My mountain water report (pilsner, anyone?) - North Bend, WA

[sweetcell]

just got my water report back from Ward Labs. as expected, my water is pretty much devoid of anything.

pH: 8.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm: 83
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm: 0.14
Cations / Anions, me/L: 1.6 / 1.5

Sodium, Na: 9 ppm
Potassium, K: 2 ppm
Calcium, Ca: 18 ppm
Magnesium, Mg: 3 ppm
Total Hardness, CaCO3: 58 ppm
Nitrate, NO3-N: 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S: < 1 ppm
Chloride, Cl: 2 ppm
Carbonate, CO3: < 1.0 ppm
Bicarbonate, HCO3: 82 ppm
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3: 68 ppm

i just recently moved to North Bend, WA, and this was my dry season reading. i'll send in another sample during the rainy season, in case that moves the needle...

i'm on a shared well with 7 or 8 other houses. i am not on NB municipal water.

thoughts, advice, etc always welcome!

screenshot:

 

[Yooper]

Pretty darn nice water! The alkalinity means light beers will need some acid, and some pale ales as well likely, but overall it's pretty easy to work with. I am very jealous!

You can probably get by with a little calcium chloride and some gypsum and phosphoric or lactic acid.

 

[Brulosopher]

I love and miss North Bend, at least what I recall of it when I lived in Bothell 2 decades ago. That water is great, easy to adjust for any style.

 

[doug293cz]

Gotta love that snowpack runoff water! I'm a little further downstream and have only slightly more stuff in my water.

Brew on

 

[SanPancho]

Oddly enough our water is pretty damn close to yours. Bit more sulfates, less sodium. Etc.

Only issue is they hit it with few ppm of chloramine on its way down from yosemite. But Ive never noticed it. Clean water.

Luckily this years snow pack should keep,us filled for another few years.

 

[mabrungard]

Excellent water, but its not ideal for all styles without adjustment. The thing that many brewers that are blessed with similar water forget, is that there are styles that need alkalinity in the mashing water. Baking soda or lime are your friends in that case. It definitely makes a big difference in most dark styles.

 

[doug293cz]

Excellent water, but its not ideal for all styles without adjustment. The thing that many brewers that are blessed with similar water forget, is that there are styles that need alkalinity in the mashing water. Baking soda or lime are your friends in that case. It definitely makes a big difference in most dark styles.

Yup. I've got a bag of pickling lime for when I brew dark beers. Usually have to add a little acid when brewing pales or lighter.

Brew on

 

[ajdelange]

..... there are styles that need alkalinity in the mashing water.

There are beers that need alkalinity and they are, of course, ones that use dark malts but many beers that use dark malts do not require alkalinity. As the mash pH prediction programs do a poor job of estimating dark malt acidity it is especially important that one rely on them only for general guidance. IOW if it is at all possible use a test mash to determine whether an alkali addition is required or not for mashes where dark malts are used.

Baking soda or lime are your friends in that case. It definitely makes a big difference in most dark styles.

The problem with baking soda is that it introduces sodium. This may not be a problem if the required alkalinity addition is modest. Clearly a calcium salt is preferred but calcium carbonate is not a good choice as it takes forever to react. Lime would be OK except that lime that has been exposed to the atmosphere contains a fair proportion of calcium carbonate. If this is low enough one can just ignore it but how do you know how low it is? It is fairly easy to assay the amount of calcium carbonate in a lime sample but it requires a titration and some math.

Another approach is to prepare calcium bicarbonate from calcium carbonate. This is done by suspending calcium carbonate in water and adding acid until pH 8.3 is reached. This is a PITA because
1) You must find food grade acid (lactic - HCl would be ideal but in food grade?)
2)The reaction takes hours - typically over night - to complete (which is why we don't use CaCO3 as a source of alkalinity in the mash)
3)You need a pH meter to check on its completion.

Best bet is probably to use NaHCO3 if you can live with the sodium.

Alkalinity requirement is reduced by choosing base malts with higher alkalinity. Higher DI mash pH is often a sufficient indicator and some maltsters publish pHDI but you must also know the buffering. It is possible to have a malt with a higher pHDi than another but still have less alkalinity. This is unlikely though but a test mash resolves any doubt.