Water Quality/Chemistry Report Thread

[ArcaneXor]

This thread is intended to serve as a repository for water quality reports, enabling new brewers and brewers who have not had any luck obtaining this information from their local utility or bottled water provider to check their tap water for brewing suitability.

Please post information about your local water in this thread. If possible, follow the template provided below. Note that if your utility/bottled water provider switches between multiple water sources (e.g. a surface reservoir and ground water), your water chemistry may change frequently and unpredictably.

To maximize the usefulness of this thread, please post questions or discussions in a separate thread.

Useful resources:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Water for Extract Brewing
How to Brew - By John Palmer - Understanding the Mash pH
Water and Homebrewing

Location: Gainesville, Florida
Utility: Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU)
Water Source: Floridan Aquifer (rear-round)
Interannual/Intra-annual variability: low
Disinfectant: Chlorine (doubtful, it's more than likely chloramine)
Date: January 2009

All results in mg/L-

Calcium 27.0
Magnesium 17.0
Sodium 11.3
Chloride 27.1
Sulfate 71.8
Ammonia 0.24
Nitrite 0.03
Nitrate 0.02
pH 8.6
Hardness as CaCO3 132
Alkalinity as CaCO3 55

[KingBrianI]

Location: Durham, NC
Utility: Durham County
Water Source: ?
Interannual/Intra-annual variability: ?
Disinfectant: Chlorine
Date: January 2009

All results in mg/L-

Calcium 4.6
Magnesium 2.1
Sodium 25
Chloride 10
Sulfate 41
Ammonia --
Nitrite <0.10
Nitrate <1.0
pH 6.8
Hardness as CaCO3 20
Alkalinity as CaCO3 17

[Brew-Happy]

Location: Lubbock, TX
Utility: Lubbock County
Water Source: Ground&Surface
Interannual/Intra-annual variability: ?
Disinfectant: Chlorine
Date: 2007
Source: Lubbock - Water Department - Water Quality Report
All results in mg/L-

Calcium 62.4
Magnesium 35
Sodium 232*
Chloride 319
Sulfate 215
Ammonia 0.49
Nitrite 0.13
Nitrate 1.01
pH ?
Hardness as CaCO3 283
Alkalinity as CaCO3 233

* This is an average over several years.

Note: Many of these levels were the maximum level detected. I am reporting them as they are more important to me than just daily average.

I made these graphs based on the water quality reports from Lubbock Water Dept. I will keep them up to date, but if they are too much I will take them down.

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Sticky please- and then remove this post cheers and a prost for an awesome idea

[jds]

For Denver and any suburbs taking water from the Foothills, Marston, or Moffat treatment plants. Data from http://www.denverwater.org/waterquality/pdfs/TreatedWQSummaryReport2007.pdf






Gotta love those cold groundwater temps!
Good Idea, arcaneXor

[wildwest450]

Sparta, Tn. (Bon Air Mt.)


TAP WATER
pH 7.9
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 28
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.05
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.4 / 0.4
ppm
Sodium, Na 3
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 4
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 14
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 2
Chloride, Cl 4
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 9
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 8
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit


SPRING WATER (spring on old bon air rd.)
pH 5.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 40
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.07
Cations / Anions, me/L 0.2 / 0.1
ppm
Sodium, Na 1
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 2
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 9
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S < 1
Chloride, Cl < 1
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 3
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 3
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

[SpanishCastleAle]

This is for Zephyrhills Bottled Water (two types):

Spring Water (ppm)
Ca - 58
Mg - 4
Na - 5
CO3 - 140
SO4 - 8
Cl - 11
pH - 7.7

Drinking Water (ppm)
Ca - 60
Mg - 6
Na - 7
CO3 - 190
SO4 - 21
Cl - 11
pH - 8.0

Perhaps a little pathetic that I knew those from memory.

[Big10Seaner]

2007 report for Ottawa, IL

http://www.mediakitonline.com/pdfs/waterquality2007.pdf

[MacBruver]

Mesa Water District
Costa Mesa, CA

There aren't too many water sources here in CA, so this probably applies for large portions of orange county, too. All data taken from this page: http://www.mesawater.org/pdf/2008_WaterQualityReport.pdf

Calcium 50
Magnesium 10
Sodium 72
Chloride 62
Sulfate 72
Ammonia n/a
Nitrite 2
Nitrate 0.4
pH 8.2
Hardness as CaCO3 201
Alkalinity as CaCO3 93

[camiller]

Originally Posted by jds

For Denver and any suburbs taking water from the Foothills, Marston, or Moffat treatment plants. Data from http://www.denverwater.org/waterquality/pdfs/TreatedWQSummaryReport2007.pdf


Gotta love those cold groundwater temps!
Good Idea, arcaneXor

So when you have multiple water sources with differing degrees of hardness and no real way to tell how the water dept. is blending them how do you make brewing decisions regarding tweaking your water? Here in Omaha we have a similar situation and how they are blended varies over the course of the year depending on availability at the various sources.


Omaha Water Quality Reports

Mineral analysis (averages for 2007)
                                            Florence   Platte South   Peaking
                           Unit            Plant         Plant        Wells
pH (in pH units)                            8.72          8.79         7.20
Alkalinity(total) as CaCO3  ppm               94           140          264
Aluminum                    ppm             0.24         <0.03        <0.03
Calcium                     ppm               49            46           90
Chloride                    ppm               23            41          8.6
Color(in cobalt platinum units)  ppm           1             4            1
Dissolved Solids (total, calculated)ppm      457           411          574
Hardness(total) as CaCO3  grains per gallon   12            10           17
Iron                        ppm            <0.02         <0.02         0.03
Magnesium                   ppm               18            12           20
Manganese                   ppm           <0.002        <0.002        <0.02
Phosphate                   ppm             0.05          0.46         0.56
Silica                      ppm              9.9          25.4         32.1
Zinc                        ppm           <0.002        <0.002        <0.01