of reducing high sulphate and sodium levels? What is the effect of the high levels? Possibly high hop biterness which is not wanted in a marzen?

[gregorach]

The only option for reducing the concentration of any ion is to dilute with distilled or RO water. I couldn't honestly say what effect either sulphate and sodium will have at those levels, but I doubt a few ppm here or there is going to make much difference.

[Eric]

The only option for reducing the concentration of any ion is to dilute with distilled or RO water. I couldn't honestly say what effect either sulphate and sodium will have at those levels, but I doubt a few ppm here or there is going to make much difference.

Surely Dunc, you mean the easy option? Any mix of two or more particular ion concentrations will result with one between the higher and lower concentration.

[gregorach]

Yeah, OK, I bow to your superior pedantry.