My water, Thoughts?

[Terek]

here is my new well water profile. Any suggestions on how to fix the ph and high alkalinity?

pH.................................................... 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est.......... 324.0
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm............ 0.54
Cations/Anions, me/L............................ 6.3 / 5.5 ppm lbs/Ac9"


Sodium, Na........................................ 25
Potassium, K........................................ 3


Calcium, Ca......................................... 63
Magnesium, Mg.................................... 24
Total Hardness, CaCO3........................ 258


Nitrate, NO3-N...................................... 2.4
Sulfate, SO4-S...................................... 7
Chloride, Cl........................................... 5

Carbonate, CO3.................................. < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3.............................. 289
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3......................... 237

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

You're water is similar to mine, albeit with more bicarbonate and alkalinity. pH will be adjusted in the mash but in my situation, dark beers do fine without any additions (dark malts will pull the pH down to a good range), but anything lighter than a porter needs help from distilled water, lactic acid and/or gypsum.

Take a gander at Bru'n Water or EZ Water and that will help you immensely.

 

[bkboiler]

some people have luck with a charcoal filter like the below
http://www.morebeer.com/products/water-filter-kit-10-inch.html
aside from that you can boil the water to reduce the temporary hardness
or a reverse osmosis system would be the next step as far as I know

 

[Yooper]

some people have luck with a charcoal filter like the below
http://www.morebeer.com/products/water-filter-kit-10-inch.html
aside from that you can boil the water to reduce the temporary hardness
or a reverse osmosis system would be the next step as far as I know

The biggest issue is bicarbonate, the same as me. Filtering won't fix that.

You can boil the water, and rack off the precipitate, or try lime softening, but in my case I ended up buying an RO machine for $119 and only use my tap water for one recipe- my stout.

 

[acidrain]

I suggest entering those values into an on-line calculator like Brewers Friend, play around with the additions and % of distilled or RO water used for the styles of beer you like to brew.
No doubt you will need to make some adjustments for different styles, but I have found my PH meter is only used occasionally to check where I'm at, and that the calculator will be amazingly accurate on predicting the PH for you.

 

[Terek]

thanks for the tips, everyone. I have little experience with water profiles, and have done little research on it, so far. I got this report from a local brew club forum. The guy that had it tested lives like a block from me, and the same depth well as mine. I will take the suggestions and run with it! I am at a point in brewing, that water is the only thing i have not got involved in, and want to. I knew we didnt have the best water, but this is horrible

 

[Mexibilly]

Didn't see a simple method to enter a percentage of RO in BrewersFriend, although I haven't had/made time to check it our thoroughly.
Just posted my analysis today and it's pretty F'in hard and alkaline.
I have a RIS in mind and don't want to build from RO for it...

 

[Yooper]

Didn't see a simple method to enter a percentage of RO in BrewersFriend, although I haven't had/made time to check it our thoroughly.
Just posted my analysis today and it's pretty F'in hard and alkaline.
I have a RIS in mind and don't want to build from RO for it...

You might be okay for a RIS. My oatmeal stout is done with my tap water- it's the one beer I can make entirely with my tap water. I'd suggest trying downloading bru'nwater (there is a free version) to see what your mash pH is projected to be. It's pretty accurate, and there is a LOT in there to help learn about water.

 

[Happywanderer]

You might be okay for a RIS. My oatmeal stout is done with my tap water- it's the one beer I can make entirely with my tap water. I'd suggest trying downloading bru'nwater (there is a free version) to see what your mash pH is projected to be. It's pretty accurate, and there is a LOT in there to help learn about water.

This.

I use brewersfriend for many things, but I prefer Bru'N'Water for the water specific portion of my brewing.

 

[Terek]

The biggest issue is bicarbonate, the same as me. Filtering won't fix that.

You can boil the water, and rack off the precipitate, or try lime softening, but in my case I ended up buying an RO machine for $119 and only use my tap water for one recipe- my stout.

i was playing around with bru'n water, and adding lactic acid can drop this. 4 ml of lactic acid was enough to even out the ph on my house ipa. It also dropped the bicarbonate from 291 to 59. Also dropped alkalinity from 241 to 49. didnt change the hardness though

 

[Big Monk]

You could dilute your tap water as well.

 

[bethebrew]

Could you also add phosphoric acid? I mean, it's in coca cola so how harmful could it be to drink?

I'm kidding, that stuff is toxic as hell.

But flavor wise, seems like lactic acid might give a sour milk effect, citric a lemony sour effect, and phosphoric a good clean chemical effect? That and I have a gallon of pH down that would work just great...

But seriously, I made my stout yesterday with my pH 7.8 water at 155 ppm TDS, and measured the pH not of the mash, but of the unfermented wort, and it was 5.7 although might have dropped a bit more had I waited. I had thought that to shoot for 5.3 was more like it but other than acidulated malt at an ounce or two per batch have never messed with acid additions.

But you may consider the acidulated malt instead of lactic acid for example.

 

[Yooper]

Could you also add phosphoric acid? I mean, it's in coca cola so how harmful could it be to drink?

I'm kidding, that stuff is toxic as hell.

But flavor wise, seems like lactic acid might give a sour milk effect, citric a lemony sour effect, and phosphoric a good clean chemical effect? That and I have a gallon of pH down that would work just great...

But seriously, I made my stout yesterday with my pH 7.8 water at 155 ppm TDS, and measured the pH not of the mash, but of the unfermented wort, and it was 5.7 although might have dropped a bit more had I waited. I had thought that to shoot for 5.3 was more like it but other than acidulated malt at an ounce or two per batch have never messed with acid additions.

But you may consider the acidulated malt instead of lactic acid for example.

Phosphoric acid is actually preferred over things like lactic acid as it has less of a flavor impact. It's not that intense, as I have two kinds- 88% (same as the lactic acid), and 10%. I mean, I wouldn't take a bath in it or anything but it's not like dealing with hydrochloric acid.

The wort pH was very very high at 5.7. I suspect the mash pH was very very high, since the pH drops during the boil. I like to mash my stouts at 5.5-5.6 pH. Post boil they are much lower, of course.