water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink..

WATER QUALITY

thought i might put a little info on my experience on the basics.... water.

i have tried various techniques over the years to improve beers main ingredient and recently have got the method sussed. so here's a little information to all you brewers out there that might still be in the dark on the art of water treatment. To those who already know, sorry, I'm teaching you to suck eggs.

WHAT MAKES GOOD LIQUOR?

pH, if its too alkaline, the yeast doesn't like it.

by adding certain chemicals(salts) you can improve the acidity of the liquor and thereby get a better reaction when you add the yeast.

STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WATER

1. cleanliness. make sure all the equipment is properly cleaned. Anything that will come into contact with the water during your treatment should be clean.
2. get a big pan,( 5 gallons) preferably stainless steel. Failing that an aluminium one( although this does transfer some aluminium chloride into the water during boiling. if you don't have either of those, then a big plastic bucket that you could convert into a "big kettle" by stripping an old kettle to bits and using the element in the bucket.
3. heat the water...
4. once boiling add some magnesium sulphate (Gypsum CaSO4), roughly 2 teaspoons full per 5 gallons.(optional, you can add 1 teaspoon of common salt to improve the flavour)
5. let it boil for 15 mins.
6. on the last 5 mins of the boil add 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salt (Magnesium sulphate,MgSO4). you do this once most of the calcium chloride has boiled out of the water( it's limescale) , otherwise the addition of Epsom Salts isn't as effective.
7. cool and store ready for the brew.