Rock Island brewers HELP!

Anybody in here brewing in Rock Island IL? I am about to do my first batch at my new house and i am wondering what adjustments need to be done to my water prior to brewing? I got a water report but it was a joke to say the least. Ive got a charcoal filter so the chloramine prob is covered but i dont no what kind of minerals i got going on. maybe im just good to go? any help would be awesome.

My town posts their annual water report on their website. Any chance Rock Island does the same? It's not the most detailed, but it did show mineral content.

You know ive never checked (duh). I'll give it a try and see what i find. thanks for pointing that out.

well here is what i found online... same thing they sent me... not so good

http://www.rigov.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=990

Well, that's pretty similar to the one I got. Out of curiosity, how does your water taste? I see there are chloramines there, but you said you have that licked. Besides that, I'm not sure how much else matters, assuming the water tastes ok out of the tap. I'm not a water quality expert, and I haven't even tried to adjust mine yet (there are just too many other variables for me to look at before water is addressed). Hopefully someone else will find this and be able to weigh in on what your potential problems are. I know you can also send a sample to Ward Labs and get a full brewing water profile (There is a cost, but I don't know what it is). Sorry I can't be more help. You could do a scaled down recipe just to do a trial run. That way, you can get an idea for what effect the water has, decide if it's even an issue, and you won't spend as much money.

The water tastes very clean. I am a pool operator so i do have a few avenues for testing i just didnt want to have to go down that route. Im just gonna go for it on a half batch and see what shakes out. The ward labs idea might just be something i will want to do in the future so thanks for the idea.

Good luck! It seems like water is usually not the first thing people worry about for off tastes. If sanitation and ferm temps are on point, then water can be looked at. Either way, a test run would be a great place to start. Let us know how it works out!

mrmuskie said:

Anybody in here brewing in Rock Island IL? I am about to do my first batch at my new house and i am wondering what adjustments need to be done to my water prior to brewing? I got a water report but it was a joke to say the least. Ive got a charcoal filter so the chloramine prob is covered but i dont no what kind of minerals i got going on. maybe im just good to go? any help would be awesome.

Click to expand...

Im across the river from you, first what are you brewing and do you have a softner?

If you've filtered your water for chlorine/chloramine, and it tastes good, then you are good to go! Enjoy your brewday.

daksin said:

If you've filtered your water for chlorine/chloramine, and it tastes good, then you are good to go! Enjoy your brewday.

Click to expand...

No not here, if you want a light beer it'll taste way off, water here is as hard as a rock, great for stouts, terrible for light beers.

Brew with half filtered/half regular than.If you have ph papers you can check your mash ph.You need campden tablets if you have chlorimine. Filters dont filter chlorimine.
For the most part it will turn out good,you know its hard so just try half of it filtered.Or just filter it all and use brewing salts.Get rid of that cholorime though.Or just buy spring water if its that important to you.

Im brewing a hoppy pale ale for my first batch. And no, no softner (thats a no no). Ive got a charcoal filter so the chlorine/chloramine prob should be a non factor. i test the tap water ph last night and got about a 6.8-7.0 so with the acid from my grains i might be in range. i put the grain bill below.

- -8 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale malt
- -0.5 lbs. Belgian Caramel Pils
- -0.5 lbs. Simpsons Caramalt

Did you see jonmohno's post above? This is something I wasn't previously aware of, being so new, but filters are not effective against chloramine, it would seem. Might want to pick up some campden tabs for that issue. Or just brew a small batch and see if it's an issue or not.

Brewing salts dont make water softer either,whatever that no-no is about. Gypsym or cl2 for instance harden your soft filtered or distilled water. I was gonna post the same thing - djfriesen. I used baking soda a few times to raise the ph.
Also you want to test your mash ideally,unless you can figure out where to go once you know your water ph which would seem hard figuring what type of grains your using.
I still would try half r/o +half hard tap - the chloromine.

I was just saying people generaly say if your house has a water softner you shouldnt use that water at all. i did see that chloramine comment and i will be picking up some campden tabs.

jonmohno said:

Brew with half filtered/half regular than.If you have ph papers you can check your mash ph.You need campden tablets if you have chlorimine. Filters dont filter chlorimine.
For the most part it will turn out good,you know its hard so just try half of it filtered.Or just filter it all and use brewing salts.Get rid of that cholorime though.Or just buy spring water if its that important to you.

Click to expand...

The spring water we get is extremely hard to around here, unforunately.

mrmuskie said:

Im brewing a hoppy pale ale for my first batch. And no, no softner (thats a no no). Ive got a charcoal filter so the chlorine/chloramine prob should be a non factor. i test the tap water ph last night and got about a 6.8-7.0 so with the acid from my grains i might be in range. i put the grain bill below.

- -8 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale malt
- -0.5 lbs. Belgian Caramel Pils
- -0.5 lbs. Simpsons Caramalt

Click to expand...

For what you're doing Id use a 2 to 1 or a 3 to 1 ratio of distilled to tapped water. If you can try to get a couple ounces for acid malt around 2% of the grist, and add 1tsp of gypsum and calcium chloride per 5 gallons of mash water.

I've done 4 batches now since moving to Moline using the water straight out of the tap. Beer's fine.

No idea if we're on the same water supply or not.

yeah i dont know if it the same or not... i dont think it is but who knows. how are you treating your water for chloraimines? where do you get your brewing supplies? any good local shops?

Haven't been doing anything for chloramines so far. Haven't really noticed any problems because of it, but I should probably take a look at doing something.

Only shop I've found so far is Camp McClellan Cellars. It's a nice enough place, but small and geared mostly toward wine it seems, so you'll pretty much just find the basics there. Prices on what they do carry are decent enough, cheaper than or the same as buying online once you factor in shipping. What I can't buy there I still order from Midwest.

Definitely have my ears open for any other shops on the area.

I just saw this, sorry for the late reply. I live in Bettendorf and the only thing I do with my water is run it through the brita filter I have on my faucet. Any off flavors I've had can be linked to fermentation temps or old LME.

thanks for all the help guys. i think im just over thinking everything. Im gonna just brew a batch and go from there. Yeah i checked Camp McClellan out the other day,not bad but i think you are right about being geared toward wine. I heard there is a good shop call "something brewing" in galesburg. i havent been there but i do go fishing down in that area so i might have to check it out.

Be sure to post back if you do get a chance to check them out. It's just under an hour drive from me so it's not completely unreasonable, but it's still far enough that I probably wouldn't make the trip unless it's a pretty well stocked shop. Unless I happened to be down that direction anyway, of course.

will do. I will make at least one more trip down there this year.. the crappies are going nutso...lol.

mrmuskie said:

will do. I will make at least one more trip down there this year.. the crappies are going nutso...lol.

Click to expand...

Where's that at? I'm new to the QC and haven't tracked down too many good fishing holes yet. Would definitely love to get one or two more fishing trips in before the weather makes it no fun....

I'm south of milan and we have well water so this post has absolutely no relevance to the topic. I use the water machines from hyvee. I have 2 5 gallon jugs I fill up so my water only costs like an extra $4.

Any one a part of MUGZ Homebrew?

MoPhunk said:

Any one a part of MUGZ Homebrew?

Click to expand...

Not yet, but it's on my list.

Intended to go to the last meeting, but remembered it about 2 hours after it had started. Have a reminder set on my phone for the next one.

When is the next meeting?

They meet on the last Sunday of the month.

Website is at www.mugzhomebrew.org. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's not....

subliminalurge said:

They meet on the last Sunday of the month.

Website is at www.mugzhomebrew.org. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's not....

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. I'll have to try to make it to this months meeting.

No problem. Maybe I'll see you there.

Goodyear said:

Thanks for posting this. I'll have to try to make it to this months meeting.

Click to expand...

Yea, check it out. Also the folks who own "Something Brewing" are in the club (Jim & Mary), and theyll bring up anything you want they have, and just pay them at the meeting.