Another limited water report!

[Devilsnight]

Looking for some guidance on my tap water. I'm currently using bottled water using the primer located in a sticky here (adding cal. chloride and acid. malt) however being the cheapskate I am I'd really like to use my tap water for cost savings. Here is what the water department emailed me.

The only other parameters we are required to test for are Free Chlorine Residual, Fluoride Residual, and System Iron Concentration. The average concentration for these parameters from January through October 2014 are as follows. Free Chlorine Residual 0.02 PPM (parts per million), Fluoride Residual 1.05 PPM, and System Iron 0.038 PPM. We occasionally test for hardness and it is usually around 18 grains (307.8 PPM) which is very hard. If you are interested in testing your water for anything else at your cost the DNR website can help you find a lab that will perform those tests.

I have beersmith to make calculations but this is a little over my head. Can anyone put this into laymans terms for me? Thanks!

 

[mabrungard]

Nope. That information is essentially useless for brewing. You will have to get the water tested yourself if you want the knowledge.

 

[ajdelange]

Can't tell you much from this but we can make a couple of general observations. Fluoride is high enough that your kids should have few cavities but won't be poisoned. As to whether fluoridation is a communist plot to destroy our children's minds and morals you will have to decide for yourself. Fluoride is not important to brewers at these levels. The free chlorine residual is very low and the question then becomes as to whether the combined chlorine (i.e. chloramine) residual is higher. You need to check that out and take care of it if there is chloramine in your water. See https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/campden-tablets-sulfites-brewing-water-361073/ for more on this. The reported iron level is about 1/3 of the maximum a brewer wants to see so you are OK there.

The most significant thing they gave you was the hardness of 300 ppm meaning that there 6 milliequivalents per liter's worth of positively charged calcium and magnesium ions. There may be other cations too such as sodium. Each liter of your water will, thus, have to contain at least 6 mEq of cations (-ide, -ite, -ate) to balance the positive charges of the cations. The most prevalent of these are chloride, sulfate and bicarbonate. There is really no way to know the relative concentrations of these without tests and you will have to do testing if you want to be able to control your water. Ward Labs gives good value for the money. You can also buy alkalinity test kits at aquarium and pool suppliers and even hardware stores. With this much hardness it is very likely that you have a lot of bicarbonate too. This shows up as alkalinity which is probably the brewer's worst enemy when it comes to water.

With the given information, specifically the high hardness, the outlook isn't good for this water (because of likely high associated alkalinity). Get a Ward Labs test done and post again. You'll get much better advice based on that.

 

[Devilsnight]

Thanks for the info sir. I noticed today at the store that I can get gallon jugs refilled for 39 cents so, I guess ill stick with bottled water.