yet another water report question

jcramer · 06-16-2011, 05:04 PM

Hi, yet another water report question. How does mine look? This is from my tap, filtered through a carbon filter.

Does the ph seem a little low? I thought most tap water was slightly above 7, I haven't seen any below, until now. (This is from Ward Labs)

Thanks!!

pH 6.6
Total Disolved Solids Est 85
Electrical Conductivity 0.14
Cations/Anions 0.9/0.9
Sodium 3
Calcium 13
Magnesium 1
Potassium < 1
Total Hardness CaCO3 37
Nitrate 0.3 (SAFE)
Sulfur 9
Carbonate < 1
BiCarbonate 9
Chloride 6
Total Alkalinity 8

**profarm** · 06-16-2011, 06:10 PM

WOW you could do anything with that water...looks awesome

**Toad32** · 06-16-2011, 06:19 PM

I would trade ya!

jcramer · 06-16-2011, 06:27 PM

lol, yeah, I thought it was pretty low on everything. I can just add whatever I want pretty easily. I just thought the ph was unusual to be on the low side. I thought normally they made tap water a little alkaline. I see a lot of other reports between 7.5-8.5. I guess I was just wondering if it's possibly a mistake?

GreggZ · 06-16-2011, 06:37 PM

I have pretty similiar water. Make sure you add salts to fit the style when you can. When I was an extract brewer it didnt seem to matter much but once I switched to all grain I had issues. All of my hop foward style beers were alot less bitter/hoppy then I intended them to be.

**ajdelange** · 06-16-2011, 08:17 PM

The only potential problem I see here is the sulfate. If it came from a Ward Labs report "Sulfate as S" then the sulfate as sulfate is actually 27 and that's enough to ruin a beer made with noble hops. Simple matter to cut 1+1 with RO water to get that under control though.

pH of 6.6 is not at all low for a well. However to have it come out of your tap and make it to Ward Labs with the pH that low means that you had to have been very careful to fill the sample bottle completely full, cap on overflow etc. If this is municipal water then 6.6 would be a little low. The usual goal is to keep the pH of the water just a bit above the saturation pH (the pH at which calcium carbonate precipitates) in order that a film of calcite be deposited in the distribution mains thus protecting them from corrosion.

jcramer · 06-16-2011, 08:59 PM

oh yeah, forgot to mention, it is municipal water. That's what I thought too, a well might be low naturally, but I thought municipal always tried to keep it a little higher than 7.

Funny you mention noble hops, I recently made a Chech Pilz and used Saaz exclusively. Not bad, but there is a distinct lemony note. I was wondering if that was from the hops or maybe from the yeast?

**ajdelange** · 06-16-2011, 10:05 PM

The usual complaint is that the fine bittering usually associated with Saaz is destroyed. Lemony is a new one on me. Which yeast strain?

jcramer · 06-17-2011, 12:01 PM

I used White Labs, WLP800. Pitched slurry from 3 qt starter at 58 deg. and kept at 51 for 10 days. Then did a diacytel rest at 65 for about 4 days, then lagered at 38 for a month.

**ajdelange** · 06-17-2011, 01:03 PM

I've used that strain with success but never any lemon-like flavors that I can remember. I've switched to the Wyeast Budvar strain because my LHBS doesn't carry White Labs and because beers I brew with the Budvar strain taste more like Budvar than beers brewed with the PU strain taste like PU but I never had a problem with the PU.