Parker County, TX water report

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ranchonodinero

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My water report came in from Ward yesterday. It is from Parker County, Texas near Weatherford and the source is a well in the Paluxy aquifer. I knew it was hard due to all the muratic acid I add to the pool. I'm tempted to get a sample out of the RO to see just how much it changes. It appears that unless I learn to add acid, I'm stuck with dark beers.

pH 7.2
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 550
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.92
Cations / Anions, me/L / 8.9 9.5
ppm
Sodium, Na 200
Potassium, K 14
Calcium, Ca 9
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 23
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.5 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 26
Chloride, Cl 53
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 347
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 285
Fluoride, F 0.21
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit
 
Actually it isn't hard at all. It is alkakine but acid isn't really a good solution. You have an unenviable 5.6 mEq/L bicarbonate. If you dispose of this with acid you simply replace those 5.6 mEq/L with 5.6 mEq/L of the anion of whatever acid you choose. If you use sulfuric, for example, 5.6 mEq of that is about 268 mg/L sulfate to be added to the 3*26 mg/L already in the water. For hydrochloric acid, the 5.6 mEq/L would amount to about 200 mg/L chloride to be added to the 53 already there. With all that sodium you'd probably have salty tasting water.

You could try decarbonating this water by boiling or with lime but would need to supplement the calcium in either case meaning even more sulfate or chloride. If ever there was a candidate for RO, this is it. The good news is that as the water is so soft (it resembles hard water that has been run through a sodium exchange softener) no pre treatment (other that GAC for chlorine if your municipality adds it) would be required.
 
Thanks so much for the reply! Liberal arts major and would have never figured it out! This water was off the well-I do have an RO for drinking water. The water off the well tastes great. Much better than the metroplex water. I think I may send a sample from the RO to see what it says. I am just getting back into brewing and my first couple of batches will be extracts, but the best beer I made came from a crude RIMS system that is 14 or so years old. Assuming the RO does the job it should knock down the bicarbonate and sodium?
 
There is usually a sheet in with the instructions that give you an idea as to what to expect in terms of rejections of individual ions. Membranes seem to be particularly good at sodium (98 - 99%?) if not so good at bicarbonate (though my current unit takes feed water of alklainity about 80 for bicarbonate of 96 and produces permeate at 1 ppm TDS so obviously it's getting the bicarb at about the 99% level).
 
I just checked and my RO is a 5 stage with the following: Booster Pump & Auto Shut Off Valve, ASV/ASO - 50 Gallon Per Day Dow Filmtec TFC Reverse Osmosis Membrane (Higher capacity and faster recovery time) 50 GPD FILMTEC TFC Reverse Osmosis Membrane, KX Carbon Block & Osmonics Sediment Pre Filter, Omnipure GAC Post Filter. It didn't come with any literature describing the rejection rates. I know that after using it, you can hear the booster pump running. Like I said, it tastes very good. Thanks for the comments and help. I think to get a clear picture, I need to send another sample to Ward out of the RO filter.
 
OK, so after attempting to digest as much science as I can, it looks like although my water is wet, that's about it. So, if I take water from the RO, then it appears it will need supplements depending on the style of beer I am attempting to brew. I am going to send a sample to Ward out of the RO to see just how well it works. In the interim, I plan on brewing an extract this weekend, should I worry about amendments to the water? Are there any brewing programs that give amounts of amendments to add to the water? Would I be better off getting water from a municipal supply that I know can produce good beer? Thanks!
 
RO rejects everything with a +2 or -2 charge or greater. So, pretty much everything. The good news is that you have a blank slate. You can add ions as you need them and in what ever quantity you desire.
The smaller RO units usually have a 50% rejection rate. So for every gallon that you filter, 0.5 gallons is clean water and the other 0.5 gallon goes to waste.
 
Thanks so much for the reply! Liberal arts major and would have never figured it out! This water was off the well-I do have an RO for drinking water. The water off the well tastes great. Much better than the metroplex water. I think I may send a sample from the RO to see what it says. I am just getting back into brewing and my first couple of batches will be extracts, but the best beer I made came from a crude RIMS system that is 14 or so years old. Assuming the RO does the job it should knock down the bicarbonate and sodium?

Sure. Try sending the RO sample back to ward but it should be pretty low ion.

Check out the water chemistry primer sticky for how to use RO water.
 
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