Hoppopotomus
Cedar Hollow Brewing
As I finish up my electic brewing system, finally got around to sending a water sample into Ward Labs. I just received the results and they are not looking promising. To give you a little insight, I'm on a well and have a light commercial water softening system installed in my house. I did not want to consider softened water for brewing, so I got the bright idea of tapping into my water supply before the filter and installing a dual canister filter. I put a sediment filter in the first canister and a carbon filter in the second. It supplys the pot filler faucet directly above my HLT. See the pics.
I have a hot tub and a swimming pool, so I am well aware that my water is hard and very high in alkalinity. I guess I didn't know how bad until I sent in the sample. My goal is to use my water, as carrying 20 gallons of water down to my basement everytime I brew is not what I had in mind. To this point, I have always used R/O water purchased from Meijer, added gypsum, and experienced really good results. Honestly, I really had no idea how vitally important water chemistry is until I tried using my water for the last 3 A/G batches on my old system. I made a wheat IPA, an American Lager, and a Rye Maibock. The lighter beers were an absolute train wreck! The darker beer is tolerable, but still not great. That's when I started exploring water chemistry by reading this thread and watching water chemistry videos from the likes of Bobby from NJ and John Palmer.
I plan on using -TH-'s excel spread sheet, but I also know that there are some brilliant chemistry guys that patrol the brew science threads. I guess I need to know if my water is useable or if I'm going to have to take drastic measures like boiling my water and adding acids. I really don't want to install an R/O system if I can get away with it, so I'm looking for advice. Here are my results.
pH: 7.5
Total Dissolved Solids: 452 ppm
Electrical Conductivity: .75 mmho/cm
Cations/Anions: 9.2/9.0 me/L
Sodium: 12
Potassium: 3
Calcium: 103
Magnesium: 29
Total Hardness: 378
Nitrate: 0.6
Sulfate: 16
Chloride: 55
Carbonate: <1
Bicarbonate: 387
Total Alkalinity: 317
Total Phosphorus: <0.01
Total Iron: 0.17
Is there any hope?
I have a hot tub and a swimming pool, so I am well aware that my water is hard and very high in alkalinity. I guess I didn't know how bad until I sent in the sample. My goal is to use my water, as carrying 20 gallons of water down to my basement everytime I brew is not what I had in mind. To this point, I have always used R/O water purchased from Meijer, added gypsum, and experienced really good results. Honestly, I really had no idea how vitally important water chemistry is until I tried using my water for the last 3 A/G batches on my old system. I made a wheat IPA, an American Lager, and a Rye Maibock. The lighter beers were an absolute train wreck! The darker beer is tolerable, but still not great. That's when I started exploring water chemistry by reading this thread and watching water chemistry videos from the likes of Bobby from NJ and John Palmer.
I plan on using -TH-'s excel spread sheet, but I also know that there are some brilliant chemistry guys that patrol the brew science threads. I guess I need to know if my water is useable or if I'm going to have to take drastic measures like boiling my water and adding acids. I really don't want to install an R/O system if I can get away with it, so I'm looking for advice. Here are my results.
pH: 7.5
Total Dissolved Solids: 452 ppm
Electrical Conductivity: .75 mmho/cm
Cations/Anions: 9.2/9.0 me/L
Sodium: 12
Potassium: 3
Calcium: 103
Magnesium: 29
Total Hardness: 378
Nitrate: 0.6
Sulfate: 16
Chloride: 55
Carbonate: <1
Bicarbonate: 387
Total Alkalinity: 317
Total Phosphorus: <0.01
Total Iron: 0.17
Is there any hope?