Water Help Southeastern PA

[WCrane]

Ok need some input on my water profile as I can not figure out what to do on my own. been out of the brewing loop due to a family addition. But before my short hiatus I was trying to improve my water just a bit since i felt something was a bit off.

I have city/municipal water. The report is a bit dated (2 yrs), I plan to call for a new report soon
T-Hollow Run Well via Aqua PA
Cl - 139
SO4 - 22
NA - 46
Mg - 14
Ca - 44
HcO3 - 37

From what I can research my Cl is a bit high. I've been reading that under 100ppm is good (although the oft cited Palmer suggests under 250).

I've plugged it in to all the calc I can find and still can't figure out what I should do based on the beer.

What are some recommendations? I'm looking at doing the minimum. not trying to mimic styles just have a more well round brewing water. and be able to adjust for ligh malty beer, light hoppy, dark malty and anything else.

 

[mabrungard]

Yes, the chloride is a bit high. That along with the Ca and Mg content shows that permanent hardness is high. That leads to a pretty low residual alkalinity that biases this water to lighter colored beers. If you were trying to brew darker beers, you were probably not as happy with them as the lighter beers.

The chloride content is probably adding a bit more minerality to the water taste than you might desire, but it shouldn't be too bad. If brewing a more delicate flavored beer, dilution with RO or distilled water is appropriate. I don't think that anything more than a 50:50 dilution would be needed in most cases.

Because of the low bicarbonate content and resulting low alkalinity, learning to add alkalinity will be a necessary brewing component if darker styles are desired. Pickling Lime is a more reliable alkalinity source than chalk.

This is not that bad a brewing water with a few adjustments.

 

[WCrane]

Thanks for the input. Thats what I was looking for in an answer.