PowPow

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I just started looking into my water quality. The full chart of my water can be found here:
http://www.vasyd.se/SiteCollectionDocuments/Vatten%20och%20avlopp/Dricksvatten/Malmö%20Juni%202012.pdf

It's in swedish though, but here are the numbers that I have seen other people post:
pH: 8.3
Sodium, Na: 33
Calcium, Ca: 31
Magnesium, Mg: 7.6
Sulfate, SO4: 30
Chloride, Cl: 25
Bicarbonate, HCO3: 130
Chlorine: 0.04

Any numbers that I'm missing?

Anything extraordinary that I absolutely should address?

I have got the John Palmer BYO book, so I will be looking into that as well.

PowPow

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Just to clarify: The numbers in the far right column are not the numbers of my water, It's the highest number allowed by our food administration.

My numbers are found in the middle column.

aiptasia

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Pretty low across the board. Here's Palmer's recommendations:

Ca: 30-50
Mg: 10-30
Na: 0 - 150
Cl: 0 - 250
SO4: 50-350

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PowPow

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Is there an updated recommendation? In the book it says recommended Ca 50-150 ppm?

PowPow

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Anyhow.. I tried the EZ Water calculator and if I add gypsym and epsom salt i get into the range 50-150 in Ca, and my mash PH gets down to about 5.5 (from ~5.65 that I got from some of my latest grain bills). I got up to the upper lever of S04, but still within the max 350 range.

So Gypsym and Epsom salt.. Good idea? What else would you do, if anything?

ajf

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I wouldn't add Epsom Salts. If you need the SO4, you can get that from Gypsum. You shouldn't need Mg as malt already contains an adequate supply (according to George Fix).
I also don't think I'd like to get the SO4 close to the upper level, unless I were brewing a very strong IPA.
You may find that some CaCl2 could be used to replace the Epsom Salts and some of the Gypsum to get the required pH adjustment without having excessive SO4.

-a.

__________________
There are only 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

mabrungard

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Palmer's recommendations are outdated. Here are the recommendations contained in Bru'n Water:

Ca: 10 to 150 ppm, but should be above 40 in most cases
Mg: 0 to 30 ppm
Na: 0 to 100 ppm, but can go to 150 in limited cases
SO4: 0 to 350 ppm
Cl: 0 to 100 ppm, but can go to 150 in limited cases
HCO3: As needed for mash pH control

Brewers should be aware that there are antagonistic flavor effects when Na, SO4, or Cl are high. When any of those ions are high, the other two need to be relatively low.

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Carmel, IN
BJCP National
Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI)

Brewing Water Information at:
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PowPow

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The Epsom salt was just to get the PH down a bit more. If i add gypsym to get down to PH 5.5 my Ca levels will get over 150.

PowPow

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Thanks for your reply.

As i see it my main problem is that my mash ph will get to high in a light beer, and my Ca levels are to low. But how would i get the Ca levels up without the Cl and S04 also getting up?

ajf

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How about adding acid to the mash, and keeping the salt additions relatively low?

-a.

__________________
There are only 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.