How about a thread on water & mash ph?

[sonvolt]

So, I have been reading Chapter 15 of Palmer's text. That chapter is about mash ph, water analysis, etc. I find it very fun to read, but I am more interested in being able to analyze my own water and make some judgments/comparisons.

My own town's water report does not list ppm of Calcium, Magnesium, or Bicarbonate, so I am finding it hard to use Palmer's text to help me out. I just got off the phone with a guy at the water treatment plant who gave me some #'s about our water's hardness. He claims that it is "5-7 grains" of hardness (he also says that a grain = 17.1 ppm). Well, I have no clue how to make this relevant to brewing, etc. Unfortunately, the guy I spoke with had no clue what it meant either, he just knew the #'s/

I left a message with another person at the water treatment plant, but we'll see if I get a response.

For now, does anyone know what I may be able to do with the total hardness data I have?

I don't think that I am willing to send a sample away for analysis - I am not that into it.

 

[jcchem25]

ppm = part per million = mg/kg (ppm is also approximately equal to mg/L). In your case, this would be 85 to 120 mg of hardness per liter of water. As Palmer states in his book, you also need to know how the hardness is defined (e.g. "as CaCO3").

Now, what you do with that I have no idea...

 

[clayof2day]

I just started really thinking about water chem. too (after reading chapter 15 and listening to some podcasts about water/mash pH). I have been playing with Palmer's spreadsheet a bit and trying to figure out some general guidelines for residual alkalinity (RA) for most of my beers. My water has an RA of about 25 (according to Palmers spreadsheet). This is great for most copper, amber, light brown beers and I have had pretty good success brewing them. However, when doing something really dark, say a Porter or a Stout, I think I need to do some salt additions to bring this up, but to where I'm not sure. I played with the idea of RA of 200-240, but it seems like a lot of mineral additions and a pretty high RA. Not quite sure. For lighter beers, I would likely need an acid addition to get to where I needed to be, but I've been using 5.2 from Five Star and it seems to work really well, and since starting with it have seen a big jump in efficiency. It doesn't however, seem to help me out with my dark beers, and I have been getting some funky flavors, which is why I think I need to get my RA up.

Thats what I've been toying with, but you really need a water analysis that lists the minerals, how they are defined, and Palmer's spreadsheet seems to help a lot too.

Anyone got any thoughts on my ramble?

Matt