Artesian Well

That water has no bicarbonate? really? you sure? that would mean that your water would be best for the lightest beer posible. Like a pilsner only beer. your high sulfate means that a very hoppy beer is best.

hoppy and light are about the opposite of what you want for a porter. Does your tap water come from the same source? If it doesnt, then maybe you want to use that. Would you drink a glass of your tap water? taste good? can you detect any chlorine tastes? If it is enjoyable as a glass of water, use it for your beer.

Honestly though, your just starting, so don't worry about water chemistry. If you want to start worrying about more variables then mash pH is probably the place to start. The easiest way to do this is with 5.2 pH. just add a tablespoon to your mash.

If you want to learn about water chemistry and how it affects beers:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-1.html

And check if you really have no bicarbonates.

How did you like that Haus Pale? If it was good, try out the stout. Just about every sort of brewing water has significant carbonate content, though, as that brings out color and malty characteristics. I'm not sure how add that to your water without going overboard on the other minerals.

I agree that you might want to check on that profile. It seems odd that there are no bicarbonates at all. Even Pilsen has a trace.


TL

Here's the website that I got this from. The whole water elements thing confuses me, so I could have read some of this wrong.

http://www.slcgov.com/utilities/ud_8_south_artesian_well.htm

Your bicarbonate is 346 ppm. this makes your water very hard and suited to the darkest of beers. that said, i would ignore it unless you are having taste problems with your beer. you may want to get an RO system, or distilled water and dilute the well water. is this the same water as your tap?

read the link i posted, it will help after you read it about 5 times. play with the spreadsheet on the following page to understand how your beer is affected by your water.

i just looked at the slc water system report (consumer confidence report) and your city water would be a much better starting point for making beer as long as it tastes good.

if you have a well then you should have your water tested at ward labs if you are really concerned. google them.

are you having problems with the taste of your beer? if not, dont bother with this chemistry stuff yet.

No, I'm not having taste problems. I just didn't want to start I liked the idea of the artesian well because I wouldn't have to worry about the chlorine and such, and it's free. The tap water at my house tastes terrible, so I don't really even want to mess with it.

Ok, how does the well water taste? theres nothing wrong with trying a batch with that. Its just pretty hard.

does your water taste any better using a brita filter?

As a rule, if it tastes good as water, it will taste good as beer. Give the well water a try.

Yeah, I use a Brita to filter. It tastes fine then. I've already made a couple of beers with the artesian well. One Smoked Porter, and EdWort's Haus Pale.

stick with what works then. theres nothing you could possibly add to that water. i would still use 5.2 though.

. Just to get you thinking...what I would do is just try it. See what happens. Seriously. Don't get hung up on the details. If it works then great, if it totally flops (which is rather hard to do imho unless you really push the envelope) then go back and look at what could possibly be going on. I believe it is Westmalle that uses water that is supposed to be 'wrong' for the style or something of that nature I was reading once.

I use water from what they call Stump Spring in North Ogden. I haven't seen a profile on it but my beer turns out well. The history of Stump Spring is quite unique. The original owner had a drive in restaurant. He capped this artesian well and plumbed it into a large stump. People would come and get free drinking water. Recently the city of North Ogden built a fiberglass replica of the original stump with a 1 1/2 inch pipe that delivers a constant flow 24 / 7. There seems to be people there all the times filling jugs for home use. It sits in a small park like setting at a corner of Acres Market. Many other home brewers in Ogden also use this source.