Magnetic Springs (Walmart) water analysis

I buy my brewing water from Walmart. (I use their store branded spring water.)

If you do too, you'll be interested in this analysis:

Spring Water

(This is bottled by Magnetic Springs Water Company, and comes from Pine Grove Springs in Ohio.)

Calcium 2.6 mg/l
Magnesium 1.4 mg/l
Bicarbonate (as CaCO3) ND (None detected)
Sodium 1 mg/l
Chloride 1.4 mg/l
Sulfate ND (Below detectable level of 5)
Hardness (as CaCO3) 10
Alkalinity (Total as CaCO3) ND (Below detectable level of 20)
Potassium 1.6 mg/l
Bicarbonate (as CaCO3) ND
Carbonate (as CaCO3) ND
pH 5.5 at 73 degrees F
Chlorine as Cl2 ND
Chloramine as Cl2 ND
Chlorine Dioxide as ClO2 ND


By the looks of it, I guess I should be brewing Pilseners.

Do you build up the water to the mineral profile you want? I realize most people buy reverse osmosis water or distilled water and then build the water up to the mineral profile they desire with calcium sulfate (gypsum), magnesium sulfate (epsom salt), calcium chloride, calcium carbonate (chalk), Baking soda and Table salt. Is this what you are doing with the brewing water? (redundant question)

I have recently started building my water and once I understood the basics it was very easy for me to understand why I would want to and how to do it. Needless to say I had some help on HBT from the very smart people on here. It was great to finally understand what the he$$ actually determines what my mash pH will be. :rockin:

Actually, until now I've had no idea what was in that water; I've always just used it as-is (except the occasional addition of gypsum if it was in the recipe I was brewing), and it's always made good beer.

I'm quite surprised that it's so low in minerals (and pH for that matter). Now that I know, I may begin to bring up the mineral content and see if it makes the beer even better. If I don't notice a change then I'll keep using it as-is.

It was very easy to figure out the mineral additions I needed using beersmith. The Pol recommended brewater to me which is a free program that does the same thing. Depending on what you are brewing you can find a water profile for the area of the world where the beer is famous and you can emulate that water. I was making an IPA and was going to emulate Burton on Trent but decided on another water at the last minute. Give it some thought.....

Most profiles are written in parts per million, and your numbers are in mg/l, so it is hard to say what you actually have. Maybe someone will help in doing the math so that you are on the same standard as brewing water profiles are usually presented in.

You should rewrite the numbers after conversion.

i guess im going to walmart for my lighter beers. thanks for posting this!

Henry Hill said:

Most profiles are written in parts per million, and your numbers are in mg/l, so it is hard to say what you actually have. Maybe someone will help in doing the math so that you are on the same standard as brewing water profiles are usually presented in.

You should rewrite the numbers after conversion.

Click to expand...

1mg/l is close enough to 1 ppm that you can use the number as-is I believe. If I remember correctly the density of the water could have a very small impact but probably not worth worrying about. One of you water chemist types please chime in if I'm off-base...

Yeah, 1 mg/l is very close to 1 ppm. >link<

FWIW, Wallyworld sources their water regionally so unless you live in the same region as Rick500, your water is going to come from somewhere else.

True...check the label on the front--it should list the company that bottles it and the water source (Pine Grove Springs, Ohio for the report I posted above).

I've used the Magnetic Springs water from Wal-Mart. Although ours says the source water is Magnetic Springs, so it may be different. I usually throw about a tsp or two of gypsum in and have NEVER had any problems with that water.

Nice find on the water report.

Mine says "bottled by Magnetic Springs Water Co." and also "source: Pine Grove Springs, Ohio".

It's very likely that it's sourced differently in different parts of the country, though.