Water Report, Thoughts?

So I received the water report from the lab today, Whoohoo! Here's the rundown -

pH 8.1
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 331
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.55
Cations / Anions, me/L 5.8 / 5.8

The following are in ppm:
Sodium, Na 38
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 69
Magnesium, Mg 8
Total Hardness, CaCO3 206
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 31
Chloride, Cl 32
Carbonate, CO3 6
Bicarbonate, HCO3 168
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 147
Total Phosphorus, P 0.61
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

Is there any particular style that this would be good for?

All styles. Looks about medium hardness to my very un-expert eye. Your Ca levels are just a tad low, but your SO4 and Cl are super balanced- for hoppier beers you can add a couple grams Gypsum to your mash, while maltier beers you just need to add a couple grams of Calcium Chloride. You'd want to plug it into a calculator, or course

Cheers!

The sulfate is actually 93 ppm since you have to convert the way that Ward reports the 'sulfate as sulfur' to a true 'sulfate' concentration. That is what the (SO4-S) means.

Thanks guys! This is very helpful. Here's some additional information: http://www.stpete.org/water/docs/water_quality_report.pdf

I knew they treat the water with Chlorite, which confirms. Should some campden take care of that?

Yes, it will but you don't need to bother with that. Just standing or heating in the HLT will drive the chlorine off (IOW there is no chloramine unless they apply ammonia after the hypochlorite).

ajdelange said:

Yes, it will but you don't need to bother with that. Just standing or heating in the HLT will drive the chlorine off (IOW there is no chloramine unless they apply ammonia after the hypochlorite).

Click to expand...

Thanks. And I'm assuming when you say heating, you just mean around typical mash temps (I heat it until around 170), not boiling?

Yes but you also need to agitate it to let the chlorine gas escape. The test is if you can smell chlorine. If you can you haven't got it all.

To follow up on this thread, it looks like the city uses chloramine during the water treatment process. I have read this is fairly difficult to remove.

Would it be worth it to try and remove, or should I just start with RO and make some additions?

Most do use it if above a certain size. Easy to remove. See
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/campden-tablets-sulfites-brewing-water-361073/

Thanks a bunch.

I used the EZ water calc to find out my PH after I put in my ingredients for an IPA. Looking like its about 5.73.

I've seen this is the high end of the spectrum, but do you think it would be something I should worry about?

The problem with pH predictions is that while it is theoretically possible to do them it is practically speaking impossible to obtain the data you need to put into the model (assuming you have the right model) without doing a lot more work than would be required to just make a small test mash and check what pH you will actually see when you make the beer. This, therefore, is what I always recommend doing. Doing it, of course, requires that you obtain a pH meter. If you don't want to do that I'd try brewing the beer with 2% sauermalz in the grist and then again with 3%. Stick with the sauermalz addition that gives you the best beer.