Help me understand my water.

mabrungard said:

In this lime-softened water, the high Mg is not a surprise at all.

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mabrungard said:

I wonder if the issue with sulfate is the type of hop or if its the style of beer? I don't know if sulfate clashes with the noble hop character or if the sulfate drys out the typically more malty styles that they are used in? AJ, have you deciphered that possibility already? I'm just curious.

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ajdelange said:

No not really. In puzzling over why some beers are brewed with 300 mg/L sulfate and seem OK (though I don't really like them) while even 27 mg SO4 from my well was rending my Pils unpleasantly harsh it occurred to me that there had to be more to it than personal preference. Then I hit on the notion that we pay a premium for 'fine' bitterness in noble hops and the bitterness I was getting with even modest levels of sulfate was definitely not fine. Thus the conclusion that sulfate and noble hops don't mix. Gordon Strong was in the region recently, and gave a talk based on his recent book. In both the book and the talk he made the same assertion: sulfate doesn't work with noble hops. IOW he came, independently (I think) to the same conclusion I did. It is, of course, gratifying to have ones theory backed up by a brewer of his renown.

But saying 'doesn't work with noble hops' is really a lazy way of saying that sulfate may be a problem in some beers more than others, in particular the delicate continental lagers, though ales made with less sulfate are often more pleasing than similar ales brewed with higher sulfate and as if that isn't enough noting that personal preference is also a big factor here. All of this is why I always suggest that people start low with sulfate and work their way up.

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ajdelange said:

1. Alkalinity refers to the buffering capacity of the water. That number (40) means that someone in a laboratory added 0.8 cc of 0.1N sulfuric acid to 100 mL of the water to bring the pH to some value near 4.3 (with the actual value being at the discretion of the laboratory). He then multiplied by 50 to get the value 40. Thus bicarbonate, hydroxyl and carbonate ion all have an effect on alkalinity. These are the only alkaline things found in potable water (fortunately). It is also fortunate that potable water usually has a pH below 8.3. In such cases bicarbonate is the only significant contributor. You can, then, divide the alkalinity by 50 to get the milliequivalents and mutiply by 61 (equivalent weight of bicarbonate) to calculate the mg/L bicarbonate.
61*40/50 = 48.8 mg/L bicarbonate.
2. Alkalinity is 50 times the number of milliequivalents of acid required to reduce the pH of a liter the water to 4.3 (or so). Calcium hardness is 50 times the number of milliequivalents of a chelating agent required to sequester all the calcium in a liter of the water. Just as with the alkalinity you can divide the reported calcium hardness by 50 and multiply by the equivalent weight of calcium (20) to get the concentration of calcium ion:
20*55/50 =22 mg/L Calcium
And similarly for magnesium hardness where the equivalent weight is 12/15
3.The thing I would worry about with this water is the high sulfate levels. Lots of beers can be brewed with high sulfate water but anything using noble hops (Pils, Helles....) cannot. Unfortunately the only way to dispose of high sulfate is with RO or distillation or heavy dilution of the water with RO or DI water which amounts to the same thing. Or you can just avoid beers that use noble hops.

It is definitely weird that your magnesium hardness is more than double your calcium hardness. Not a problem necessarily, just weird.

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mabrungard said:

This is a lime-softened water that is taken from shallow wells along the rivers in town. The hardness is not a problem, but I notice that the city is only conducting a lime softening process that removes calcium and not magnesium.

The alkalinity is nice and low since they re-carbonate the water and reduce the pH for distribution to customers. The low alkalinity is going to make brewing a darker style more problematic, but lighter colored beers should have no problem.

The magnesium level is sort of high, as is the sulfate level. This water is well suited to hoppy beers, but is going to be troublesome for lighter and maltier styles since the Mg and SO4 are going to make the flavor harsher.

Diluting the water to control the sulfate level is going to be your primary concern. Adding alkalinity to allow for brewing darker styles may be another concern. I recommend getting familiar with pickling lime to serve as your alkalinity source. Bru'n Water gives you the tools for dealing with that stuff.

I'm hoping that your moniker, Billybock is referring to the picture since this water will be tough to brew a good Bock with.

Enjoy!

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