Help with my water quality report please.

What style do you think my water quality best suits?

Total Dissolved Solids - 150-230 ppm
Sulfate - 47 ppm
pH - 7.8-8.3
Conductivity - 264-394 (mu)mhos/cm
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 47-64 ppm
Hardness (as CaCO3) - 100 ppm
Sodium - 16-31 ppm
Ammonia (as N) - 0.04-0.46 ppm
Chloride - 22-45 ppm

Also if anyone else lives in Westminster, CO and would like to chime in that would be great!

This is all I got from my city of a water quality question I asked.

Sulfate is just a tad low for hop character to really "pop"; the rest looks very good for all-around brewing. What's your magnesium and calcium at?

I'd say you are set up fine for pale ales -> ambers. You'll want more alkalinity (bicarbonates) for the darker beers. You'll want to add gypsum for the really hoppy beers. Look into some of the online calculators/spreadsheets. I know howtobrew.com has a great spreadsheet in the section about mashing (13.4?)

conpewter said:

You'll want to add gypsum for the really hoppy beers.

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This makes me think of another problem I am having. My hoppy beers aren't quite what I expect and this may be a reason. I bought 1 lb of Cascade and 1 lb of Centennial a while back so I've been brewing up pale ales and IPA's recently but they never seem to have quite the "pop" that I want. I recently made a pale ale with 45 ibu's (from beersmith) and it REALLY lacked on anything that would resemble bittering or aroma. I figured it might have something to do with how I've been storing the hops but this might actually be the reason. BTW I've been storing my hops in a foodsaver vaccuum sealed bag in the freezer...I can't smell anything from the outside of the bag but when I open it up the aromas are very strong. These hops are '08 vintage and still very green looking.

Sorry for the novel.

Heh, I don't suppose you're in the Countryside area? If so, maybe I can just go off your water report for my own

Ewalk02 said:

This makes me think of another problem I am having. My hoppy beers aren't quite what I expect and this may be a reason. I bought 1 lb of Cascade and 1 lb of Centennial a while back so I've been brewing up pale ales and IPA's recently but they never seem to have quite the "pop" that I want. I recently made a pale ale with 45 ibu's (from beersmith) and it REALLY lacked on anything that would resemble bittering or aroma. I figured it might have something to do with how I've been storing the hops but this might actually be the reason. BTW I've been storing my hops in a foodsaver vaccuum sealed bag in the freezer...I can't smell anything from the outside of the bag but when I open it up the aromas are very strong. These hops are '08 vintage and still very green looking.

Sorry for the novel.

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Well Burton On Trent has an intersting water profile and they make great IPAs

They have high alkalinity and high hardness, but they match almost perfectly leaving little residual alkalinity (so they are OK for lighter beers - less roasted grain) but they have something like 700 ppm sulfates and very little chlorides (those are the two whose ratio determine malty vs. bitter characteristics of a water). You'd have to do the calculations to figure out how much of which salts to add without messing up your calcium/bicarbonate balance.

Just posted this is another thread earlier today... check out this link, it might help:

Homebrewing and water quality

I've looked at that link before, some of the information is helpful. The table at the bottom is way of for carbonates -therfore bicorbonates.

For example a Porter
Porter
Calcium 60-70

magnesium 0

sodium 40

carbonate (half as alkaline as bicarbonate) 60

sulfate 50-70

chloride 60

That is not nearly enough bicarbonates to have the alkalinity you'll need to counteract the dark grains in a porter, your mash PH would be way off with that formula. Additionally you need some magnesium for the yeast.

Anyway try out Palmer's updated water calculations spreadsheet on the bottom of this page
How to Brew - By John Palmer - Residual Alkalinity and Mash pH

Zaphod said:

Heh, I don't suppose you're in the Countryside area? If so, maybe I can just go off your water report for my own

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You got it, I live on Routt Lane. I just moved there a little while ago but found out my neighbor brews too, if you want I can give you a shout next time we fire up the rig!

nealf said:

Just posted this is another thread earlier today... check out this link, it might help:

Homebrewing and water quality

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Hey thanks a lot for that link, quite helpful!

Wow, cool links. Hope this isn't a thread jack but I've been wondering about my water and my beer so here goes:

My water report (well water, shallow well in sand)
pH 6
Sodium 6.5
Total Iron BRL
Manganese 2.58
Potassium 0.5
Calcium 2.0
Magnesium 1.1
Hardness 9.5
Alkalinity 11.0
Sulfate 4.1
Chloride 8.4
Turbidity 1.6 NTU
Free CO2 21.4
(all mg/l {ppm} unless noted)

How much of a difference does a water profile make? For example, I am doing the SS Minnow (Mild) on Big Brew Day. Based on the Homebrewing and water quality page, I'm way off on Calcium (2 vs 25-50), Magnesium (1.1 vs 10), Sodium (6.5 vs 30-40), Sulfate (4.1 vs 95-170), Chloride (8.4 vs 50-60). My hardness is low which is indicated as good, meaning I can adjust easier. My pH is low for water (6.5-8.0 is suggested for drinking water). I also know my Manganese is high and that can give off odor and taste though we've never had an issue with it.

So does this mean I should be making water adjustments? How far off from suggested levels starts to make a big difference? I guess what I am asking is from my water report, would it be ok as is or does it look like I could use some adjustments?