Water help

I am new to brewing and am about to switch from mr. beer extract brewing to brewing AG i have just finished buying everything i need to do BIAB. After reading several books and threads on brewing i still am very confused when it comes to treating my water, and even more confused by OKC water reports that list water from all OKC water reserve lakes, as i don't know which one to look at. I'm not looking to dive full on into water chemistry right now but i don't want my beer suffer. So i was curious what other local home brewers do to treat their water. Would it be easier to buy water from the store? or maybe one of those glacier machines? I don't know please any help is appreciated...

Call your water utility and see if they can provide the information for your location.
If not, the best thing to do is have your water tested, I used Ward Labs, which comes highly recommended on this forum. After you have the information, you can download a free brew water tool like Bru'n Water.

If your current water tastes good from the tap, your probably fine just using it after filtering through a carbon block. I started AG by just taking water from my kitchen fridge filter.

There are posted water reports online but my city uses 3 different lakes for water, and list different mineral amounts for each one, so i am not sure which lake my water comes from.... I guess i could just filter and not worry so much i just don't want to have bad tasting beer because of my water supply...

Ok, did a quick search and could not find any relevant information as to what districts in the city pull from which source. However, looking at the report you pasted, nothing is way off the chart that would cause concern (according to Bru'n Water).

But, I would bet you a 6-pack that if you contact them they could tell you what source your house pulls from.

Below are the water inputs from Bru'n Water. Send your water dept. an email and ask if they can tell you what source your address pulls from, and also ask if they can provide some of the data for the minerals below that are not listed on the report. Chances are they test them, but just don't publish them.

Even if they can provide all of the info, I would still spend the $36 to have it tested. That way you know exactly what is coming-out of your tap (you could be picking-up some iron from city pipes?). However, this is something you can do as your hobby progresses. For now, brew it up!!!

Calcium (Ca)
Magnesium (Mg)
Sodium (Na)
Potassium (K)
Iron (Fe)
Bicarbonate (HCO3)
Carbonate (CO3)
Sulfate (SO4)
Chloride (Cl)
Nitrate (NO3)
Nitrite (NO2)
Fluoride (F)

Thanks for your help i will email them now.....

did you ever hear back from the city? If not, there is another way you can get your water #s. I live in Edmond and we have Logan County rural water district as our supplier. The guy at the water district was not able to send me a break down of our water.

However, afster poking around on the Brew Science forum, I found these guys:
https://producers.wardlab.com/default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f

For about $15, I sent them a sample of my house water. I carbon filtered it first to get rid of the chlorine/chloramines. I got my results back in about a week. I use that water makeup as the starting build for most of my water treatment.

On another note. I did find out that my water was trash. Way too alkaline to do me much good on most beers. For my darker beers, I cut my water with distilled and build up a little from there (mostly with gypsum and CaCl). For my pale beers, I usually just use all RO and build up with smaller mineral additions.

winvarin said:

did you ever hear back from the city? If not, there is another way you can get your water #s. I live in Edmond and we have Logan County rural water district as our supplier. The guy at the water district was not able to send me a break down of our water.

However, afster poking around on the Brew Science forum, I found these guys:
https://producers.wardlab.com/default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f

For about $15, I sent them a sample of my house water. I carbon filtered it first to get rid of the chlorine/chloramines. I got my results back in about a week. I use that water makeup as the starting build for most of my water treatment.

On another note. I did find out that my water was trash. Way too alkaline to do me much good on most beers. For my darker beers, I cut my water with distilled and build up a little from there (mostly with gypsum and CaCl). For my pale beers, I usually just use all RO and build up with smaller mineral additions.

Click to expand...

I know this is an older post, but I was just getting ready to send off my sample to ward labs when it hit me that I should see if any other Edmonites were on the forums. I live near 2nd Street and Western in Edmond. Do you happen to know if we use the same water? I don't know if Logan pulls water from the same lakes as OKC does but I assume that is the case. I have got everything else under control in my brews except water, and have just started researching that side of things.

Setesh said:

I know this is an older post, but I was just getting ready to send off my sample to ward labs when it hit me that I should see if any other Edmonites were on the forums. I live near 2nd Street and Western in Edmond. Do you happen to know if we use the same water? I don't know if Logan pulls water from the same lakes as OKC does but I assume that is the case. I have got everything else under control in my brews except water, and have just started researching that side of things.

Click to expand...

Who sends you the water bill? Logan County RR district that bills me pulls from liberty lake I think.

I am near Bryant and Waterloo.

My report is a couple of years old though. I have been thinking of pulling another sample and sending it in. But just have not. My water is so highly alkaline I have just been building up distilled water to suit my target for most beers. Anything brown or darker gets 20% of my house water (carbon filtered) and 80% distilled, then mineral additions to target.

Then I just keep some lactic acid on hand to adjust pH if needed.

winvarin said:

Who sends you the water bill? Logan County RR district that bills me pulls from liberty lake I think.

I am near Bryant and Waterloo.

My report is a couple of years old though. I have been thinking of pulling another sample and sending it in. But just have not. My water is so highly alkaline I have just been building up distilled water to suit my target for most beers. Anything brown or darker gets 20% of my house water (carbon filtered) and 80% distilled, then mineral additions to target.

Then I just keep some lactic acid on hand to adjust pH if needed.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Mine comes from Oklahoma City Water and Utilities but the sources are listed as Hefner and Arcadia lakes. The mix of how much from what lake changes throughout the year so it's pretty much impossible to know exactly what it is at any given time. I'm going to pick up a new filter today on the way home and prep a sample for send off. It will at least be closer than not knowing at all.

Exactly why I haven't sent off another sample. I use so little of my tap water anymore that I just use the #s from my original report to give me an idea what to expect.

I just got my results back. Now I know why my stouts never turn out quite right but my pales are top notch:

pH 7.7
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 505
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.84
Cations / Anions, me/L 7.8 / 7.9
ppm
Sodium, Na 89
Potassium, K 6
Calcium, Ca 60
Magnesium, Mg 10
Total Hardness, CaCO3 192
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.9 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 63
Chloride, Cl 111
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 47
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 39
Total Phosphorus, P 0.08
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

This is after passing through a 2 stage filter. I'm not a hop head and most of what I make are lighter low gravity beers so this actually works quite well for me. When I make darker beers I'll adjust accordingly. The problem of never knowing what lake your water is coming from still exists. I'm going to send an email to the water co asking where my water was coming from when I took my sample, just to have that info.

Yeah. And it's usually feast or famine around here. With all the rain we've had this year, chances are that just because they draw it from one lake this summer, doesn't mean they'll draw it from the same source this time next year.

I finally went with mostly if not all distilled water and Tasty McDole's 2 water profiles. He has a hoppy profile and the one he uses for everything else. Those have served me well the last few batches.

Now, knowing what your water looks like generally, you should be able to use one of the spreadsheets or online tools to either treat your undiluted water, it cut it with distilled and build it back with salts to your liking.

I did hear back from my water company and they told me my water was a mixture from Overholser and Draper.... they said it would normally be a mix from overholser and hefner i think but that Hefner was not supplying water at that time b/c the lake was low.... So it does change from lake to lake and even if it didn't i don't know that the mineral levels are constant so i have been using distilled or RO and this http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/