BREWING WATER - DEMYSTIFIED - PART 1 | THE MALT MILLER HOME BREWING CHANNEL

The murky topic of brewing water can feel overwhelming, but taking the time to understand it can fundamentally elevate your homebrew quality. In this first video of our two-part series, we’re tackling water treatment with the help of brewing expert and multi-award-winning homebrewer, Fraser Withers of Middlechild Brewing.

Fraser shares his insights and simplifies the topic, making it accessible for all brewers, regardless of skill level. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your process, this guide will help you make better beer by perfecting your water.

Want to go deeper? Check out these resources:

Stay tuned for Part Two, dropping next week! Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more homebrewing tips and tricks.

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[SCROWMD]

Excellent overview Men, thank you. I was amazed how much better my brews became after I (finally ) understood water chemistry. My source water is well water, so I went with an R.O. system right away. This gives me a clean slate to begin the additions. The salts are inexpensive and small additions make marked changes. Do not fear the science fellow brewers.

[AnalogueInTheUK]

A marvellous video for the Sunday morning brewer. I was preparing my water for a Vic Secret Pale as this episode popped into my notifications!

My water journey has been:

1. Use tap water (and Sodium Metabisulphate)

2. Treated tap water with CRS

3. Treated tap water cut with Ashbeck

4. R.O. water cut with treated tap water and tweaked with lactic acid

The quality of my beers has measurably improved, every time I moved to the next step.

I now regularly check the mash ph throughout the mashing process and have been surprised as to how much it changes, once the enzymes get to work and the circulation gets all the wort moving.

Brewfather has been a godsend for me.

[billybass]

Invaluable info, thanks for covering this. Water in my area is hard/very hard and even doing extract brews I noticed the difference using bottled spring water, it really was night and day. Now putting together kit for all grain it's getting more important so to begin i will spend again on the bottled water for an easy intro but feel like learning some of this subject is absolutely necessary.

[benreast]

Really good stuff malt miller, very informative and inspiring. The features you put out now are top tier stuff for the homebrew community.

[ianlaker]

Excellent video. Over the last year I have been properly getting to grips with water chemistry and this explains it very clearly. I've already learnt some very useful stuff.

[paskrell]

Great video. My approach is brewfather and my local profile. Acidulated malt to 5.3 which ends always 5.2-5.4 the salts to profile. If I need softer than I have I add destillier water. It dials it in nicely. I’d love to RO but don’t brew enough.

[IKeiller]

Amazing video, thank you definitely going to try this out on my next brew

[owencampbell]

Great video lads. Really useful and informative.

[leewadey]

Really good video. Opened my eyes even more as water is a big issue for my brewing. Living in the Suffolk countryside the tap water is high chlorine and alkalinity of 372 mg/l. Have used Ashbeck and then recently had to use Tesco's Elmshurst as an alternative without realising that it has a higher ph at source. Looking forward to Sunday's video to see what I can do to get my mash ph somewhere near the levels you guys are talking about. Thanks again.

[lindsaywilks]

Very informative. I've had my tap water profile print out hanging around in a file for a couple of years now. I'll be watching the video again with it alongside me and and at last getting some meaningful information from it. Looking forward to part two.

[janeprice]

Fantastic video, thanks Fraser and James, can't wait for the next one! I always had a mental block about water chemistry but Fraser's beers are the proof that it is worth getting to grips with. Will you be stocking Fraser's pH pen? it has jumped to the top of my gadgets list

[metalheadmutthomebrew]

Top video!
I moved to Tesco Ashbeck very early on. My tap water just made my beer taste terrible, even after Sodium Metabisulfate additions. I now use Ashbeck as a base and alter my water chemistry based on what I'm trying to brew. Other than fermentation temperature control, getting to grips with my water has been one of the best 'upgrades' I've made and massively improved my beer.
As always, cheers for the awesome content 🍻

[RichardHill-bile]

Great video - water and ph are 2 things I need to sort out for my home brewing.
Interesting to hear Fraser saying you can adjust your ph in the mash "on the fly" as I was at a talk by Andy Parker recently who said you couldn't do it that way and you could only make adjustments in your next brew!

[davec]

I'm in SE London and got a Murphy's analysis for my tap and also for Spotless Water which costs about 4 pence per litre and better than RO.
If you are lucky enough to have a Spotless water supply close to you I would thoroughly recommend it.
Check their website for locations.

[marclappin]

Fantastic video! Looking forward to part two. Idea for TMM, why not make up a starter set for additions with the what has been recommend on this video?

[fokkedeboer]

Excellent video once again! Thank you, I saved for later reference. And I will be putting a pH meter on my wishlist for sure! Any recommendations for a good but not too expensive one?

[MartinSmith-egvi]

Just great info on water chemistry, just to confirm you kept mentioning sodium metabisulphAte when think you meant sodium metabisulfite. Two different chemicals.

[JimCinUK]

Really great video which has helped my understanding already. Worth pointing out that your home water supply can change profile regularly. So that Murphy water profile report I got a few years ago is definitely not valid now! Going to have a play with an aquarium water testing kit to see if can help me…..otherwise it’s RO for me!

[jcbrew]

Love it! Im no expert, but pretty sure bicarbonate is not the enemy when you’re trying to Raise your pH, like when mashing with lots of dark/roasted grains. Then again, you probably covered that later.

[petersmith]

I’ve looked at Brunwater and have to say very good BUT I always brew via Brewfather and using their water calculator makes things much easier as all the malts/amounts are already.
Plus, once you get your original water logged, all you need to do is decide on the water profile you want or use the drop down list to chose and it’s done automatically