1:55 BEER SALTS 4:06 CITY WATER 7:20 RO WATER 9:00 DISTILLED WATER 11:00 BREWERS FRIEND

Braj! Love the new vid, the enthusiasm, and making this material accessible to people. Biochem PhD student here and I think I can offer some unprompted clarity that no one asked for. There are a few terms I think you mixed up in the early part of the video but its really not the end of the world: When you're talking abut positive and negative elements you mean positive and negative ions. What differentiates elements from one another is the number of protons they have (also elements can be different isotopes based on how many neutrons they have). Protons and neutrons hang out in an atom's nucleus and electrons surround the nucleus. Atoms start out at a neutral charge, having the same number of protons and electrons, but some elements either want more electrons or want to ditch their electrons based on other chemistry mumbo jumbo that's not that important right now. Once atoms obtain a charge (either by gaining electrons, becoming negative, or losing electrons, becoming positive) we call them ions. The plus or minus next to the element's symbol refer to the charge on the ion. These ions are very soluble in water and a salt is just an inorganic (meaning it lacks carbons) ionic compound, made up of a balance of positive and negative charges, that is dry and not dissolved in water. Think of Na+ and Cl- making table salt, NaCl, or Ca2+ and SO4 2- making up gypsum, CaSO4. I'm pretty sure RO filters take advantage of the presence of these charges to hold onto/hold back the ions while pushing through (relatively) pure water. To get closer to pure you would need "deionized" water, which has the ions removed and is something we use in the lab, but for brewing this is waaaaay overkill and would be prohibitively expensive (you need special equipment to obtain it). Even distilled water isn't totally pure and you can look up water reports for different companies online that have all the dissolved solids listed. Using it still probably is the best/most cost effective was to get the closest reasonable thing to pure water and definitely makes sense if your seeing weird stuff with your seltzer. From parts of the country where drinking water mostly comes from reservoirs that collect rainwater runoff and is treated at plants, the water is pretty soft. Hard water is generally common where municipalities get their drinking water from underground aquifers. So if you're in the middle of the country you're dealing with hard water and if it rains a lot where you're at you might have soft water. Tap water does often have chlorine or chloramine which can be a real problem, but I just heat my strike water with a crushed campden tablet and hope for the best. Haven't been burned yet! Your point about picking stuff up in the old pipes on the way from the plant, however, is a great one, and now I'm really curious about what's in mine! Also, John and Mike, local NE boys from the youtube channel Brew Dudes, have some great insight on water chem. Now with the boring stuff out of the way: I don't know as much as I'd like to about the biochemistry of the enzymes in the mash, but it makes a lot of sense to me that they would be most efficient if they have an optimal concentration of certain ions, notably calcium and magnesium ions, in solution, since these are very common cofactors necessary for the function of plenty of enzymes. Picking optimal salt concentrations goes hand in hand with selecting an optimal mash temp and pH: the enzymes work best over specific ranges of all of these things and what we pick allows the variety of enzymes in the mash to function well and convert the starch to sweet wort. It's crazy to think how much we know about it now and still brajs thousands of years before us at least mostly figured out how to make it work. Aite essay over, keep spreading the way of the braj. Lmk if you ever want a second set of eyes on chemistry scripts so you don't have to deal with nerds like me in the comments lol edit: weird formatting

Yessssssss thank you!!!! I have been looking forever for a water salts video that explains it. Instead of just waving big words around. YOU DA MANNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I have watched SO MANY videos on water chemistry and this was the only one I found that showed a step by step on how to figure out how much of each beer salt to add. Thanks for making it! I’m subscribing!!!

Nice to see you maintaining Homebrew especially for us staying at home! MBC!!

Thanks Braj!

We live in Olympia, home to many artesian well sites. All of our brewing water comes from Well #56, the same water once used for Olympia Beer. We add a teaspoon of gypsum and that's it. Why mess with it? In Florida, I could smell the drinking water.

ive watched a hundred water vids and this is by far the most entertaining. Thanks for the knowledge

Great Value spring water works pretty good across the board.

I have just did my first brew today and somehow found your channel. Great content and amazing format, keep it up dude :)

Thanks CH, very informative, I’m gonna run with this and see what happens. Keep the videos coming. Keeps me inspired to try new things.

Great info on water !

Thanks for this! This is exactly what I've been looking for. Props to you for putting this together.

Thanks for the excellent tutorial. cheers

This definitely gave me some insight. I’ll be brewing a 1 gallon all grain batch and kegging it using brewers friend

I like your videos - you make everything so simple braj

Great video, you make it easy and fun. looking forward to the next one.

New year, and this is exactly what i needed up upgrade my homebew EXP. Water Chemistry +10, THANKS CH

Dude!!! This is awesome. Perhaps the best 19:00 beer video I’ve watched. I’ve been trying to wrap me little brain around this. Excellent explanation. Thanks for the time and hard work you’ve been doing. Love the content!!

Great video! New to extract brewing and gobbling up knowledge and I enjoy your layman’s approach to brewing. Subscribed!

Thanks for making this video CH. Informative video! Cheers!

Great video! I switched back to tap water from grabbing distilled so I don't have to go to the store every time I want to brew / take up shelf space with gallon water jugs. Now I use an RV hose (food safe), an rv filter on the end, and some campden tablets to take out the chlorine. Adjust for my profile and so far it's been pretty great!

Just what the people wanted!!! Good stuff buddy, always coming through clutch.

Top notch video Braj

Just picked up an Anvil 10.5 system w/ pump! Thanks for all the info braj. I was looking forward to this video, perfect timing! Cheers!

Thank you for the really clear video! Makes this all seem very approachable. Carlsbad is great!

I’ve been brewing for 30 years and I love how you approached the most complicated aspect of beer, the water. Well done! Yes, you could get a degree in this and work on just water at a major brewery. I don’t think you scared away any beginners. Cheers!

was so excited hearing about this on the brajcast

Pure Genius!

when i started homebrewing.. this channel was my Mecca. Cheers bro!

Breaking Braj.

Welcome to the new year bra braj

Great video, thanks

Water sounds like it’s the silent player in great beer! Thanks for the info. Definitely will be stepping up my chemistry skills for 2021.🍻🍻🍻

Sick video dude

great video!

Thehun, digging deep! Love it

Thanks for coming down from the mountain!! The beer goggles are “on” and I’m ready to swim in RO water !!

Havent even watched this and I'm liking it. Been wondering about for a little bit

Snap, crackle, and braj! Needed all this info!! Cheers

My homebrew shop sells salt mixes for like 2-3 bucks per 5 gal batch. They have 9 different mixes for different styles. Time to mix my own salts.

Good video man. I've been getting into water chemistry recently but still have so much to learn. Over in London our tap water is super super hard, good for dark beers and not much else. For my most recent IPA brew, I used BeerSmith and a local water report to calculate a blend of tap water and the bottled mineral water from a local shop (super soft) to get a water profile with a 1:1 ratio. Just needed 1 gram each of gypsum and calcium chloride. Blending saved me money on water, I needed to add less salts, and saved me the effort of carrying an extra 5 litres back from the local shop. I don't know what the point of this comment was, other than blending water made me feel like an alchemist.

Nice job! Learned a lot here

Super informative and helpful video, would love to see a video on yeast washing from a finished fermentation, Cheers Braj!

brilliant Thanks!!

CH blinded me with science! This is an awesome video, super easy to understand!

siiiiiick video braj!! keep it up!! 🍻🤘

This video was worth the wait. I usually use Brewers friend so this is perfect for me. HB4L gold right here. Just to throw in my two cents. If you want ro water at home a saltwater filter system is the way to go. Not too expensive but its slow. Just pipe it to a large cooler or a Brute trash barrel with a lid. Put a float valve inside. you get anywhere from 25 to 200 gallons per day depending on the system. Get the electronic ppm meter. I got mine at bulk reef supply. Thanks Braj.

Now we’re talkin!!

New brew today - using distilled water for the first time, but don't have a ton of beer salts on hand, so I mashed with my tap water (wicked hard) and sparged with distilled water. Ended up getting dang near perfect the water chemistry I wanted. Probably gonna go this route for the near future until I get more acquainted with all the brewing salts.

Braj, your beard was magnificent!!!

intro is still my favorite of the youtube channels I follow

Awesome! I’m ditching city water and heading to distilled.

BRAJ, Best Brew Videos!

It is very much true that beer salts have been tied to beer styles. The first recorded attempts at brewers in Europe trying to replicate an English ale are adding salts (most often gypsum) to approximate Burton England water. I've tended to follow the Dublin target for stouts...which thought has been that increasing bicarbonate levels help with keeping astringency at bay. Dang KZfaq: have great external link about European water chemistry....but won't keep my post if I do try to link.

Awesome video again dude! The best homebrew channel on KZfaq by far. Thanks for putting these out. You've helped me out a lot. PS FF6 and Chrono Trigger too close to call man.

Dude you helped me so much. I use 100% distilled water and have been trying to figure out how to build my water chemistry since March’s lock down. You made Brewersfriend understandable. Could you put salt additions for basic beer styles (Wheat, IPA, NEIPA, Amber, Porter, Stout) building from 100% distilled water somewhere - NO ONE has done this (I have search online and in books) for 100% distilled /RO water and it seems so simple. You did it for 3 types of beer style in the video- THANKS!!

What a legend

I thank you

Good video. Brewing with tap water is a kook move. Word. This inspired me to move to distilled water ... using Brewer's Friend calculators and keep' it simple. Cheers.

About to reference this is the “Water” Episode on my Learn To Brew series. Loving the in-depth talk, Start calling you “Braj Palmer”. Smashed the Link Video like everyone watching this should!

Thehun was the ultimate throwback

By far the funniest dam thing I have heard all day.... "Turkey Juice!" LMAO! :)

Turkey Jizz! LMAO!! 9:34

always enjoy your videos man! perfect balance of entertainment and education, i’m from monterey CA , we should brew together sometime brotha 🤙🏽💯

Great video. Full disclosure though, I started paying more attention to Zelda behind you. Kidding! Thanks for what you guys do!

3:34 umm reading material studies !!😏 Ohh your too much !!! Lol

Dude this video is so fucking dope and now what dude at the home brew store was talking about makes wayyyyy more sense. Thank you! Lol

Your can find most of this elsewhere, but it wouldn't be NEARLY as entertaining! Vids lookin' good CH, great info, keep it comin'!

Hell yeah!

So glad I brew with Seattle water. No need to start with distilled its so soft. Get your calcium chloride at a pool store

I have well water. I haven’t had an assay ran on my water but the most noticeable thing in the water is iron (toilet/shower/sink stained red). Tastes great tho, pipes are good. Just getting into home brew, putting together a 10 gal brew house. ‘preciate the content braj.

ChronoTrigger no question!

A salt is a metal + a nonmetal. Sodium(metal) Chloride(nonmetal) which is NaCl which is table salt. Sea salt. Salty salt.

I use a pro one water filter for all of my beer water.🍻

Probably the most boring subject on brewing....you found a way to condense it down and make it enjoyable. Great video, Cheers!!!!

Love your blog and I didn't know you lived in New York? And drink of water while talking on the show that's bad dude

Found out some useful information I’d like to share. So using R.O is pretty much as close as it gets to distilled water ( 7 ph, or 0 ppm using TDS meter). What you can do instead of buying 10 gallons of distilled water for $10 is go to a R.O water machine and using a TDS meter to measure the ppm. You want to get to as close at 0 ppm and use that instead of distilled, which is way cheaper for pretty much the same thing. I went to 4 water machines near me and the lowest one I found was 4ppm, which isn’t that bad so I’m going to use that specific water machine for brewing and 5 gallons is 1.75 $

Chrono Trigger by far braj

I'm multiple beers in on my SAT night and I'm totally Brajin! I have to pee...

Usually use me some RO water, but if I get lazy, straight from the tap for a bit of slightly above health standards lead / arsenic well water. After this, I'm going to try to distill some water (only about 20 hours on the trusty moonshine machine). Looking forward to upping my game. And also not dying of arsenic or lead poisoning.

I'm sooo confused?!! I like your shirt though!! Definitely a good idea to use distilled water and start from scratch. I do like my RO system though! 👍🍻 Cheers Braj!!

Great stuff. Can you talk about 5.2 stabilizer? I know that its sold as a quick fix but Im not convinced its effective or even useful. Im new to water chemistry and it can be complicated but thanks for the great content delivered as only you can do. Cheers.

today im going to learn how to make better tasting beer while drinking shitty cheap beer. a buzz is a buzz baby. thanks for the video and looking forward to what all you have in store for 2021. thanks guys for your continued hard work.

Buy your own RO filter (with TDS meter if you’re feeling fancy), save the single-use plastic over buying distilled.

Your intro feels like I’m waiting longer for the show to start than a joe rogan podcast

If they add minerals back to the water it makes it pretty useless I think. Especially if they won't tell you what they add. Might as well use tap then.

Braj, I use well water and have never looked far into the profile....however I just picked up the Lamont water test kit and not sure if that was necessary but it came with a decent ph meter. Thoughts on well water.

Sulfate and carbonate are not elements. Those are polyatomic ions. Great video though thanks. I learned a lot and I will apply it to my next batch.

Awesome content and channel, learning a lot from you. Keep up the great work! So what you are saying is, if I use the calculations you suggested with distilled water and style of beers you used for examples, these totals could be used in my own brewing with distilled water. In other words I could use these same weights? If using distilled water?

I understand that those are the additions for strike /mash would you want to make any changes to the sparge water ?? thanks

Water taste good.

Yea! That's how you use a green screen! I'm one of the trolls you talk about on the brajcast. You got my subscribe & like again BOOM. Now you have to. It's a must to do the MBC clip on the green screen behind you during the brajcast. EDIT: You forgot to mention. Just ask the water scientist from Flint Michigan HOW TO.....

Today we’re in a hurry and gonna skip to the RO part. ❤

What's your thoughts on the blue labs ph reader?

So do u start with all zeros when using “Glacier” RO water????

CH A Salt is a misdemeanor.

Chrono Trigger

This is great. What would you recommend for a Hazy Ipa with the West Coast profile as a starting point? I guess you'd need less SO.

So how many grams would you do for a NEIPA? Would you just reverse the amount of gypsum and calcium chloride? 3g gypsum and 6g calcium chloride?