Bicarbonates in my Water WAY TOO HIGH!!!

my bicarbonates are WAY to freaking high!


Calcium: 90 ppm
Magnesium: 28 ppm
Chloride: 33 ppm
Carbonate and Bicarbonate ions: 400 ppm (homebrew shop tells me)
Iron: < .01 ppm
Zinc: < .01 ppm
Manganese: < .01 ppm

the homebrew shop tells me that my water is only good for IPAs and i need to cut it with 4 gal of reverse ossmossis to my 1 gal tap to make it work for other beers. what ya think? i'm brewing a BIG ASS RIS this week so i dont know if my tap water will work for brewing it. In addition, how do i get it down to a mangagable range?

i've read lots of books on this subject. but none of the books even come close to tackling a bicarbonate source this high.

If any beer would be OK it would be a RIS. The high bicarbnotes will balance the acidity of your massive ammonts of roasted malts and will keep it from getting too roasty or harsh. Is this extract or all grain?

I would get some pH stabilizer. A good buffer is usually enough to do the trick.

dont know much about stabilizers. i guess i can look it up in the miller book or mabye something i have laying around. thanks for the info.

yeah the darker beers will most likely balance out any pH issues you have on their own. Otherwise get some 5.2. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_21_187_398&products_id=1692

clayof2day said:

If any beer would be OK it would be a RIS. The high bicarbnotes will balance the acidity of your massive ammonts of roasted malts and will keep it from getting too roasty or harsh. Is this extract or all grain?

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That's what I was going to say. Water that is high in carbonates and bicarbonates (i.e., "temporary hardness) is great for dark, malty beers like stouts, porters and bocks. Brew on!


TL

I have high bicarbonates. I've been messing around with pickling lime (CaO) to reduce my bicarbonates. It reacts with the bicarbonates to give H2O plus insoluble Calcium Carbonate. Also, just "aging" the water will bring it into equilibrium with the CO2 in the air, resulting in the loss of bicarbonate - I don't have a good feel for just how slow this is, other than slow. If I'm going to brew on the weekend, early in the week I'll put 5 gal of water in a bucket and add a tsp of pickling lime and set up an aquarium bubbler and let it bubble away. On Friday I'll stop the bubbling to let everything settle. On brew day I carefully drain off the water leaving the precipitate behind (I have a bucket with a spigot that I use for this). Depending on beer style I'll use it as is, or mix it with tap, or distilled water. This procedure won't drop the salts enough for Czech pils, hence the distilled water. I check my mash pH and add buffer 5.2 if necessary.

I don't modify my water for stouts or O'fests (my water is close to Munichs). I modify my water for anything hoppy to smooth out the bitterness

i'll get some 5.2 that seems like the perfect solution
thanks guys