Water Profile for north Austin, TX

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jmill

jmill

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I just received my water report and thought I'd share for anyone who doesn't want to send off for their own report in the north Austin, TX area.

I'm still wrapping my head around Bru'n Water and water chemistry in general.

pH - 9.4
TDS - 194 ppm
Elec. Conductivity - 0.32 mmho/cm
Cations/Anions - 3.1/3.2 me/L
(ppm)
Sodium - 25
Potassium - 4
Calcium - 14
Magnesium - 15
Total Hardness (CaCO3) - 98
Nitrate - 0.1
Sulfate - 9
Chloride - 36
Carbonate - 11.6
Bicarbonate - 75
Total Alkalinity - 79
Phosphorus - 0.31
Iron - 0.03
 
jmill said:
I just received my water report and thought I'd share for anyone who doesn't want to send off for their own report in the north Austin, TX area.

I'm still wrapping my head around Bru'n Water and water chemistry in general.

pH - 9.4
TDS - 194 ppm
Elec. Conductivity - 0.32 mmho/cm
Cations/Anions - 3.1/3.2 me/L
(ppm)
Sodium - 25
Potassium - 4
Calcium - 14
Magnesium - 15
Total Hardness (CaCO3) - 98
Nitrate - 0.1
Sulfate - 9
Chloride - 36
Carbonate - 11.6
Bicarbonate - 75
Total Alkalinity - 79
Phosphorus - 0.31
Iron - 0.03
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll be moving to this area soon and was also going to send off a water report to see what it looks like. This water profile is soooo much better than my current one via tap :)
 
jmill said:
I just received my water report and thought I'd share for anyone who doesn't want to send off for their own report in the north Austin, TX area.

I'm still wrapping my head around Bru'n Water and water chemistry in general.
Click to expand...


Howdy! Where in North Austin are you? I'm in Wells Branch. That looks relatively close to the data published by my water utilities company. I recently picked up a carbon filter so I can attempt to use 100% tap water for an upcoming brew. I've been buying distilled water and treating it myself for years. Gets expensive and it's a pain!
 
Yeastieboy said:
Howdy! Where in North Austin are you?
Click to expand...

I'm near 183/Anderson Mill.

I use an in-line RV water filter I found on Amazon. Fairly inexpensive and much easier than trying to use a Brita filter or something.
 
It's worth noting for anyone who might come looking at this, Austin's municipal water uses chloramine, so you apparently have to use a campden tablet or face issues with chlorophenols.

Apparently you can also try an active carbon filter but you have to keep the water in contact with the carbon for 10 minutes at a time in order to filter it (10 min/gallon), and it may or may not work on chloramine? I've also read that chloramine will soak into your plastic equipment, and have a cumulative effect. But there is a lot of sometimes incongruent information out there about it.


I've been wondering why a bunch of my beers were terrible, thinking "Oh it's because I dont have the right equipment!" Nah, you can have good wort that tastes amazing, but if you put yeast in there and it doesnt like the conditions, or makes chlorophenols, all of your beer will taste like murky, wet, stale, plastic sort of. It's a hard flavor to describe and threw me off every time I would go troubleshooting my beer.
 
Dizzey said:
It's worth noting for anyone who might come looking at this, Austin's municipal water uses chloramine, so you apparently have to use a campden tablet or face issues with chlorophenols.

Apparently you can also try an active carbon filter but you have to keep the water in contact with the carbon for 10 minutes at a time in order to filter it (10 min/gallon), and it may or may not work on chloramine? I've also read that chloramine will soak into your plastic equipment, and have a cumulative effect. But there is a lot of sometimes incongruent information out there about it.


I've been wondering why a bunch of my beers were terrible, thinking "Oh it's because I dont have the right equipment!" Nah, you can have good wort that tastes amazing, but if you put yeast in there and it doesnt like the conditions, or makes chlorophenols, all of your beer will taste like murky, wet, stale, plastic sort of. It's a hard flavor to describe and threw me off every time I would go troubleshooting my beer.
Click to expand...


Have you completely stopped using tap water and starting purchasing bottled or are you filtering now?

I think lots of folks struggle with chloramine in their water. I just picked up a carbon block filter but do have some Camden tablets I may implement as well, post filtration. Hoping this works cause I'm tired of spending $10 more on water for every batch. The water profile in my community is pretty low on minerals and it's really the flavor and chloramine I need to deal with.
 
Remember, for a carbon filter to effectively remove all chloramines, the flow rate has to be super-slow. Most people don't understand how ridiculously slow it is: it would take an hour to treat 6 gallons with a 10-inch filter unit. Using the Campden tabs is really easy and there isn't really a penalty for overdosing beyond the typical 1 tab per 20 gal dose. Some people are now dosing at much higher rates in order to remove all oxygen from their wort during mashing. Any of the metabisulfite that isn't used in the mash, is volatilized during the boil. There will be no sulfites in the beer.
 
Exactly. That's why I will implement both methods. The Carbon filter is more aimed at slight off flavors in our tap water.
 

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