Moving to All Grain Water questions.

I have been doing extract batches for awhile now and am moving to all grain my next brew. I had been using bottled water for extract but I can see how I will easily lose any saving from going all grain if I keep up with the bottled water.

I live in Jacksonville, FL and the tap water is apparently one of the worst nationally as far as contaminants are concerned. Some houses here are miserable mine isn't terrible but I still wouldn't drink it from the tap. We have a filter in our fridge and you can tell when it goes bad.

My local club has the report below for our water. The city has many pumping stations and I am not certain as to which station this is from. The best that I can tell the city only uses Chlorine.

Ca 70.3
Mg 30.1
Na 15.8
SO4 152.9
Cl 21.7
HCO3 139.3

Jacksonville has many pumping stations with varying hardness numbers my station is 269ppm. I did send an email to the utility company to check about chloramines and see if they had numbers specific to my area. I know I may just have to send a sample in.

What do I need to do to this water at a minimum to use it from the tap? The first all grain I am going to do is Ed Worts Kolsch.

For starters, treat with Campden Tablets to diminish the chlorine in the water.




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Not sure about Florida but in my state of Oregon there are self service filtered water dispensing machines at many local stores. I have a similar issue with my tap water but it's only $1.75 for 5 gallons ($0.35 a gallon) and you bring your own container.


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There are Glacier water service stations for $.30 a gallon. I think it is RO water but I haven't found much info on it.

You may get more responses by posting in the area "Brew Science" They discuss the fine points of water chemistry.

And yes, like brewkinger said, definitely use campden tablets to remove all the chlorine, instantly. 1/4 tab is enough to treat 5 gallons of water.

This site says your water is a fair approximation for Kölsch. See Düsseldorf (Altbier) near the bottom.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-water-target-profiles/

First few AGs are an experience without worrying about the exact water profile. That water has enough minerals.

Epimethus: Yeah I agree with your summary of the first few batches. My main goal at this point is to remove the blatantly bad things (ie chlorine)

Glacier is the dispensing machines we have here and I have been using them for year with great results.


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Fletcher: Are you just using it as is. And for All grain?

jekeane said:

My main goal at this point is to remove the blatantly bad things (ie chlorine)

Click to expand...

Then you are good to go. no worries.

Here is the best thing you can do for improving your AG
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/taking-brew-notes-beginner-479927/

I took notes from day one, the level of detail varied as I fell into a groove but all of them helped.

Yes I do all grain and use the water with not additional treatment. At least the Glacier units here go through a 5 stage filtering system.

I mean definitely do what is comfortable to you but I have been using it for years and have made some great beers of many varieties.


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jekeane said:

I live in Jacksonville, FL and the tap water is apparently one of the worst.

My local club has the report below for our water. The city has many pumping stations and I am not certain as to which station this is from. The best that I can tell the city only uses Chlorine.

Ca 70.3
Mg 30.1
Na 15.8
SO4 152.9
Cl 21.7
HCO3 139.3.

Click to expand...

My interest / curiosity got the best of me because I recently started addressing the chemistry of my water and have had EXCELLENT results on the last 3 beers since.

Looking at your profile and comparing to Palmer's How to Brew (Chapter 15), your profile really is not that bad.

Get rid of the chlorine (as simple as stated with Campden)

Ca 70.3 Palmer says 50-150ppm
Mg 30.1 10-30ppm
Na 15.8 0-150ppm
SO4 152.9 50-150ppm for normal bitterness; 150-300ppm for increased bitterness
Cl 21.7 0-250ppm
HCO3 139.3 0-50 for pale/base malt only beers; 50-150 for amber beers; 150-250ppm for darker / roasted malt beers

I would say that you are good to go for most lighter to amber beers (including Kolsch)

The addition of canning / pickling salt (not iodized table salt) would bring the Na and Cl levels up if you wanted.

The Mg and SO4 levels are both good for bitterness

The bicarbonate levels could be brought down if needed with acid additions to the mash and sparge waters.

Check out the Brew Science subforum as mentioned and download Bru'n Water (there are other programs available, but I use and TRUST this one)

All in all, your profile is not really that bad.

You could mix 50/50 with RO or distilled water and that would decrease every one of those values by 50% and you would have an even better starting point.