jlangfo5

Recipes 

Hey guys! I was wondering if anyone would be willing to point out anything interesting about my local water! I don't plan on getting into modifying my water just yet, but I was just wondering if anything could be said for current water?

PH----------------------7.5
Na----------------------10
Ca----------------------19
Mg----------------------6
Cl-----------------------13
SO4---------------------24
CO3---------------------78
Alkalinity----------------64
Hardness----------------73
Fluoride------------------1.16
Fe------------------------~0
Nitrate ------------------.5
Total Dissolved Solids--149

pabloj13

Recipes 

That water is...really nice. Use a simple spreadsheet like Bru'N Water. I was resistant to it too, but it's very easy. You won't need to modify much.

__________________

Kegged Two Hearted, Dragonmead Final Absolution
Bottled Robust porter, Founder's Breakfast Stout, Ommegawd Hellepin, Ed Wort's Apfelwein
RIP Snake Dog IPA, Biermuncher's OktoberFAST, Falconer's Flight IPA, Two-Hearted clone (Culturing Bell's Yeast), Noberon wheat, Skeeter Pee using dry yeast, Smooth Oatmeal Stout

Simple and easy wort aeration - Harvest yeast from your blowoff - Homebrew Spicy Mustard

jlangfo5

Recipes 

I just took a look at the spread sheet that you recommended, it seems like a really great tool! I am curious though, what makes the water I described nice? Is it nice in that it can be easily modified, or does it have some stuff in it already that is beneficial?

pabloj13

Recipes 

Really balanced, easily modified. For example, if you were going to make a pale ale, just a smidge of calcium chloride and you're good to go. Does your municipality use chlorine or chloramine?

__________________

Kegged Two Hearted, Dragonmead Final Absolution
Bottled Robust porter, Founder's Breakfast Stout, Ommegawd Hellepin, Ed Wort's Apfelwein
RIP Snake Dog IPA, Biermuncher's OktoberFAST, Falconer's Flight IPA, Two-Hearted clone (Culturing Bell's Yeast), Noberon wheat, Skeeter Pee using dry yeast, Smooth Oatmeal Stout

Simple and easy wort aeration - Harvest yeast from your blowoff - Homebrew Spicy Mustard

jlangfo5

Recipes 

I am not sure to be honest which they use actually. This is good news though it seems, I am not quite at the point yet where I am ready to start playing with my water chemistry, still need to nail down my mash efficiency issues, but i found this report today and wanted to know what I was already working with! Thanks for the information!

pabloj13

Recipes 

The chlorine/chloramine thing is important to know. Chlorine will just boil off during your brew day. However, chloramine is harder to get rid of. I just use Campden tablets and that's super easy. I know it's tempting to leave water for after mash efficiency is worked out, but I'd caution against that. I was having mash efficiency problems BECAUSE of my water. I had low calcium in my water and that is a necessary cofactor for the amylase enzymes. Yours is pretty low too (not as low as mine was) so it's something as simple as adding a teaspoon of Calcium chloride would go a long way. It would potentially help your efficiency and it will help your hops "pop" more.

__________________

Kegged Two Hearted, Dragonmead Final Absolution
Bottled Robust porter, Founder's Breakfast Stout, Ommegawd Hellepin, Ed Wort's Apfelwein
RIP Snake Dog IPA, Biermuncher's OktoberFAST, Falconer's Flight IPA, Two-Hearted clone (Culturing Bell's Yeast), Noberon wheat, Skeeter Pee using dry yeast, Smooth Oatmeal Stout

Simple and easy wort aeration - Harvest yeast from your blowoff - Homebrew Spicy Mustard

jlangfo5

Recipes 

I did some quick research and we actually use chlorine dioxide to treat our water here. In my last brew, I only had around 55% efficency from my single infusion mash using a batch sparge, so I might experiment with adding some CaCl to my water. Where do you get your food grade CaCl from?

afr0byte

Recipes 

Chlorine should be treated before using too. Chlorine will boil off, but you're not boiling it before you're mashing with it (or at least I know most breweries don't boil their water before mashing..that I know of).

jlangfo5

Recipes 

I do run my water through a Breta filter before it goes into the mash and it is advertised to remove 99% of chlorine, I do wonder what else it could be removing too...

Edit!

It appears that water filtration through activated carbon such as a Brita filter removes an average of 90% of the calcium in the water, that could be a problem!

pabloj13

Recipes 

I just got mine from my LHBS. I think Whole Foods carries it too.

__________________

Kegged Two Hearted, Dragonmead Final Absolution
Bottled Robust porter, Founder's Breakfast Stout, Ommegawd Hellepin, Ed Wort's Apfelwein
RIP Snake Dog IPA, Biermuncher's OktoberFAST, Falconer's Flight IPA, Two-Hearted clone (Culturing Bell's Yeast), Noberon wheat, Skeeter Pee using dry yeast, Smooth Oatmeal Stout

Simple and easy wort aeration - Harvest yeast from your blowoff - Homebrew Spicy Mustard