Local Water Profile

Hey Everyone,

Im wondering where you guys find your local water mineral profiles.

I've found this: http://www.talgov.com/you/water/pdf/2010_wqr.pdf

Its a "water quality report" sadly the only brewing related stat I could find on it was sodium.

Any tips on where I can get some other info?

if it taste good use it?

I'm sure its fine but soon I want to get into water profiles for mashing!

Call or visit and ask them - also with some searching you can find stuff like this from another brewing website (don't know if it's accurate or not)

Tallahassee water:

Calcium 45
Magnesium 8.4
Sodium 3.3
Chloride 6.5
Sulfate 1.7
Alkalinity 143
Hardness 156
pH 7.5

I just got my water report back from Ward Laboratories. For $16.50 they will give you the homebrewers report that will tell you all of the pertinent ions. I sent off my sample and got my report in less than a week via email.

Try calling your local water authority and ask for the 'water quality engineer' or something of the sort; they will know what you're talking about. When I did, I just asked for a report that would cover the necessary traits of water important to homebrewing. Dude was super nice and helpful, and he promptly (seriously, 30 seconds later) sent me an email containing an excel spreadsheet of what's called "Secondary Standards."

Give it a shot. I was blown away at how simple (and FREE!!!) that was.

Your water department is better than mine. All I could get was total hardness. They said that they didn't have the exact Ca and Mg numbers when I called them three times. My water company said they only test for contaminants, and the minerals are not considered contaminants. On the up side for me spending the money was that my actual brewing water was tested and not an average for the wells in my area. I would definitely try getting the info for free first, but if that fails you have other options.

Huh, yeah I never thought about how it would be harder for other regions to get a detailed secondary standard report. This area (Sierra Nevadas, Truckee River, Lahontan Watershed, etc etc) is a highly researched and studied region.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

What minerals would fall under these two in Samc's post

"Alkalinity 143
Hardness 156"

Would hardness possible be bicarbonate?

I'll give my utility a call when I get home from work!

Wherever you get your info, be aware that some municipal water supplies can vary dramatically depending on variables such as time of season, etc. For instance, where we live, our water is mixed in varying proportions from three different water sources, which depends not only on time of year but also water supply. That means being able to accurately determine ion content over a period of time is nearly impossible.

Another factor is where the samples are taken. Many water quality reports take samples at the source, which does not reflect content at the tap.

hmm, Alright, I'll keep that in mind. I think I'm fine on the water sources front because Tallahassee is on a huge aquifer where we get all our water from. But I'm sure it can change from spot to spot within the city.

I just went to my municipal website and found the latest water quality report (2008, in this case). It was moderately helpful.

Bump? Would really like to know if you found out anything on this.

I found this: http://nfbl.org/nfbl/educational/Tallahassee_Mineral_Additions.pdf

Which gives what you need to add to the local water to get famous water profiles.

So if you can find whats in each of these profiles you can back in to Tallahassee's water profile.

This seems like some type of problem I did back in highschool!


I never actually did it because I moved up to NYC and now have an apartment too small to homebrew