Water Quality and Brewing

I'm reading John Palmer's book "How to Brew" and I got to the section where he talks about water quality and how it effects the mash and ultimately the beer. He suggested getting a hold water quality report and taking a look at it to make sure that water is okay to brew with. So I did just that.

I knew that since I live on that Long Island that my public water supply (Suffolk County Authority) was very soft. It's great for washing the car, but apparently it's too soft according to Mr. Palmer, to brew with. My average Calcium (23.2), Magnesium (4.5) and Sulfate (16.9) levels were all too low. He also said to check Bicarbonate, but that wasn't listed on the report.

I've always been very happy with my brew and never noticed anything odd. That said, I never brewed with all grain before. Is this something I should worry about?

I wish I paid more attention in my HS and college Chem classes! Unfortunately I have a real mental block when it comes to Chemistry

It will make a difference when you move to all grain.

From How to Brew:

"The reason for the difference between the brewing methods is that the minerals in the water can affect the starch conversion of the mash, but once the sugars have been produced, the affect of water chemistry on the flavor of the beer is greatly reduced. When brewing with malt extract, if the water tastes good to begin with, the beer should taste good."

Someone else can help you with the chemistry part. I tend to try and keep things on the simple side. I like the way my beer tastes using my tap water so I don't worry about it much. If I was going to sell my beer or enter contests, it might be a different story.

I have hard well water that is softened with a water softener. From what I have read you should never use water from a water softener for brewing. All of the beer styles I have made since switching to all grain turn out fine except pale ales and IPA's, they have no hop flavor. When I did extract my IPA's were fine. I went to a brewery last week and spoke at length with the owner/brewer. He was a home brewer who turned pro and has been brewing for a living for 20 years. I asked him all kinds of questions about water quality and what he suggested to fix my IPA problems. He went to a large bucket and scooped out a bowl of gypsum and gave it to me. He told me to use one spoonful with IPA's and pale ales and my problems should go away. He told me not to worry about all the minerals and other things in water, he believes if the water is drinkable it will work well for brewing. He told me that they don't ever add anything to their brewing water except gypsum. He also told me to continue using my softened filtered water and he would not bypass the softener. I'm planning to try it out with my next brew.

As mentioned it will make more of a difference when/if you move to all grain. The maker's of the extract you use did the mash for you and would have made sure the right amount of calcium, etc. is in the mash. So mostly you just need to worry about removing the chlorine or chloramines from your water if you're doing extract.

i was fine until the city changed up our water last summer and ruined five of my beers. terrible stuff.

just tapped the first batch i made using bottled water and it's much better.

i also have a wonderful new filter installed in my sink now

Not to hijack the thread, but on the subject of Chloramine...what exactly does the off-flavor created by chloramine taste like? I brewed a porter using tap water recently, and it has a very distinct off flavor. I found out after the fact that Philadelphia uses Chloramine. I brewed a pale ale shortly after w/bottled water and it tastes great.

The porter also fermented a tad hot, I think (~75-78 deg for the first day or two), but it's not a fruity/banana type taste....it's more like wet cardboard or something.

I'm thinking it might be a combination of the hot fermentation and the chloramine, but i'd be curious to know what the chloramine "off" flavor tastes like.