thebigt85
Well-Known Member
So as a professional science geek (molecular bio) I'm surprised that I haven't spent more time in this forum until recently. I emailed my local water authority and asked for the water report for my address, to which I got an awesome reply (I guess the water QA/QC get excited when you take an interest in their work). Here it is:
Good stuff, right? Anyway, the take home messages from this report (and this is what I've surmised so far) is that I need to acidify my mash (the flavor profile is lacking) and also add CaCl2 to boost my calcium and chloride levels to around 50 mg/L. I figure other than that my water is pretty unremarkable and low in most minerals. Also, how does gypsum help improve hop flavor?
Thanks for your help!
Hi Todd,
We sample the water from your specific service area on Whiney Avenue in Spring Glen (not too far away). Each quarter, we do some expanded sampling to include the parameters you are interested in. I checked results for the first two quarters on 2012 and will report the figures as a range where I got any different results. The range may be due to some blending of different water sources near our sampling point, but are not drastic enough to cause you any concern. In case you dont already know, mg/L = parts per million (ppm). Hardness is determined by the amount of calcium and magnesium in the water, and refers to a waters ability to react with soap make soap suds. Not sure how that affects brewing.
pH 7.2-7.4
alkalinity 27
Chloride 10 11 mg/L
Sulfate 10.0 10.8 mg/L
Iron <0.01 mg/L
Total Phosphorous 1.1 mg/L
Sodium 9 10 mg/L
Calcium 6.6 10.2 mg/L
Magnesium 1.8 2.4 mg/L
Hardness 24 35 mg/L (SOFT WATER)
NOW GO MAKE GOOD BEER.
Good stuff, right? Anyway, the take home messages from this report (and this is what I've surmised so far) is that I need to acidify my mash (the flavor profile is lacking) and also add CaCl2 to boost my calcium and chloride levels to around 50 mg/L. I figure other than that my water is pretty unremarkable and low in most minerals. Also, how does gypsum help improve hop flavor?
Thanks for your help!