Water quality, not sure what to do

[jmccauli]

So, first post, here goes:

So, planning on doing my first all-grain brew in the next two weeks or so. I went ahead and asked my water provider for details on levels of the important stuff, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Sulfate, Chloride, and Bicarbonate. Pretty much trying to follow Palmer's book on this aspect. Basically their website only lists contaminates and the level of calcium carbonate in the water. So....sent an email to try and get the levels of everything else, and this is basically what I received:

We are on a ground water system with multiple wells pumping at any given time. The concentration of the analytes you have asked about vary depending on the different wells that could be running at that time. We do update the hardness values weekly on our website. This value is as calcium carbonate, currently the value is approximately 102 mg/l or 6 grains per gallon. The other analytes are not on the primary contaminant list of Colorado drinking water regulations. We do have some of this information on individual wells, however, this will not be helpful for brewing purposes, as it is not characteristic of the system as a whole.

Is that basically all I need? I can test the pH obviously, but without knowing anything but the CaCO levels, are there any big challenges I'm going to face?

BTW, hopefully this is in the right forum, sorry if its not!

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Check out the water chemistry primer in the Brewing Science part of the forum.

I would advise that you get a pH meter and check your mash pH every time. You should be able to brew with your water if you know what it is doing to the mash and pair that with how it tastes(minerally, etc...) when done to adjust for the future.

A better way would be to find a place (most supermarkets) that sells RO water. You can usually get 5 gallon carboys refilled for about $1.50(usually $10.00 for the first fill to pay for the carboy which you keep) Still get a pH meter and measure mash pH, but this way is much easier to get consistent and predictable results every time.

 

[pkeeler]

Kaiser has a spread sheet based on aquarium GH and KH tests. It is not as accurate as a water test of course. But a water test won't help you since it sounds like they can change sources at anytime. The GH and KH test will get you in the ballpark.

 

[JJL]

You might want to consider having your tap water tested. You can send it to Ward Labs. They will do a water analysis that will tell you everything you need to know. It costs something like $16. You'll get your results within a week. At least then you'd have a good place to start.

 

[pkeeler]

You might want to consider having your tap water tested. You can send it to Ward Labs. They will do a water analysis that will tell you everything you need to know. It costs something like $16. You'll get your results within a week. At least then you'd have a good place to start.

Yes, but the problem is the sample will be what his water is when he took the sample. The water company is telling him his water will be changing unpredictably. The $16 is down the drain (no pun intended) as soon as the water company flips the switch from well 14 to well 26. ;-)

 

[JJL]

I would suppose then the only real solution would be to use bottled water. If it is truly inconsistent over time, then checking the mash pH is really risking wasting ingredients. Not to mention, mash pH isn't the only concern. I'll admit I'm no expert on the water in CO, but it seems to me that even if the water comes from different sources, it should be relatively consistent so long as it isn't being piped over hundreds of miles in different directions. If it's just coming from different wells that are in the same general vicinity, then the water ought to be reasonably consistent (at least consistent enough for brewing). One way to check would be to look at the water companies website from week to week and see how much the reported hardness varies.

 

[jmccauli]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the replies. I'll give it a go with the tap water for the first time. If that doesn't work out, I'll get more in depth I guess!

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Make sure you are testing mash pH. Without that you are working blind and you will have no idea how your water is affecting your beer. Read the water chemistry primer in the brewing science section of the forum.

 

[jkreuze]

If you know your water is going to be hard but don't know exactly how hard it is going to be then your best bet might be to go with a damage mitigation approach of 3gal reverse-osmosis (RO) water and 2gal tap water. That way if it's too hard you are bringing it down to manageable levels, but yet you're not going with all-RO water.

For my hard water, at least, dark, malty beer comes out just fine with tap water, but light beers come out horribly. I didn't notice this at first because like many homebrewers in the first year of brewing I consistently made beer that would knock you on your ass for the first half-year; the malt worked well with the added bitterness. Lighter styles with all tap water have come out badly. The most recent batch was made 60% RO water and 40% tap, however, I think that will be much better.

Water is kind of a big deal. Everyone talks about fermentation temps, and those are definitely a huge deal, but some of these lighter, all tap water brews I've made have been much worse than my warmer-fermented beers. You can enjoy an otherwise decent beer that has a little too much ester production, or just let it mellow out for awhile, but the flavor you can get if your water has the wrong stuff in it is just nasty.