Treating Portland Water With Style

Most homebrewers understand and pay proper attention to the contributions that malt, hops, and yeast each make to the flavor and character of their beer. Many, however, overlook the role of their brew's most plentiful ingredient: water. But the pH, mineral content, and hardness of brewing water can significantly affect the all-grain brewer's ability to extract fermentable sugars from the grain, and hence, the brewer's ability to obtain the desired flavor profile for a particular style of beer.

This article takes a practical look at the mineral treatment of Portland (Bull Run Reservoir) water for brewing purposes, and in particular, for brewing different styles of beer.

Many beer styles are associated with particular cities -- for instance, Pale Ales with Burton-upon-Trent, England; Stouts with Dublin, Ireland; and so on. Part of the reason that these beers were successful in their respective cities, and became so closely associated with these cities, is that the character of the cities' water is particularly well-suited to the characteristics of the beer style. For example, the hard water of Burton-upon-Trent is high in sulfates, which accentuates hop bitterness and flavor. It stands to reason, then, that if we can treat Portland's water to match Burton-upon-Trent's water, then we should be able to produce a more authentic IPA.

Fortunately, the water we get in Portland is soft and low in most minerals. Thus, all we need to do is add the appropriate salts in the right proportion to emulate the target city's water.

The mineral content of Portland's water is summarized in Table I (Source: Bureau of Water Works). Similar analyses are readily available from the water utility in most cities. Table II summarizes the impact of adding 1 gram of a given salt to 1 gallon of water.

Table I: Portland Water
Calcium	Magnesium	Sodium	Chloride	Sulfates	Carbonates	Hardness
1.8	0.75	1.6	10	0.5	7.5	8.6

Table II: Effect (+ppm) of adding 1 gram of salt per gallon of water
Salt	Calcium	Magnesium	Sodium	Chloride	Sulfates		Hardness
Baking soda			75			190	190
Calcium chloride	72			127			0
Chalk	106					159	159
Epsom salts		26			103		26
Gypsum	62				148		0
Table salt			104	160			0

Given the water characteristics of a given city, we can now apply these salts to Portland's water to approximate the water characteristics of that city. Table III summarizes the water characteristics of several cities important in the brewing world, and notes the style of beer associated with each city. For each city in the table, the first line summarizes the characteristics of the water actually in that city; the second line is Portland water, adjusted with brewing salts. The amount of salts added per gallon is given in Table IV.

Table III: Beer Styles and Water Characteristics of Various Brewing Cities
City	Calcium	Magnesium	Sodium		Chloride	Sulfates	Carbonates	Hardness
Burton-on-Trent	295	45	55		25	725	300	850
Pale Ales	294	45	54		10	620	300	345
Dortmund	250	25	70		100	280	550	750
Malty, bitter ambers	250	24	77		99	212	420	445
Dublin	115	4	12		19	55	200	300
Dry stouts	116	1	17		10	45	189	190
Edinburgh	120	25	55		20	140	225	350
Malty ales, low bitterness	120	24	50		50	123	224	248
London	50	20	100		60	80	160	400
Porter	50	14	62		74	82	160	174
Munich	75	20	10		2	10	200	250
Dark malty lagers	76	1	2		10	1	119	120
Pilzen	7	2	2		5	5	15	30
Light lagers	2	1	2		10	1	8	9
Vienna	200	60	8		12	125	120	750
Oktoberfest	192	1	2		10	126	214	215

Water treatment is another tool for the all-grain brewer to use to control the yield of the mash and flavor of the finished beer. The different flavor profiles associated with each style depend in part on the pH, mineral content, and hardness of the brewing water. However, your mash will tolerate significant deviations in mineral content from those found in the city of a particular style's origin, and in fact avoiding the extremes of some cities' water is probably a good idea. The minimalist approach is best; start on the low side, experiment, take good notes, record your results, and adjust accordingly the next time.