I have hard water what now?

[newtobrew1981]

I have hard water and was wondering if I should treat it. I plan on all grain brewing. Advice is appreciated.

 

[Sdiddy84]

You can invest in a RO system.

I buy distilled water from my grocery store. Not that much, maybe cost me 6 bucks and I can make my water profile whatever I want.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

It might be worth it to brew a couple of different styles and see how they taste before you start twiddling the knobs. The spring water that I use is high in bicarbonates, but my beers have all tasted great, especially darker beers.

In my opinion, there IS something to be said for terrior; your local water might have something to it that gives a nice character, even if it isn't "perfect."

 

[newtobrew1981]

Yeah I was thinking the same. Im a big fan of stout and dark beers but want to brew pale ales and lagers

 

[Yooper]

Hard water is good- alkaline water is a problem.

What would really help is a water report, with the calcium/magnesium levels as well as the alkalinity.

Many brewers add brewing salts to soft water to harden it- and overall hard water is a good brewing water if the alkalinity is low.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah I was thinking the same. Im a big fan of stout and dark beers but want to brew ales. Brewing ales is what makes me nervous

Stout and many dark beers ARE ales.

 

[newtobrew1981]

I have the kit from my local lab just was kinda unsure what minerals to have them target as they charge 8 dollars for each one

 

[motosapiens]

How hard is it? (that's what she said, lol).

my water is hard enough (179 alkalinity) that my paler beers were pretty astringent and tannic before i discovered chemistry. Now i add a little lactic acid to the mash and a little more to the sparge, and everything turns out groovy.

 

[z-bob]

You need to get a water report. A free one from the city should be good enough for a start.

The water here is terribly alkaline (317 ppm of HCO3-), with not enough calcium and magnesium to balance the equations. I've been adding acid malt or lactic acid to the mash, and then sparging with RO water. That works pretty well. The one beer I made where I did no-sparge and acidified the full-volume mash with lactic acid tasted weird. I don't think it was the lactic's fault, but I'm not going to try that again JIC.

I brewed a modest-gravity pale ale last month using all tapwater; I acidified the mash with lactic acid and the sparge water with phosphoric acid. That beer turned out awesome.

 

[newtobrew1981]

Stout and many dark beers ARE ales.

Sorry I meant pale ales

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

I personally gave up on my water a long time ago and went with distilled water. Only adds about $7 to the brew day and I have all the control in the world. No more worrying about alkalinity.

Before that I had my water report (recommended) and had to dilute with distilled for anything lighter than a brown ale.

 

[Yooper]

I have the kit from my local lab just was kinda unsure what minerals to have them target as they charge 8 dollars for each one

You can get a full report for about $26 from Ward Labs. It's a "household minerals test", and it has all that you need. The only other thing you'd want to know is if chloramines or chlorine is in your water, and your local water company (if on municipal water) can tell you that.

 

[WarEagleBrewer]

Ditto on the water report. Then, get yourself a copy of Brun Water and adjust! I have slightly hard water and it is a great base, I just add a little gypsum here, a little calcium chloride there, maybe a hair of Epsom salt depending on the style, and viola....amazing (as of late) beer! I also use phosphoric acid to adjust my ph.

 

[WarEagleBrewer]

Hell, playing with the Brun Water program to see what works is half the fun!

 

[z-bob]

You can get a full report for about $26 from Ward Labs. It's a "household minerals test", and it has all that you need. The only other thing you'd want to know is if chloramines or chlorine is in your water, and your local water company (if on municipal water) can tell you that.

Or just assume chloramine and treat for that. Rochester says they use chlorine, but I don't trust them; they might use chlorine most of the time and chloramine every once in a while (all they have to do to switch is add a little ammonia to the chlorinated water).

 

[mabrungard]

Nothing is wrong with using hard water to brew with. I wouldn't punt on using your tap water without assessing all the ionic content against recommended ranges for each ion. The tap water may still be usable.

Don't go thinking that using RO or distilled water is a cure all either. You are still likely to need to add acid, base, and/or minerals to produce brewing liquor that is better suited for the beer at hand. Zero alkalinity is nice, but only a narrow range of beer styles benefit from zero alkalinity. Other styles may benefit from using water with less than zero alkalinity or significantly positive alkalinity. Don't end your treatment by only selecting these water sources. A little more is probably needed.

 

[newtobrew1981]

Thanks for all this advice it helps I'm venturing into all grain for the first time and I just want to start off on the right foot. That being said I'm having my water tested first. then ill take the necessary steps. I think that's my best approach

 

[agrazela]

I'll typically blend tap water (treated with bisulfite for chloramine) with RO water from the kiosk outside the grocery store, depending on what I'm brewing, and guided by the BrunWater spreadsheet, and adding back calcium salts as needed, using phosphoric acid as needed to acidify.

Could be anywhere from 1gal tap and 5gal RO for a pale, to 3gal of each for a brown or stout.

I agree that straight-up RO, even with adding back specific salts, may not be best...yeasts like traces of zinc and such that are in the tap water.

I also wonder, every time I look at local water reports, how the heck did San Diego come to be such an IPA mecca? Not only are none of the basic beer ingredients (barley, hops) even remotely "local," the water here SUX for pale ales!

 

[balrog]

This can be a hobby of "relax and just brew" or a hobby of temp controlled mash/ferm, pH measurement/analysis and water chem adjustment. I had a friend tell me that it isn't rocket science unless you want it to be.

I say don't be afraid to just try a batch with tap water. But I would get the water report too. I may talk a good relaxed game, but I got my water report(s) & use Martin's spreadsheet and have temp control for my fermentation.

 

[ESBrewer]

Hard water is optimum for certain beer styles. And whatever you brew, I'm sure that you can get decent results with local water by doing small adjustments to water / recipe. No need to make it too difficult. If you want to dig deep to the water composition, the exact water report from the web site of your local water supplier can be useful. I find the local soft tap water a flexible choice. There's a little bit of everything already but not too much of anything. Then you can make some key additions to get the properties you need. It was no problem to get a mash pH5.1 by just adding some gypsum and crystal malts, although the tap water itself is ph8.4. The low alkalinity of the water was an important factor - there was no need to add acid.

 

[Lefou]

I've managed to mess up a few brews by adding acid to my low alkalinity mash water. After adding the grain I didn't bother to take pH measurements and ended up with beer that wasn't worth bottling.

 

[Nebraskan]

We have hard water, but it has iron and some sulfur smells, and water sitting soon turns kind of opaque yellow. You sound like you live in an area that is just prime for making a good Stout. There are places in SW South Dakota I think would make a wonderful place to make stout beers as their water is full of minerals.

 

[newtobrew1981]

Heavy with minerals just don't know the make up of it. I have well water.

 

[mabrungard]

We have hard water, but it has iron and some sulfur smells, and water sitting soon turns kind of opaque yellow.

Ah, you pointed out the other element(s) that we have to worry about, but they aren't referred to as hardness ions even though they are divalent metals like calcium and magnesium. Manganese and Iron are disqualifiers for brewing water when they are present at really low concentrations. So in a way, their contribution to water "hardness" is minor, but their impact on brewing use is major.

 

[ajdelange]

my water is hard enough (179 alkalinity) that my paler beers were pretty astringent and tannic before i discovered chemistry. Now i add a little lactic acid to the mash and a little more to the sparge, and everything turns out groovy.

You need to understand that while alkalinity of 179 (3.48 mEq/L) generally implies hardness of something not too far from 3.5 mEq/L is is also quitepossible to have water with this level of alkalinity that is much harder (sulfate and chloride present) or much softer (sodium present).

 

[balrog]

Quick side-track:

I've managed to mess up a few brews by adding acid to my low alkalinity mash water. After adding the grain I didn't bother to take pH measurements and ended up with beer that wasn't worth bottling.

I'm just curious, how were they messed up?

 

[Lefou]

Quick side-track:


I'm just curious, how were they messed up?

I was brewing a Dunkel with soft water and didn't take the dark grains in the mash into account. They tend to turn the mash to the acidic side and knowing nothing of water treatment at the time, no carbonates got added. The beer ended up thin, bitter, and acidly sour after fermentation. Too much Carafa, no carbonates .....