Help with water report.

OK, I will admit I kind of did not even go to my chem classes in HS, and I studied the "softer sciences" in college. Very nice and soft.

I could use some help in figuring out just WTF I need to do to with my water if anything. I think the water is perfect, I have no problem or flavours drinking right out of the tap, but I understand that great tasting water may not be the best brewing water.
http://bws.honolulu.gov/ccr/11041.pdf

For the last two batches I did I added one Camden pill crushed into the brewing water the night before from some threads here, and I'm not certain if it caused the change, but my efficiency bumped up from the 60's to the higher 70's. THIS FORUM ROCKS. :rockin:

I am actually paying attention to my schooling now so if anyone can make some recommendations I would really appreciate it.

I see that all over the world those water reports are useless for homebrewer. Yours contain nothing meaningful for us, except for the level of sulfates, which is quite low. No pH, no hardness, no bicarbonates...

I would try contacting your local water company and talking to someone to see if you can get a more detailed report. I went this route with my local company and although it took a long time (about a month) I got a more detailed report with at least some of what I was looking for.

As already stated, municipal water reports usually tell the homebrewer nothing in the way of useful information. The levels that they show have to do with the safety of the drinking water, but not the ion concentrations that we are interested in.

Look in the yellow pages and try and find a local lab on the island that will perform a water analysis for you. If you can't find one, give Ward Lab a call and see if the time it would take to send them a sample from Hawaii would have a negative impact on the sample. You will be looking to get their W-6 Household Mineral Test for $16.50. That test will tell you everything that you need to know.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

http://bws.honolulu.gov/ccr/11041.pdf
>8 snip

Click to expand...

Yeah, useless. Don't give up yet... call them. You'll need to know total hardness (ppm), total alkalinity (ppm), carbonate (ppm), bicarbonate (ppm), calcium (ppm), magnesium (ppm). Your sulfates are good. They probably have the numbers and will give them to you saving the trouble of doing your own water analysis. If you are already using campden tablets to drive off chlorine you are good there.

- Eric