My water is just fine...right?

Okay, so a friend who I brew with is convinced that a recent batch of beer we made was ruined because of the water. The beer came out much more bitter than it should. We were going for a Pale Ale and it came out very bitter – not undrinkable (I can prove that by the almost empty keg), but way too bitter for a pale. It’s city water so it’s super clean…because of the added chlorine type of ingredient. So in an effort to prove him wrong I got the printout from the city. My efforts fell short when I realized I had no clue what I was looking at. Can someone translate this into English? Do I need to adjust anything, add anything or remove anything? I was thinking about starting to add some crushed campden. I’m doing all-grain.

http://www.swlp.com/customer_service/docs/2010_Water_Report.pdf

Thanks in advance to those who stayed awake in Chemistry class and didn’t rely on the class nerd during tests.

That water report is for contaminants and of no use for brewing. You need the mineral contents, etc. You should be filtering out or using Campden tablets to remove Chlorine or Chloramines from your water as they can give off flavors.

Many people will send H20 to Ward Labs for a report on what is in the water for brewing use. I just use RO water and build it up to what I need.



edit- are you sure they Chlorinate that water?

It's unlikely that the harsh bitterness is a water problem as this water is low in sulfate at 3.1 mg/L. It is more likely that you used a high alpha hop variety, miscalculated the charge, made a mistake in weighing it out, boiled longer than intended or that the alpha acid label on the package was wrong.

But you should know something about your water. To quote the .pdf "You may also call Donald Vollmer at 715-398-3636 if you are interested in a more detailed report."

The water report seems to be missing several things that are of interest to brewers:

- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Chloride
- Alkalinity
- Total Hardness
- pH

Thanks guys, looks like I need more info. I'll do more digging.

I had a harsh bitterness in my beers before I started charcoal filtering my water to remove chlorine.