Looking for Comments On First Ward Water Report

[Culinarytracker]

Just got my first water test results back. I've been studying up on water chemistry the past few days, but would really appreciate some basic comments on these results.

Thank you!

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pH 7.3
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 297
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.50
Cations / Anions, me/L / 4.9/5.0

ppm
Sodium, Na 6
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 62
Magnesium, Mg 19
Total Hardness, CaCO3 234
Nitrate, NO3-N 5.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 14
Chloride, Cl 13
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 207
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 170
Total Phosphorus, P <0.01
Total Iron, Fe <0.01

 

[douglasbarbin]

Your water looks to be fairly hard, at least compared to where I live. The Magnesium is a little high so I definitely wouldn't go adding more to the water. Your water has very low sodium, which is good because that's a lot easier to add than remove.

The Bicarbonate is probably your biggest issue here. You will have difficulty brewing lighter beers unless you dilute your water to lower the Bicarbonate.

 

[ajdelange]

It's a bit hard and a bit alkaline. Just heating it to a boil will drop quite a bit of that but then you really should reassay to determine how much you actually were able to drop. Dilution with RO water will also reduce these (and everything else) to the point that if you get alkalinity down enough to render it harmless you will have to rebuild calcium and chloride. Neutralization with acid will remove the bicarbonate but replace it with the anion of the acid. 1:1 cut with RO and a splash of phosphoric acid would probably work out for you for most beers. You'll want a pH meter to insure that you add enough acid to get water's pH down to about 5.4 but not lower than that. You'll want a pH meter for other reasons as well.