Need help interpretting water report

[instereo13]

what does this all mean?
any help at all is eternally appreciated.
jason

FINISHED WATER ANALYSIS 2007
SOURCE OF SUPPLY - LAKE ERIE

pH 7.57
Alkalinity 84.7
Total Dissolved Solids 187.4
Total Hardness (CaCO3) 121.0
as grains per gallon (gpg) TH x 0.0584 7.06
Calcium Hardness (CaCO3) 89.1
Chloride 23.8
Sulfates 23.8
Calcium 35.1
Sodium A 12.6 **

Results expressed in parts per million (ppm) except for Color, Turbidity, and pH

 

[FlyingHorse]

Start here: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-1.html

 

[instereo13]

I did that. I can't make sense of it. I don't have too much in the way of science smarts
I don't want to pass my problem on to someone else but I know there are some people out there who like to do this crazy stuff.
I've been adding gyspum to every mash because I have such low calcium levels. I'm brewing a saison on sunday and want to know what my water should be like. Should I still add gysum, should I cut my water with distilled?
many questions

jason

 

[FlyingHorse]

I'm no expert, but your water seems pretty middle-of-the-road on most of those elements. I wouldn't do anything to it, other than maybe some 5.2 stabilizer in the mash/sparge water.

If you brew a particular recipe and find that it's "missing something", then think about adjustments (gypsum for an IPA, cut with distilled for a pils, etc.)

 

[BBboomer]

You can't get to where you want to be till you know where that is.
Find out what the water needs to be for the beer you want to brew. Use the info in Palmers book to determine what you need to do to modify your water to match the recipe's water.
Other than that brew with what you have it will probably come out just fine!

 

[menschmaschine]

I agree w/ Bike-n-Brew. Your pH is getting up there enough where you might think about pH stabilizer. A helpful idea might be to get ProMash or BeerSmith (free trials), load your water profile in, and compare to other beer city profiles (London, Burton, Munich, etc.). Water chemistry can be confusing for those blessed without a fixation on science. So, just keep it simple to the parameters you got.