Beaverton OR Water Questions

Hello All

I am hoping for some help deciphering my water report.


My IPAs and APAs always seem to lack the brightness of the commercial examples. Ambers always seem to taste bang-on for the category.

I brew all-grain using a cooler for a single-infusion, batch sparge process. But this was even an issue in my extract/partial mash days.

BJCP judges have described my hops flavor as tasting "Old" or "Possibly masked." This despite my using fresh hops straight from the distributor (I live in OR, they are super fresh) and fermenting in the mid-low 60's with WLP-001 (or US-05). 2-3 weeks in primary, 3+ weeks in bottles.

This is leading me to checking out my water chemistry...

The report is here, but I have no skill at deciphering any of this. Can someone please help me determine if I should be looking at the water for this particular issue?

Thanks

Joe

http://www.beavertonoregon.gov/archives/37/2010 Beaverton CCR.pdf

The water report is insufficient in the information needed for brewing. From the data provided in that report, I can see that Na, Cl, and SO4 are low and the total dissolved solids are low. The low TDS suggests that there isn't much stuff in the water which should mean that this water should be a good starting point for creating brewing water. The calcium content is probably lower than desirable for brewing and the SO4 is low. Both of those factors would contribute to lackluster taste in PA's and IPA's.

You'll need to contact the water quality lab at the water utility and ask for the Secondary parameters: calcium, magnesium, sodium, bicarbonate (or alkalinity), chloride, and sulfate. The water report provided some of that information, but not the most important components: calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate.

You can learn more about brewing water and how to adjust it by reading Bru'n Water. This water is likely to need additional minerals in order to produce great beer.

I'm going to contact them tomorrow for some follow up on this. Will post back, this serves as a reminder for me.

Another problem with Beaverton water is that they don't use the same source year round. Sometimes you are getting water from Portland (which is really soft, and definitely needs to have some minerals added) and other times you are getting ground water that has a lot more minerals already in it. I don't know exactly how to tell when you are getting water from each source, so I can't help much in that area.

Plus they shut down one reservoir after that e-coli scare a few weeks ago. But from what I've gathered, and I'll confirm tomorrow on the phone, is June-October we get water from two other sources, the Barney Reservoir and the Scoggins Reservoir (Hagg Lake). The time which you get the other water depends on what part of the JWC you are in. As the river dries up, they begin switching customers over to the reservoirs. Hillsboro is the last community to switch from the Tualatin River supply over to the reservoirs. The rest of the year we get water solely from the Tualatin River.

From the data I have here, the calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate rates do not differ greatly between water sources. I will see if I can get information for the rest of stuff we need. It says that this water is filtered and disinfected prior to being given to each local water district, so I don't expect there to be much of anything in the water regardless of source.

Here is the map of the water district, so you can see if you get part of your water from the Portland supply (the Tualatin Valley Water Department uses some of their water) because they do not filter Portland water, so if you get some water from there, it could be a lot different than Beaverton water usually is.

http://www.beavertonoregon.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/900

Ok, so I did get in touch with the woman who tests the water for Beaverton and here's what she said:

City of Beaverton-Hillsboro- Get water from the JWC. No Portland (Bull Run) water is ever in the system. The amounts you see in the reports do not significantly change between river use and reservoir use (summer-winter). They treat with free chlorine.

This is what JWC water looks like-

Na- 8.8
Ca- 7.1
Mg- 2.3
SO4- 12
Bicarbonate- 29
Alkalinity- 29
Chloride- 4.9

Ph 7.7

Other parts of Beaverton are hard to pin down because there is year-round varied use of some of the Portland water supply (Bull Run). But the water has chloramines. So use your campden tabs.

emetcalf said:

Another problem with Beaverton water is that they don't use the same source year round. Sometimes you are getting water from Portland (which is really soft, and definitely needs to have some minerals added) and other times you are getting ground water that has a lot more minerals already in it. I don't know exactly how to tell when you are getting water from each source, so I can't help much in that area.

Click to expand...

^this

I know Newberg has hard water issues so treatment is an ongoing issue to balance it enough to make consistent beer...but thats over the hill and different source from you.