Cobb, GA Water Profile

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idover

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Smyrna
I'm in Cobb County, GA (Smyrna) and received this from Ward Labs last night. This is after a common activated carbon filter.

I'll be taking my first steps in adding salts to the water this weekend, so I wanted to make sure nothing here is a concern. The first thing that jumped out at me is the pH - it looks high to me.

Thanks for any advice,
Isaac

Code:
                                   pH  9.1
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm  82
     Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm  0.14
               Cations / Anions, me/L  1.2/0.9

                         ppm
             Sodium, Na  11
           Potassium, K  3
            Calcium, Ca  9
          Magnesium, Mg  2
 Total Hardness, CaCO3   31
         Nitrate, NO3-N  0.8 (SAFE)
         Sulfate, SO4-S  4
           Chloride, Cl  10
         Carbonate, CO3  3 
      Bicarbonate, HCO3  12
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3  15
    Total Phosphorus, P  0.46
         Total Iron, Fe  0.02
 
The water pH is relatively meaningless in brewing. The other concentrations look great. Typical Lake Lanier water. A very good place to start from.
 
Thanks, Martin. I'd read that the mash pH is what's important, but I wasn't sure if there is some point at which it becomes very difficult to bring the pH into a target range. Reading more from a couple of books reflects your comment, so maybe this won't end up with me surrounded by beakers and Bunsen burners after all!

Thanks,
Isaac
 
Martin, I just discovered Bru'n Water - Incredible! I'm one of the nerdy types that is interested in the chemistry, and I am finding the details in Bru'n Water incredibly useful. Though, my knowledge of chemistry is pretty much limited to "don't miix fire and gasoline in the garage."

When I enter my profile, the ion balance (1.32) is noted as unbalanced. The notes indicate that this may be okay in water with low ion content. It looks like this is indeed the case for my test. I'm assuming the ion content is low after comparing to other many other profiles.

To my understanding, activated carbon is positively charged which attracts cations, thus its effectiveness at removing chlorine. Is it possible that the filter is the reason for the imbalance? I purchased the "homebrewer's test" from Ward Labs, should I order another for complete minerals per your suggestion?

If it matters, this is the filter that is used:
Camco 40043 RV filter
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006IX87S/ref=oh_o00_s00_i02_details

Thanks for your help,
Isaac
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The activated carbon has no effect on the cations and anions of interest to brewing. It removes some heavy metals, halogens, and organic compounds, but leaves the rest of the profile unaffected.

Yes, the Smyrna water is relatively low in mineralization and the 'balance' may be off but the number of milliequivalents difference between the cations and anions is probably quite low. If the cation and anion totals are within 0.5 meq of each other, then its a fairly good report.
 
Your comments in Excel make sense to me now. My eyes were reading "difference" of 5, but for some reason I was trying to apply that as the "ratio" 1.0±0.5.

So abs(1.2-0.9) ≤ 5, which works.

Thanks, again!
Isaac
 
I live in Marietta so I'm sure I have a very similar if not the same water profile as you. I know next to nothing about water profiles, I'm gearing up to do my first all grain brew.

The beer I'm about to attempt is a Westy clone, I know their water table is ca 114 bicarb 370 mag 10 sodium 125 sulfate 145 chloride 139 from Brew Like a Monk, how should I treat this water?
 
AX, do you have a copy of Bru'n Water? It will help greatly, but if you're trying to get an exact profile, you might consider distilled or RO water. I treat only the mash, never the sparge water. The biggest difference I made was simply adding a carbon filter. The brewing salts were the next great leap, but not as noticible as filtering.

Thanks,
Isaac
 
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