Yet Another Water Report ( Local Spring Water)

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HansBlix

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I have used a few different online calculators and know what to look for when reading a water report but I am still having trouble pulling this all together. Could someone point me in the right direction? All the values for this are much lower than other references.

Ca+2 - 6.7 mg/l
Mg+2 - 1.8 mg/l
SO4-2 - 11.8 mg/l
NA+ - 1.5 mg/l
Cl - 3.4 mg/l
HCO3 - 8.1 mg/l

Thank you!
 
The information is there. You're probably lost because none of those online calculators tell you anything. You need to use Bru'n Water.
 
I'm not sure what you mean when you say you are having trouble "pulling this together". These data (the report itself is quite good with electrical imbalance of only 0.007 mEq/L) are representative of low mineral water such as might be found in the Pacific Northwest (where the source is mainly rain water). It is soft (total hardness 24 ppm as CaCO3 of which 9 are temporary) and low in alkalinity (9 ppm as CaCO3 - 4.3 end point starting pH of 7 assumed). With effective hardness of 20.4 the residual alkalinity is 3.3 ppm as CaCO3. You should be able to deduce any of these additional numbers from (m)any of the available calculators and spreadsheets.

If you are seeking advice on how to use this water you could start with the Primer in the Stickies here. As soft as it is you are effectively starting with a blank sheet of paper and can (must) make mineral additions for most beers. Coming up with proper additions can be quite simple (Primer) or rather complicated (emulation of a particular brewing water ion profile). The calculator/spreadsheets that are widely available put you in the middle of this range. These do not cover the extreme case as it adds orders of magnitude of complexity and is almost never justified.

Acid in some form will be required for most beers. Exceptions: very dark beers especially if brewed with base malt with very low DI water pH. Lighter beers brewed with these acidified base malts and a lot of crystal.
 
Thank you. I assumed it was soft and like you said a blank canvas so to speak. I am not terribly concerned with additions. Like yourself, I would like to fully understand water profiles and the chemistry behind it rather than have a spreadsheet tell me what I need to add and in what quantity. Thanks for your advice.
 
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