brewing water profile help?

[trapae]

My city water seems to be extremely hard and I’ve never used it for Brewing so I usually buy arrowhead Springwater to brew with. But With all of the coronavirus problems, I won’t be able to get the spring water for my grocery store. A while back I sent my water into ward labs and below is the report. This is the water out of the tap after it goes through my water softener first.
I was wondering if anyone who knows anything about water chemistry could let me know if this is water that I can brew with. Planning on making a Munich Dunkel lager and have all of the stuff for this weekend.
Thanks

Ph. 8.3
Total dissolve solids. 204
Electrical conductivity. 0.34

Sodium 11
potassium. 3
Calcium. 56
Mg. 9
CaCO3. 178
Nitrate. 0.4
Sulfate. 5
Cl. 2
CO3. 2.2
HCO3. 200
Total alkalinity CaCO3. 167

 

[Yooper]

That doesn't look like softened water- it's actually not too bad for brewing but you'll want to reduce the alkalinity. You can try boiling it to get rid of come of the CaC03, or lime softening, or you could use some phosphoric acid. You would do better with recipes with dark roasted grains rather than light colored beers due to the high alkalinity there.

 

[rhys333]

I think you should be okay, but it's best to direct your questions to the experts in the brew science forum.

My two cents...
Darker grains plus a little acid should take care of that alkalinity for you. You can also pre-boil your water and decant it. Another option, and this is what I do, find ordinary RO water and add your desired minerals to it. No more guesswork with this option.

One more thing about your water supply...
Do you know if it is river water or ground water? If its river water and its anything like mine, then you can forget about water reports. The mineral content can fluctuate considerably.

 

[trapae]

Maybe I did take that sample in the waterline before my water softener gets to it. I can’t remember. I am unclear whether it’s a river or ground water. I live in California so probably ground water. I just really want to brew this Sunday and with all the stores Bare, can’t get what I normally use so trying to figure out if this will make drinkable beer.

 

[Yooper]

Maybe I did take that sample in the waterline before my water softener gets to it. I can’t remember. I am unclear whether it’s a river or ground water. I live in California so probably ground water. I just really want to brew this Sunday and with all the stores Bare, can’t get what I normally use so trying to figure out if this will make drinkable beer.

Yes, it should make a great stout or a very dark porter, as is. If you preboil the water, especially if you add a bit of gypsum for more calcium, you may get quite a bit of precipitate to lower that alkalinity (and then just rack off of the precipitate) and you can probably get a great amber as well.

 

[Franktalk]

Maybe I did take that sample in the waterline before my water softener gets to it. I can’t remember. I am unclear whether it’s a river or ground water. I live in California so probably ground water. I just really want to brew this Sunday and with all the stores Bare, can’t get what I normally use so trying to figure out if this will make drinkable beer.

Go for it; you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

 

[BigEd]

Your water is not super hard but it is highly alkaline. The pre-boiling suggested will bring that down. After that I would add some Calcium chloride to bring the Ca++ back up to 50-75 ppm and get going on that Munich Dunkel.