What To Request in a Water Report?

Hey all...I have a feeling these questions may have been asked elsewhere, so I apologize in advance if this has been answered many times before!

I'm just starting to think seriously about making amendments to my local water here in Fairfax County, VA for various kinds of beers. I think the water here is pretty good in general - the only thing I've done so far is use campden to get rid of chlorine (in the form of chloramine), and I've ended up with some pretty good beers. But now I'd like to start thinking about taking it up a level while still using the local tap water.

Fairfax Water provides a very comprehensive annual water analysis online; in this, it provides a month-by-month analysis of the various metals and inorganics, although many of the numbers are missing for certain months. That said, I've looked back over the last few years of analyses and noticed that, while the parameters rise and fall at certain times of the year (and those swings can be pretty big, especially late in the year), the numbers can vary pretty widely from year to year. Basically, I can't necessarily use past analyses to predict what my water will be like on any given brewday. I may be able to take a reasonable stab at it, but if I'm trying to get down and dirty with it, then I'd probably need a recent detailed analysis.

So...with that in mind, does anyone know whether water companies have recent analyses available, or do they really only test for certain things once every couple months? If so, what info should I ask for if I were to ask for a recent analysis?

The problem with Annual Reports (as you note) is it's for the previous period, and measurements can swing significantly from period.

Let me say first that I'm not a water expert, and only do minimal modifications too my own brewing water.

That being said, you can send samples for analysis to companies that do this however, if it changes as frequently as you suspect, that could be an expensive venture to keep repeating.

You may also have some luck reaching out to WTLMD and seeing if they have current information they'll share: http://www.wtlmd.com/fairfax-county-va-water-testing-lab-northern-virginia.php

If all else fails, you may consider building a profile from RO or a combination of RO and local water to get what you want. To do that would require some of the smarter folks at HBT.

Good luck!

The only parameter that has immediate impact on brewing is alkalinity. A change in that from 50 to 100 can shift mash pH by 0.06 pH or more (ceteris paribus). I'm not even sure FCWA reports alkalinity, though as you say, their reporting is otherwise excellent. To really bring things under your control, therefore, you must eliminate the seasonal variations by removing all the minerals (and the variation in their concentrations with them) by RO or measure the levels yourself at each brewing session. Fortunately, the alkalinity test is very simple and kits for carrying it out are readily available at aquarium and swimming pool suppliers and from houses that carry water testing gear. There are also similar kits using the same basic technique (drop count titration) available for hardness (calcium and magnesium). Although hardness is not as significant as alkalinity it is not insignificant and you may wish to test for that as well. Beyond that you don't really care if chloride or sulfate vary over a factor of 2 at the levels those ions are found in FCWA water.

If you want a complete snapshot at a particular point in time use Ward Labs. They do a test more or less tailored to the requirements of brewers at a very reasonable price.

Excellent responses, both. I really appreciate it. I'll probably move on to RO at some point, but I'm not quite there yet...