Muni. water pH is 8.9... impact on beer?

I looked up my municipal water specs,
It shows a pH of 8.9. Should this value have an impact on brewing?

I also have the alkalinity, hardness, and chloride levels.


Other, related: I did run into a website a few weeks ago which had the water profiles of some notable brewing cities, like Munich, London, etc, . Google wasn't able to retrieve that for me. Anybody know where this may be found?

beergears said:

I looked up my municipal water specs,
It shows a pH of 8.9. Should this value have an impact on brewing?

I also have the alkalinity, hardness, and chloride levels.


Other, related: I did run into a website a few weeks ago which had the water profiles of some notable brewing cities, like Munich, London, etc, . Google wasn't able to retrieve that for me. Anybody know where this may be found?

Click to expand...

Can't speak to the pH (although it seems pretty darn high?) without some research, however I think Palmer's book "How to Brew" has the table you are discussing with the notable brewing cities' water profiles.

Also, he probably speaks to exactly your question on impact of your municipal water. If I recall there is an entire chapter on reading the water report?

OK, finally found the cities water stats here

www.brew-monkey.com/brewschool/famouswater.php

Interesting: Munich and Vienna have a pH of 8.0, and Boston's is 7.9

Hmmm.

EDIT: I need to get the Palmer book... was rushing to brew with his "first brew crash course" on web and forgot about it...!

Are you an extract of AG brewer? If you are a new brewer and you are using extract you need not worry about your water pH or mineral content; that has already been taken care of by the extract manufacturer.

If you are an AG brewer, then you have to worry about mash pH. Palmer's book has some good tables and Designing Great Beers has a good section on water as well.

beergears said:

EDIT: I need to get the Palmer book... was rushing to brew with his "first brew crash course" on web and forgot about it...!

Click to expand...

One version of the Palmer book is completely online - every bit of it. All 21 chapters or something...

Not sure how much new info is in the newer revised versions, but this one has always provided me with everything I needed.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

The Palmer table doesn't actually have pH for the cities but goes into detail on their calcium, bicarbonate, and other characteristics as well...

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-2.html

You'll find that most municipal water will have a pH over 8 to keep the water from eating the pipes.

like TheJadedDog said, the mash pH is most important. Your grains will pull the pH into the necessary range in most cases. Many people check the pH of the mash and make adjustments with acid or salts in order to get the mash pH in the right range.

There is a concept called residual alkalinity that is based on the mineral content of your brewing water pre adjustment and its ability to buffer the pH lowering capabilities of the mash. This also plays into the style of beer you are brewing as darker beers create more acidic wort.

Palmer has a chapter on it and explains it, however I honestly don't 100% track it all yet so I can't quite explain it as much.

I have read that for the most part, it is necessary deal with chlorine and chloramines in your muni water (to avoid off flavors) and if it tastes decent, you should be okay. If your beer is excessively bad, water content or pH could be something to consider. For me, I've been working to hone in my other skills and am now just exploring how tweaking my water could improve beer flavors and efficiency of mash.