Finally starting to brew - Is my water OK?

[brad87us]

OK so after a long time of wanting to home brew, I am finally in a position to get started. I've been reading a lot on water quality and am still very confused by my water report. I was wondering if my water is ok to brew with, if I need to treat, or just get bottled water?

Here's the report:

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/11610


Thanks for any help and insight!

 

[RobbyComstock]

I hope someone answers your question. I was reading through that report and some of the dates were 2009 and 2011. I wonder why they are using such old data in that report when everything else was the end of 2013.

 

[freisste]

Not a particularly helpful report, IMO. It does say that you have chloramine in your water (common chemical used to reduce bacteria counts). You will have to add 1/4 tablet of campden per 5 gallons. There are other ways of mitigating the chloride, but that is probably the easiest.

Unfortunately, to be really useful you would have to at least have pH values so you can correct and control the mash pH. You don't have that, so you will need a meter or test strips (or just start with distilled like I do).

It would be really nice to have anion and cation information and to know exact concentrations of specific minerals. You don't have that either. Not the end of the world.

All you really need is pH to get pretty good. Since you don't have that I would just start with distilled.

Unless you are doing extract. If so, stay with campden and don't worry about the water report.

 

[brad87us]

Well good to know that I thought that report was pretty useless as well. I found these values online which I think should be more useful:

pH:*7.9
Calcium (Ca):*61.0*ppm
Magnesium (Mg):*19.0*ppm
Sodium (Na):*13.0*ppm
Sulfate (SO4):*24.0*ppm
Chloride (Cl):*22.0*ppm
Bicarbonate (HCO3):*198.0*ppm

 

[freisste]

That's what you are looking for.

Like I said, if brewing extract, pretty much ignore it.

If mashing, concentrate mostly (if not all) on pH. You want that between 5.3 and 5.6, iirc.

Sometimes it's nice to adjust the dissolved solids to accentuate hops or maltiness. That is pretty simple.

If you are trying to match a water source (that of Pilsen, Czech Republic to make a pilsner, for example) you will have to dive deeper. Most people say this is more trouble than its worth, considering you don't know what adjustments breweries there make (they may not use their own water profile).

I would suggest the bru'n water spreadsheet no matter which path you choose.

Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[brad87us]

Thanks for the info. I probably will start with extract before I move on to all grain, so I guess I won't worry about it too much right now.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

That is good water for amber and brown ales just the way it is (for all grain mashing). For extract brewing, you can essentially just ignore it, and you are actually better off using RO or distilled water for extract brewing because the minerals are already in the malt extract, and you only need to reconstitute the extract with water. By using water like that with malt extract, you will end up with your water profile, AND the minerals from the water that was used to make the mash during the production of the extract.

 

[chickypad]

The pH of the starting water is actually not all that related to the mash pH, it's more important to know your alkalinity and the other ions in the water. As was mentioned it's not a big deal with extract (though I agree about treating with campden for the choramine). If you do go all grain you're going to want to learn some about water as your alkalinity is on the higher side. With no corrections you will likely have trouble with too high a mash pH when brewing pale beers with that water. The Bru'n water spreadsheet/site is a great resource as mentioned.