Snafu

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Ok, so I sent off for my water report and here is what I got:

Calcium (Ca) in ppm 48 mg/L (Calcium Hardness)
Magnesium (Mg) in ppm 68 mg/L (Total Hardness)
Sodium (Na) in ppm 23.2 ppm
Sulfate (SO4) in ppm 40.6 mg/L
Chloride (Cl) in ppm 12.4 mg/L
biCarbonate (HCO3) in ppm 52.1 mg/L
average pH 7.7 mg/L
Alkalinity 52.1 mg/L (Plant average 58 mg/L analyzed at the WTF lab)
TDS 140 mg/L

I'm still trying to get a handle on how and what to adjust for say Irish reds and wheat's. Well I came across this link to yet another pH calculator in another thread (didn't want to hyjack someone elses thread) All Grain Water Chemistry Brewing Information | Brewer's Friend and basicly its saying my beer is unsafe to drink Anyone wanna make any suggestions?

Should I:

1) Send off a sample to verify Mg levels
2) Start diluting my water and start from scratch with salt additions?
3) quickly drink all the beer in my house to prevent anyone from getting ill.

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I have vessels, some contain beer.

Beerrific

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I am confused about the "Magnesium (Mg) in ppm 68 mg/L (Total Hardness)" specifically the part about the "Total Hardness" part.

If you total hardness is 68ppm then you Mg is only 16.72ppm. If your Magnesium hardness is 68ppm then you total magnesium 19.6ppm. There is some discrepancy in how they are reporting the numbers I have to believe. Remember that total hardness is calculated from both Mg and Ca.

According to Palmer "amounts greater than 50 ppm tend to give a sour-bitter taste to the beer." If you beer is not turning out tasting bad, then I have to imagine 68ppm is not the actually Mg amounts.

lamarguy

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Ya, the magnesium level is really high. Other than that, your water looks great for brewing light beers.

From How to Brew:

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Doggfather Brewery

Planned: Lambic, American IPA
Fermenting: 6 gals of 1.090 stout (Belgian) & 6 gals of 1.090 stout (English)
Tapped: Berliner Weisse, Black English IPA, German Pils, & Live Oak Primus

boredatwork

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Mg as Total Hardness is not the same as Mg.

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Reading a Water Report

"To get Mg (ppm) from Mg Hardness as CaCO3: Divide by 50 and multiply by 12.1"

68/50*12.1 = 16

And while we are at it...

"To get Ca (ppm) from Ca Hardness as CaCO3: Divide by 50 and multiply by 20"

48/50*20=19

According to the calculator :

Sulphate : Chloride ratio highly bitter
Alkalinity and SRM pale beer (0-50 ppm Alkalinity)
Estimated pH pH = 5.83, residual alkalinity = 20.07

In other words your water suits very bitter pale beers. If you want to brew malty/sweet beers like an irish red or wheat, then you need to play around with some additions to either increase your chloride (which will reduce bitterness and emphasize flavor/sweetness) or reduce your sulfates (which will weaken the emphasis of bitter).

"The sulfate ion also combines with Ca and Mg to contribute to permanent hardness. It accentuates hop bitterness, making the bitterness seem drier, more crisp."

"The chloride ion also accentuates the flavor and fullness of beer. "

Think of it this way:

Chloride=flavor and sweet
Sulphate=Bitter

Basically, just read chapter 15 of How to Brew and listen to the Brew Strong podcasts on water:

The Brewing Network.com - Shows and Podcasts: Brew Strong

Then play around with the calculator you linked. It is based on the information in How to Brew, so you can enter your real water parameters and find out what additions will help you to brew a malty, pale to amber beer. I have water very similar to yours and I guarantee if you try to brew an Irish Ale or wheat beer without fixing your water it will taste like crap.

Also visit the Brew Science forum on this site. Even though it says Brew Science it should really say Water Science. There are also some good threads on water quality in the All Grain forum, so do a search for "water profile" or "water quality".

Snafu

Recipes 

Just to clarify, I had them fill out the amounts to the "questions" i asked. So for example I asked:
Magnesium (Mg) in ppm, she answered with "68 mg/L (Total Hardness)" Does this help any?

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I have vessels, some contain beer.

Beerrific

Recipes 

I think this is the magnesium hardness, putting your Mg around 16ppm.

Snafu

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Ok, how do I move this thread to the "brew science" thread, where I believe I should have posted it to begin with.

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I have vessels, some contain beer.

Snafu

Recipes 

For comparison, I sent off two samples to Ward Labs to see how close they were to the county. I'm going to try and cut & paste it in. We'll see. Also, I sent in two samples. One from the house and one from the shed. The shed is fed from a water hose and goes through a carbon filter. I know it shouldn't make a difference with the ions we track but I was curious just the same.

Here goes,

Water Analysis 2009

County Report (july 08) Ward Labs (House) Ward Labs (Shed)

Calcium (Ca) 19.2 28 27
Magnesium (Mg) 16.3 7 6
Sodium (Na) 23.2 37 36
Sulfate (SO4) 40.6 27 26
Chloride (Cl) 12.4 24 24
bicarbonate (HCO3) 52.1 64 57
Ave pH 7.7 8.0 7.9

Edit: Ok cut and paste didn't work worth a hoot. So, imagine 3 columns starting with county water then the house (ward) and last is the shed (ward)

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I have vessels, some contain beer.