Water report and Brun Water

Hi all, I'd like to start paying attention to my brewing water and making adjustments as needed. I got my water report and tried to input it into Brun Water (v1.13) but when I do it says my water report is unbalanced. I can get it to balance if I convert the cations from CaCO3 to ppm but my water report says it lists all values in ppm, not CaCO3 so I feel like there is something else that I'm doing wrong. Any advice on getting Brun Water to work is appreciated.

Also I'm planning on brewing an IIPA tomorrow and am also looking for feedback on the overall quality of my water. I feel like I need to add some gypsum, just trying to figure out how much. Thank you!





Here are the numbers from the report (in ppm):

Calcium: 116
Magnesium: 6
Sodium: 18
Bicarbonate: 111
Sulfate: 30
Chloride: 25
Nitrate: 0.5
Flouride: 0.7


Total Hardness as CaCO3: 127
Total Alkalinity as CaCO3: 111
pH: 8.3


And a link to the report if that helps: http://fortworthtexas.gov/uploadedF...011_Water_Quality_Report/2011 WQR English.pdf

It's pretty well balanced - about as good as the average Ward Labs report - at 3.44/3.59 cation/anions. The calcium and magnesium numbers are clearly 'as CaCO3' as they sum, approximately, to the hardness number which is explicitly stated to be 'as CaCO3'. The bicarbonate is stated to be 111 but is actually 132.4. Don't use the bicarbonate number in spreadsheets. Water labs often calculate it from the alkalinity incorrectly and many of the spreadsheets don't account for water pH or alkalinity titration end point pH in calculating the relationship between bicarbonate and alkalinity. The errors are usually small enough to be ignored but they do throw balance calculations off a bit.

Ok, thanks for the help! I'm planning on adding 10 grams of gypsum to a 5 gal batch. It should bring the Calcium to 174 and Sulfate to 325. Do you think that's too much gypsum to add?

Yes, I do but there are plenty of brewers who don't. It's a matter of personal taste and is something you will have to figure out for yourself. I usually advise starting low on the sulfate and working up. You can always add gypsum in the glass (though people would probably look at you with an arched eyebrow) but you can't take it out of the glass.