hops2it

Recipes 

ajdelange,
Thanks for the responses. I've read the primer you mentioned, at least the OP and several of the responses. Although it does indeed mention some rules of thumb, I'd like to ask you a very specific question if I may.

Let's say I'm making a simple Pale Ale...Edwort's Haus Pale Ale for example:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

I will also list again my profile (Ca and Mg in ion form this time) to save scrolling:

pH 9.5
Total Alk 44
Total Hardness 126
Ca 21.5
Mg 17.5
Carbonate 24
Bicarbonate 42
Chloride 19
Sulfate 25
Pottasium 2.0
Sodium 8.7
Iron 0.028

Now you noted some inconsistencies in my carbonate/bicarbonate ratio which is correct but adjust if desired to corrolate to our typical pH of 9.5. Here comes the actual question and it's somewhat based on this earlier comment:

What exactly would you do to my water if you were brewing the above mentioned recipe for your own? I would really appreciate knowing what you would add to the water, in what quantity and why. Perhaps that well help me better understand the philisophy if you wouldn't mind taking the time. Thanks in advance.

ajdelange

Recipes 

Now I understand the source of your question about balance. What I meant when I said that 44 ppm alkalinity wasn't enough to balance the hardness I was referring to the electrical balance of the report. In other words, your report is shy of anions by an appreciable amount (around 1 mEq/L). That isn't something that you can do any thing about. You have the data you have and the fact that there is such an imbalance invalidates those data as an adequate description of the water. Actually, your situation is different from most. You can walz into the lab and say "Hey guys, this water profile doesn't balance. WTF?" in the hopes they'll give you better data.

What would I do with this water and the given ale recipe were I you? I'd try to run down the imbalance question. If I got numbers like these I'd re-run the alkalinity titration and the calcium and magnesium hardness tests. Then sulfate and chloride. Either the actual water contains a lot more bicarbonate, sulfate and/or chloride than the numbers indicate or a lot less sodium, calcium and magnesium. You might want to consider sending a sample from your tap off to Ward Labs who do a pretty good report for pretty low $.

The reason this is important is because if your alkalinity is really 44 you can brew the beer you are interested in without doing anything except adding a little sauermalz or lactic acid. If it is really closer to 100 you would have to watch the situation more closely. The bottom line is that I can't make a recommendation as to what to do with this water without a report than balances to 0.2 mEq/L or so. These data are out of whack by 1 mEq/L. That can represent a swing of 50 ppm hardness or alkalinity or a large deviation in some other ion's concentration.

The other approach is to start with a clean sheet of paper, as they say. This means obtaining RO water, adding some calcium chloride and/or calcium sulfate and brewing with that. This is the method of the Primer and would certainly get you a decent beer while you are waiting for the water report question to resolve.

hops2it

Recipes 

Awesome response, thanks again. I can absolutely verify the alkalinity number as I do that test myself every day on our finished water. That number of 44 was actually a little low right now. Nearly every day, I get a total alk of around 52 (+ or - 2). Phenol alk = typically 20, total alk = 52.

I don't deal with the tests for Ca, Mg, chloride and sulfate. We have a certified lab on site that does all those tests and many more and I did NOT do them justice by the way I pulled data randomly from the spreadsheet. In fact I feel a bit embarrassed about my rammy approach. I should have known better so that is my fault entirely. I will check with our lead chemist and get new, verifiable data for those parameters but what I'm really excited about is this:

Thanks again, you have been most helpful.