1st report from Ward Labs

[Jtk78]

I just received my Ward Labs report and would like a little feedback.

I brew in my garage and get my water from a sink out there. We have a whole house water filter and I am not positive the garage water goes through the filter system depending on how it's piped. I may send a sample from my kitchen to see those results and confirm the effectiveness of the filter. I'm moving to all grain and before my next batch, so I wanted to see how my water would fair for the task.

Anyway, here are the garage resultsale

So I put these numbers into BnW, along with a recipe for an American Amber Ale I'd like to brew in the near future. I added some a small amount of gypsum, calcium chloride, and acid malt based around the Water Primer thread I've been reading and here are the results from that.

My concern is, even though the numbers appear "acceptable" in the spreadsheet, my water is still very hard. Is this correct? How would this effect my beer if made with the above adjustments?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Your water is not very hard.
The alkalinity (one of the most important part of your water) is moderate and certainly needs consideration. Also, your Na and Cl levels are quite high (not badly so) - there must be some source of salt in your water.
The report looks right to me - you have a lot of dark crystal to bring the pH down.
Are you sure you want to add CaCl2 to your water? It will raise the Chloride level. This will increase the body/sweetness perception of your beer.

 

[Jtk78]

Thank you for the feedback. I have not had a chance to play around with the spreadsheet again, but will over the weekend.

 

[Jtk78]

I made some changes and this is where I'm at now.

If I took out the CaCl2 completely, it was throwing my cloride/sulfate ratio. If I took out both the gypsum and CaCl2 my calcium and sulfates were low. I think I'm going to give this a shot and see how it goes.

I did send a sample to Ward from my kitchen sink as well, so I should have those results middle of next week.

 

[RedlegEd]

I made some changes and this is where I'm at now.
If I took out the CaCl2 completely, it was throwing my cloride/sulfate ratio. If I took out both the gypsum and CaCl2 my calcium and sulfates were low. I think I'm going to give this a shot and see how it goes.

I did send a sample to Ward from my kitchen sink as well, so I should have those results middle of next week.

Hi. Congratulations for working on trying to understand and use your water chemistry. I think you'll find it will take you a long way to making really great beer. Based on your water profile, your Chloride/Sulfate ratio (40/39) is almost exactly 1.0 (balanced), so don't mess with it unless you're striving for a dry or full perception. I've found that "less is best" when adding salts/minerals to your water. IMO, your primary focus should be to get the pH into proper range, then make sure you have enough CaCl2 to help precipitate proteins (and you're almost already there with 40 ppm.) Martin Brungard (creator of Bru'n Water,) says you shouldn't use the ratio exclusively to set the CL/SO4 targets. The ratio is used to give you an idea of the "taste perception" of your beer, and even if you get the ratio correct, if you add too much of either, you will notice it (and probably not in a good way.) In any event, I wish you good luck!
Ed

 

[ajdelange]

Because of the widespread misinformation about chloride/sulfate ratio I feel that people who are new to brewing water chemistry should probably completely ignore it until such time as they are able to understand the discussion at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=526109

 

[Jtk78]

Thank you Ed and AJ for the reply. I did read through (twice in fact) the link regarding the ratios. I will continue to refer to in in future brews as well. I have made what I believe are my final revisions as shown below.

I have one other question to hijack my own thread. In my (albeit limited) research regarding PH levels of batch sparge water, some say they do not mess with it at all, other say they try to get it below 6. I understand this is much more important when fly sparging, but what is the concensus for batch sparging?

 

[RedlegEd]

Thank you Ed and AJ for the reply. I did read through (twice in fact) the link regarding the ratios. I will continue to refer to in in future brews as well. I have made what I believe are my final revisions as shown below.

I have one other question to hijack my own thread. In my (albeit limited) research regarding PH levels of batch sparge water, some say they do not mess with it at all, other say they try to get it below 6. I understand this is much more important when fly sparging, but what is the concensus for batch sparging?

Based on on your own research, I don't know that there is consensus. I'm currently using a Grainfather, and I treat my entire brew water batch, then split into mash & sparge quantity, so my sparge water will normally be 5.5 or less. TBH, I don't know that it really matters as long as the pH of the sparge water is not crazy high (i.e. > 8.0) Ed