KW, FL water profile advice

cooper said:

Have you checked out the primer? I'd say you got some pretty soft water to start with. You could probably brew just about anything you wanted and add a tsp of CaCl for maltier beers and try some Gypsum for the hoppier ones. Do you have a PH tester? That would be a wise investment so you can test the PH of your mash at about 15mins into it (room temperature) to see if you're close to 5.2-5.4. But I'm still learning too so I'm sure you'll get some better info in just a bit.

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mabrungard said:

You have some mixed units in the water report you present. The calcium value you show (73) is actually a hardness value expressed as CaCO3. So the actual Ca concentration is more like 29 ppm. Yes, that is soft. The reason is that the FKAA plant in Homestead is a Lime-softening plant. I was one of the design engineers for that facility in the early 90's.

The rest of the profile looks appropriate and the ions balance reasonably well after you correct the calcium value.

Yes, adding additional calcium to the brewing water is desirable in most cases. You can probably tell that the Aqueduct Authority neutralizes the lime-softened water with a sulfuric acid addition, since the sulfate concentration is somewhat high. You would want to avoid adding any more sulfate unless you are brewing a hoppy style. Check out Bru'n Water for more guidance.

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KeyWestBrewing said:

I have and saw for the most part I have soft water. I was a bit unsure if I would want to add CaCl since my Ca is at 73 and she mentioned adding it if it was under 20. Though, my Cl level is only 3.9, well under the the 20 she mentions. When you say room temp do you mean cool the wort sample down to room temp to test the ph? Im looking into ph testers now if you have any recommendations.

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