Oak Ridge TN , Secret city water

Well it doesn't glow in the dark or any thing like that, and this is what Ward labs found, does any thing stand out that needs to be changed.
I'm new to understanding water and need all the help I can get.

pH 7.9
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 190
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.32
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.3 / 3.2
ppm
Sodium, Na 10
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 36
Magnesium, Mg 12
Total Hardness, CaCO3 140
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.5 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 8
Chloride, Cl 11
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 144
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 118
Total Phosphorus, P 0.39
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

The alkalinity will be the primary concern. The rest of the ions are in very modest concentrations. Acidification will be a good tool for this water.

That would be awesome. I SO want glow-in-the-dark beer.

My water is pretty much like yours and I add a little acid to the sparge for lighter colored beers. I also add some calcium chloride and sometimes even a little sodium chloride.

Martin likes to treat all the water the same, but what works for me is salts in the mash, acid in the sparge. Of course it depends on the beer. I mostly do pales.

You can play with any of the different spreadsheets to get a feel for it. This is my favorite: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/#

You can also try;
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ (Martin’s) or
http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

Keep in mind these are estimates and your actual pH can vary from what the models predict. YMMV

See ya, gotta glow.

Thank you both for your help. I'll start my new adventure in water adjustments, and hope nothing goes wrong.

Wynne, you must not have read many of my posts. No where have I suggested or recommended that all brewing water be treated the same. The needs of mashing water and sparging water are not the same. Possibly you have me confused with AJ?

Sorry Martin, I guess I got that wrong. Maybe it is AJ.

What made me think that is that I could never figure out how to split out the portions on Bru’nwater. I couldn’t figure out how to use it with tapwater mash and RO sparge. Also, if I added calcium sulfate to the mash it stubbornly insisted I should add it to the sparge.

I didn’t use it a lot, it didn’t want to play nice with QuattroPro. I couldn’t get the sparge acidification to work, I couldn’t tell it what acid I was using. I tried LibreOffice, but it didn’t seem to want to install or work as spreadsheet only.

I don’t use RO sparge anymore. My tapwater doesn’t require dilution, and it’s easier to acidify the sparge than tote the RO.

No, definitely wouldn't be A.J.

Oh crap, looks like I stepped in it.

Leading experts agree that it is important to note the different requirements of mash and sparge water.

In my case, for example, with 100ppm alkalinity and 40ppm calcium, no acid is required to put the mash pH in optimal range. That same water, in a continuous (fly) sparge will go past pH 6.0 and extract excessive tannins from the grain, causing a mild astringency.

Adding .5mL of 88% lactic acid per gallon eliminates that problem.

How we comin’ with that glow-in-the dark water?

Wynne, if you tried using Bru'n Water with version 4.0 of LibreOffice, there are apparently bugs in that version. The spreadsheet seems to work well with version 3.6 of LibreOffice and it worked well with the previous version.

Wynne-R said:

Leading experts agree that it is important to note the different requirements of mash and sparge water.

Click to expand...

I misread your statement. I'm fine wit using the same water for mash and sparge but not fine with using the same water for all different kinds of beers.

Looks like you already found the Brewer's Friend water calculator which supports
mashing and sparging with 2 different water sources.

Kai

Oh man, I’m never going to backpedal out of this one. Might as well gas it.

Leading experts agree that it is important to note the different requirements of mash and sparge water. Except for Kai, who’s being difficult. You know I’m kidding, right?

I should have mentioned that my example was with a pale. Water treatment is not a one-size-fits-all. That’s why we use these cool calculators.

I don’t make anything dark enough or light enough to cause problems with the mash pH with my water. I do routinely acidify my sparge water, just to be difficult. I add a little acid to the jugs before I fill and store them

Kai you got anything on glow-in-the dark water?