Water adjustment help Bloomington, IN

Here is the report I recieved

The City of City of Bloomington Utilities
Office of Water Quality


The City of Bloomington Utilities’ drinking water is disinfected using Chloramines.
The Total Chloramine level ranges from 2.0 mg/l (winter months) to 2.5 mg/l (summer months).
The pH averages between 9.0 – 9.2.

Parameter Results (mg/l) Maximum Allowed (mg/l)
Alkalinity/Bicarbonate 30 No limit
Chloride 8.7 250 (secondary)
Sodium 7.5 No limit
Sulfates 32.5 250 (secondary)
Calcium 28 No limit
Hardness 44 No limit
Magnesium 3.9 No limit

Doesn't seem to bad, I filter and treat the chloramines with campden tablets. I am using http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry to do water calculations based on the default levels. It looks like adding 2 gms Baking soda4 gms CaCL and 4 gms Gypsum to 10 gallons water I should have better water for a pale ale. My goal is to keep it simple and cheap by improving my water with out the need to purchase large amounts of distilled water.

Adjusted water
CA 81
MG 4
SO4 92
NA 23
CL 60
HCO3 60
Alk 56

Any glaring issues or suggested adjustments? I will adjust PH in mash with acid malt.

Pretty nice stuff. Alkalinity just a wee bit higher than the generally accepted as desirable 50 or less. You are fortunate to have water with alkalinity this low. Don't spoil this by adding bicarbonate unless you need it for a dark beer. Calcium is OK but many would want to supplement to 50 ppm. The sulfate is OK for most brews but a bit high for beers using noble hops (pils, helles...) so do the main calcium supplementation with the chloride (as yours is low) and use gypsum to taste.

Thank you for the feed back. I will drop the bicarb

Bloomington water is great stuff. Its pretty much just runoff from the hills with a little mineralization. Its no wonder that Upland Brewing can do such good things with the water.

Definitely, don't add alkalinity unless its needed to keep mash pH from dropping too much. I also caution against using baking soda for adding alkalinity unless you really desire the sodium content. It can cause saltiness and harshness if it is raised too high. Pickling Lime may be a better way to add alkalinity without sodium.

The sulfate level could be increased markedly, if that is your taste preference. I like 300 ppm sulfate for pales. Its not sulfury to me at that level.

Enjoy!

Thanks for all the input. I wonder how the current drought will affect the water.