Help with water report

[gregkeller]

So water is sort of the "final fronteir" for me. I've played around and messed with just about every other aspect of brewing to the point where I feel that I've got a good handle on most of the major aspects like regulating my brewing process, recipe development, yeast handling, fermentation control. I'm left with water. I have played with building a water profile from scratch after using filtered tap water for a long time. I live in NJ, so we get water from reservoirs, which means our water profile changes with the seasons. Chlorides go up in the winter when road salt gets washed into our waterways. I was wondering if someone with a good handle on water chemistry could look at the attached image from the most recent water report released and tell me if there are any red flags. Most minerals are within a range, but I'm not 100% sure if any of them are in a range where I need to worry about going all the way to RO/DI water. Obviously that gives me the most control, but it's also kind of a hassle. I brew 10 gallon batches, so making, storing, and then moving all that water (RO/DI in the basement, brew outside) is kind of a pain.

For example, my sulfates is pretty much negligable throughout the year (range is between 15-20ppm), so if I am brewing a hoppy beer and wanna up my sulfates, it's easy, but other minerals vary much more (chloride 86-212 ppm).

So I guess I'm wondering what you water gurus would do with this water? Depends on style? Beers that i've brewed with this straight filtered from the tap turn out nice, no problems, but beers I've brewed with RO built for a specific profile have that little extra something. I just wonder if I can get that extra something by amending my tap water instead of starting from scratch. Thanks and sorry for the extended question.

 

[Yooper]

To me, the biggest issue is the range of alkalinity. From 68 (moderately low) to 188 ppm (very high) makes it hard to deal with, unless you're really great about taking pH readings in a test mash. OR, you could get one of those aquarium test kits, and do a alkalinity test with your water before using a spreadsheet to predict the likely mash pH and treat the water accordingly.

The chloride issue is different- if it's high in the winter due to road salt, but lower other times that might be manageable- but you wouldn't know if it was high or low. You could try calling them and ask about the range, and if the 'high' was an outlier. That's a huge range.

 

[gregkeller]

I agree. It seems like RO/DI might just be the best way to deal with my variable water. I hate having to make adjustments once I get going. I try and make my process as simple and repeatable as possible on brew day. Taking mash pH, and then adjusting every brew day doesn't seem like fun. I guess I'll just need to work out a way to simplify my RO/DI setup so I'm not trying to haul 20 gallons of brewing water up from my basement.