jefro
Well-Known Member
Most of the water advice on HBT seems to revolve around high alkalinity, as one might expect with city water. I have a well with low alkalinity.
I'm on a well in Redwood country, and our water comes in at pH 4.5 (no typo), fairly soft with very low total alkalinity. Not much as far as dissolved solids - the water is clean with no measurable bacteria. It does have a slightly metallic/sour taste, probably due to dissolved minerals and copper leached from pipes. We do plan to put a filter on the well next year, either reverse-osmosis or neutralizer-plus-carbon. This water is ok to shower with, and even to cook with, but I'm thinking it might be problematic for brewing.
I have made two batches with it: a porter that was quite good, and a Belgian wit that was terrible, but many things went wrong with that batch so it may not have been the water. I'm going to switch over to bottled water for the next batch, but wondered if anyone else had this same situation. If there is a way to capitalize on such acidic water, I'd like to give it a shot.
thanks
Jefro
I'm on a well in Redwood country, and our water comes in at pH 4.5 (no typo), fairly soft with very low total alkalinity. Not much as far as dissolved solids - the water is clean with no measurable bacteria. It does have a slightly metallic/sour taste, probably due to dissolved minerals and copper leached from pipes. We do plan to put a filter on the well next year, either reverse-osmosis or neutralizer-plus-carbon. This water is ok to shower with, and even to cook with, but I'm thinking it might be problematic for brewing.
I have made two batches with it: a porter that was quite good, and a Belgian wit that was terrible, but many things went wrong with that batch so it may not have been the water. I'm going to switch over to bottled water for the next batch, but wondered if anyone else had this same situation. If there is a way to capitalize on such acidic water, I'd like to give it a shot.
thanks
Jefro