Reducing alkalinity question

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TimKennard

TimKennard

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My brewing water is a community well for a small neighborhood. I have obtained two lab reports from Ward's 8 months apart to see if the water changed.

Am I correct in assuming that this water is good to go with just adding correct amounts of acid to reduce alkalinity?

Would you RO filter this water might be a better question?

I'm shopping for an RO filter for other reasons (humidifiers, coffee, etc.) and am curious if I would benefit from using RO water instead of tap.

I am using Bru N Water and use Lactic acid, Gypsum, Epsom Salt, and Calcium Chloride. Hoping Santa brings a PH meter but I'm currently using ColorpHast strips that read 0.3 low from my understanding. According to the strips I am in the ballpark every time on ph.


March 2015
water report mar2015.jpg

November 2015
water report nov2015.jpg
 
TimKennard said:
My brewing water is a community well for a small neighborhood. I have obtained two lab reports from Ward's 8 months apart to see if the water changed.

Am I correct in assuming that this water is good to go with just adding correct amounts of acid to reduce alkalinity?

Would you RO filter this water might be a better question?

I'm shopping for an RO filter for other reasons (humidifiers, coffee, etc.) and am curious if I would benefit from using RO water instead of tap.

I am using Bru N Water and use Lactic acid, Gypsum, Epsom Salt, and Calcium Chloride. Hoping Santa brings a PH meter but I'm currently using ColorpHast strips that read 0.3 low from my understanding. According to the strips I am in the ballpark every time on ph.


March 2015
View attachment 316941

November 2015
View attachment 316942
Click to expand...

I literally pay for water like what you are getting from your tap. No need for RO in my opinion. I welcome some alkalinity. I feel reducing it is easier than adding.

Although I don't have much to say about it, I would recommend you to research if using lactic acid alone may impart undesired flavour to certain styles.

Additionally, you may need to add some anions to get the right flavour profile for certain styles, like PAs and IPAs.
 
those numbers look really good, the only thing I would do is maybe add a sediment filter just in case, I use phosphoric acid to lower ph with good results, on lighter beers such as kolsch beer or lite ales I add a 1/2 cap full of 85% and after adding the grain and recirculate to mix, this lowers 7.8 to 5.2 most of the time, now I have to change for darker beers
 
You don't need RO for brewing, given your water. The 120 ppm bicarb content does need to be neutralized for most brews, but that can be easily accomplished with lactic acid and there shouldn't be a taste impact since the typical dose should still be below the taste threshold. In fact, lactic acid is the desired acid for German brewing since there might be some sort of nuance added by that acid. Lactate is a yeast nutrient and I'm assuming that maybe some sort of background flavor might be generated by the yeast.
 
Excellent, thank you for the responses. I remember enough chemistry from college to be dangerous and wanted to make sure there wasn't something else I should be considering/missing. I do run the water through a sediment filter.
 
Looks like good Schwarzbier water if you ask me ;)

Seriously, aside from the alkalinity that's some blank slate water. I know some folks advocate phosphoric since it's more flavor neutral than lactic, but I have always used lactic and never been able to taste it unless I go to an extreme (ie dropping mash pH prior to sour mashing, in which case I want lactic acid anyway). Not many beers where I'd want to use that as is (alkalinity or otherwise) so I'd usually be adding come chloride and sulfate back, but if you want to brew a Pils you're on the right track.
 
If your water's bicarbonate content is near 300 ppm or more, there is a good chance that using lactic acid will result in flavor impacts. If the bicarb content is less than 200 ppm, its unlikely that you would note flavor effects unless you are a super-taster. At 100 ppm or less bicarb, there is very little chance of a problem.
 

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