Anyone willing to analyze my water??

would really appreciate someone who can interpret all this information comprehensively.

Alkilinity-Calcium Carbonate_ 190-195
Hardness- 250 mg/L
Mangenese .2 mg/L
Iron .03 mg/L
Chlorine .4-.5 mg/L
Chloride 30 mg/L
Sulfate 60 mg/L
Sodium 20 mg/L
Calcium 80 mg/L

Total Disolved Solids 380 mg/L

Water pH- 7.1-7.3

All I can make of this is that I have really Hard Water. Do folks see other things that might be concerning?? Hard water is good for brewing though right??

Yes hard water.

You are set for brewing dark beers (of course you'll need to run through a carbon filter to remove the chlorine)

For lighter styles you are either going to want to dilute your water (with reverse osmosis or distilled water), or pre-boil it to precipitate out the bicarbonates (Alkalinity), those are too high for anything but a porter or stout.

If you are doing a hoppy style you'll want to cut it with distilled or RO water (by half or so) and add gypsum, how much depends on your batch size.

Magnesium numbers would be helpful.

I don't know about your water....but
Palmer says soft water is good for brewing b/c you can add various salts to change the profile. This lets you match the historic ground water from whatever region you are trying to mimic the predominant beer style.

I have well water that has high disolved iron so I had to get one of those expensive ion water treatment systems...had my treated water profile worked up a lab and there were zeros accross the board. It's so soft it won't rinse soap away.

conpewter said:

Yes hard water.

You are set for brewing dark beers (of course you'll need to run through a carbon filter to remove the chlorine)

For lighter styles you are either going to want to dilute your water (with reverse osmosis or distilled water), or pre-boil it to precipitate out the bicarbonates (Alkalinity), those are too high for anything but a porter or stout.

If you are doing a hoppy style you'll want to cut it with distilled or RO water (by half or so) and add gypsum, how much depends on your batch size.

Magnesium numbers would be helpful.

Click to expand...

So what would not filtering out the chlorine do to the brew?? The reason I ask is because I'm having difficulty in flavors with my dark beers and my lighter styles have turned out good.

It's almost a solventy like taste at the end of my recent oatmeal stout and porter. Do I have high chlorine levels??

I have similar numbers to you in my water, I always pre-boil and cover till cool. Whirlpool and then drain my kettle as normal leaving the precipitants behind. Makes the water taste a little more "twangy", but when used to brew has always yielded superior results to just carbon filtering cold from the tap. This is with my pale ales, IPAs, and even a lighter golden ale. I would leave it be for anything darker like porter or stout though. Our water tastes great but pre-boiling has always made a better beer (style specific) from it for some reason.

WortMonger said:

I have similar numbers to you in my water, I always pre-boil and cover till cool. Whirlpool and then drain my kettle as normal leaving the precipitants behind. Makes the water taste a little more "twangy", but when used to brew has always yielded superior results to just carbon filtering cold from the tap. This is with my pale ales, IPAs, and even a lighter golden ale. I would leave it be for anything darker like porter or stout though. Our water tastes great but pre-boiling has always made a better beer (style specific) from it for some reason.

Click to expand...

Sorry for being a newbie but what do you mean by whirlpool and leaving the precipitants behind?

Do most brewers here use a filter from their tap? I've just been using water directly from the tap. Maybe this is taking away from the quality.

What do you think? Are we talking about starting with like a Brita faucet filter. Sorry for the basic questions.

Well Chlorine can cause

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves.


Generally if you just put it through a brita filter as you mentioned that will clear out chlorine, boiling it will help precipitate out the bicarbonates (taking calcium with them)

When you boil water the Mg and Ca make the carbonates precipitate out into a salty looking mass on the bottom of your boil kettle reducing the total hardness of the water, but also decreases the pH a little in doing so (which is a good thing). Whirlpooling is a centrifugal action brewers do after the boil to cause everything to pool to the middle so siphon/draining without sediment is possible. Simply stir the water/wort and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. You will see all the precipitates/break in the center of your kettle. If you allow pre-boiled water to be exposed to air after the boil it will start to reabsorb the CO2 in the air and hence back-step what you are trying to do precipitating out carbon linked sedimentation. Try it in your microwave with a coffee cup to see what I am talking about. Boil water and cover and let cool, then see the Mg and Ca on the bottom of the cup. If you induce oxygen during the cool down more will precipitate, but it isn't really necessary.

mangine77 said:

Sorry for being a newbie but what do you mean by whirlpool and leaving the precipitants behind?

Do most brewers here use a filter from their tap? I've just been using water directly from the tap. Maybe this is taking away from the quality.

What do you think? Are we talking about starting with like a Brita faucet filter. Sorry for the basic questions.

Click to expand...

Yup, and the Brita will work just fine, it's actually what I use.

So if you were going to brew tomorrow with this water profile and you didn't have access to a water filter, what would you do to the water ahead of time.

Should I pull all the water I need the night before and let it sit?? In the fridge? On the counter?

Ultimately with what you see in my water should I be letting the water sit and then running it through a Brita?

I realize that it is different for different styles of beer? Should I just leave it alone for darker beers besides filtering?

From what I've read it sounds like if I want to do any "lighter varieties" I'm going to have to add something to the water? Is that right?

I'm going to try and brew a Pale Ale tonight. What should I do with the water for a better pale ale?

Sorry about all the questions but I obviously need to get this water thing figured out if I'm going to improve my brewing. Thanks!

mangine77 said:

So if you were going to brew tomorrow with this water profile and you didn't have access to a water filter, what would you do to the water ahead of time.

Should I pull all the water I need the night before and let it sit?? In the fridge? On the counter?

Ultimately with what you see in my water should I be letting the water sit and then running it through a Brita?

I realize that it is different for different styles of beer? Should I just leave it alone for darker beers besides filtering?

From what I've read it sounds like if I want to do any "lighter varieties" I'm going to have to add something to the water? Is that right?

Sorry about all the questions but I obviously need to get this water thing figured out if I'm going to improve my brewing. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Just letting it sit will not help any. You need to boil it if you're not going to use a filter. Boiling will cause the "other stuff" to clump together and fall out. Then you stir the boil kettle hard until it makes a whirlpool. Then stop stirring and let the whirlpool keep going. Then the heavier particles will settle to the bottom in the center because you whirpooled. You then just rack the water off that sediment trying not to distrub or transfer any of the small cone of sediment down there.

Many do the same after their boil/cool-down stages of their brew-days. The break material will have coagulated enough that you can whirlpool and transfer only the clear wort to your carboy, so you don't have a big thick layer of trub in there

For a darker beer I'd probably just use the water after filtering it or letting it sit overnight (both will remove the chlorine).

For the lighter beers then it would be best to pre-boil it and then siphon it off the precipitate. This will also remove the Chlorine, though carbon filters may make the water taste better by removing other contaminants.

Unless you build your water from distilled and brewing salts you'll never get the exact perfect water for a style. I find that it is better to try and get close and that is usually enough.

You should pick up some 5.2 buffer from five-star. This stuff is really helpful to get your mash PH correct. Also if you boil and rack off the precipitate you can probably add a pinch of gypsum for the calcium and sulfate, since yeast do need calcium and the sulfate will help with hop bitterness.