trying to understand water

im trying to take my brews to the next level and am trying to understand the water chemistry stuff. I have my citys water report and dont really know what it all means, so i was wondering if someone could tell me what kind of beer my water is best suited, and what i can do to make it suitable for other beers.

P.H = 7.4
Calcium = 22
Magnesium = 2.5
Sodium = 4
Sulfate = 22
Alkaline caco3 = 34
Hardness caco3 = 54

I've been brewing for a few years but am kind of a newbie when it comes to water but I'll take a shot and tell you what I do since I have very similar water to you.

Nothering glaringly bad jumps out at me about your water. If you brewed with it as is you could make perfectly good beer. It's a pretty blank slate which is pretty good. It's much easier to add things than it is to take them out.

Looks like very soft water. I brew mostly pale ales and IPA's and have similar water and here is my interpretation and what I do.

Calcium is a little low
Magnesium level is acceptable
Sodium low is good so yours is fine
Sulfate - okay (maybe a little low depending on type of beer)
bicarbonate/alkalinity depends on the beer (IPA/pale ale - low is good)
Choride??? you don't mention this one.

Based on that here is what I would do for pale ale or IPA. Get some gypsum and calcium chloride.

Add gypsum and calcium chloride to get your calcium level up around 100 ppm keeping Chloride to sulfate ration in line with ratios shown on EZ water calculator.

sorefingers23 said:

so i was wondering if someone could tell me what kind of beer my water is best suited, and what i can do to make it suitable for other beers.

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There is a sticky at the head of this topic called Water Chemistry Primer. It was designed, at the request of the management, to answer exactly this sort of question. Have a look.

ajdelange said:

There is a sticky at the head of this topic called Water Chemistry Primer. It was designed, at the request of the management, to answer exactly this sort of question. Have a look.

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

AJ's advice really put this piece of the puzzle together for me. I think it is a great place to start.

yeast_infection said:

I've been brewing for a few years but am kind of a newbie when it comes to water but I'll take a shot and tell you what I do since I have very similar water to you.

Nothering glaringly bad jumps out at me about your water. If you brewed with it as is you could make perfectly good beer. It's a pretty blank slate which is pretty good. It's much easier to add things than it is to take them out.

Looks like very soft water. I brew mostly pale ales and IPA's and have similar water and here is my interpretation and what I do.

Calcium is a little low
Magnesium level is acceptable
Sodium low is good so yours is fine
Sulfate - okay (maybe a little low depending on type of beer)
bicarbonate/alkalinity depends on the beer (IPA/pale ale - low is good)
Choride??? you don't mention this one.

Based on that here is what I would do for pale ale or IPA. Get some gypsum and calcium chloride.

Add gypsum and calcium chloride to get your calcium level up around 100 ppm keeping Chloride to sulfate ration in line with ratios shown on EZ water calculator.

Click to expand...

the only thing i can find for chloride is Cl2 im not sure if thats it, if so its 1.10

also i wanted to know, on brewersfriend, it says " •This calculator uses Bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the measure of alkalinity. If your water report specifies alkalinity or hardness as CaCO3, multiply that number by 1.22 to get the HCO3- value.

do i multiply my alkaline caco3(34) or my hardness caco3 (54) to get my biocarbonate hc03?

sorefingers23 said:

the only thing i can find for chloride is Cl2 im not sure if thats it, if so its 1.10

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Thats equivalent free chlorine - not the same as chloride ion.

sorefingers23 said:

also i wanted to know, on brewersfriend, it says " •This calculator uses Bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the measure of alkalinity. If your water report specifies alkalinity or hardness as CaCO3, multiply that number by 1.22 to get the HCO3- value.

do i multiply my alkaline caco3(34) or my hardness caco3 (54) to get my biocarbonate hc03?

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Alkalinity.

the only thing im missing on my water report is chloride, and i called my town hall, and no one was able to help me, is there any other way to find this?

sorefingers23 said:

the only thing im missing on my water report is chloride, and i called my town hall, and no one was able to help me, is there any other way to find this?

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Testing at ward labs.

It is probably not very high though, for most beers I think you'll be fine following AJ's primer. Try that first and if you aren't happy you can pay about $16 to have your water tested and think harder about it. In general more chloride is good, sulfate is the one you want low for some beers and perhaps high for others.

Remember to treat for chlorine/chloramine with campden (one tablet per 20 gallons, actually you need less but a little extra does not hurt) or a carbon block filter (read the manufacturer's instructions).

We can estimate it from the other numbers but that requires 4 assumptions. First, all the other numbers must be accurate. Second, the pH for alkalinity determination is 4.3. Third, there is no other unreported ion (potassium, iron, copper, fluoride, manganese...) present. Fourth, the given numbers are all from the same sample i.e. they are not monthly averages or hardness measured on Tuesday and alkalinity measured on Thursday. If all those conditions are met the chloride would be 13.7 mg/L. If the titration alkalinity for pH is for an equivalence end point (4.8) the estimated chloride would be 11.9 mg/L. If there is 1 mg/L unreported potassium the chloride estimate would rise to 12.8 (equivalence end point). If in addition there is 5 mg/L unreported nitrate (as nitrate) then chloride estimate (with the potassium and the equivalence end point) would be 10 mg/L. So we can probably say the chloride is 12 ± 5 mg/L. It is, thus, in all probability, low enough that the water could be considered soft under the terms of the definition in the Primer.

im going to post the link to my towns water report, maybe some one can help me out with something i may have missed.

sorry for the water report being in french, i couldnt get an english copy, everything is pretty understandable for the most part.

this is what i have, my town is ste rose(highlighted in red)

http://www.info.ville.laval.qc.ca/w...environnement/eau/document/valeurs_trimes.pdf

http://www.info.ville.laval.qc.ca/w...nvironnement/eau/document/organiques_2010.pdf

http://www.info.ville.laval.qc.ca/w...ironnement/eau/document/inorganiques_2010.pdf

It is strange that chloride isn't mentioned. It's pretty easy to measure. Anyway, as the nitrates, iron etc. are all present in small amounts neglecting them introduces small error relative to that caused by the fact that the report lists "valeurs typiques" and not the values from a single analysis. This is responsible for most of the inaccuracy associated with the estimate I gave in #9. I could rework the estimate with the nitrate, iron, fluoride etc. values but it wouldn't change the conclusion much.

i think im just gonna send a sample of my water to be tested, i think that would be best. does anyone know what it costs??

16.50 from ward labs, unless you want fluoride and iron i believe.

thats alot less than i thought!