Water report from city

[phyllobeddo]

I received an annual water report in the mail today from the city. I looked at a post on here and grabbed a few values that others have posted. I’m not delving into water chemistry right yet, but I’m hoping that there may be some obvious things that are good or bad about my water report. It’s hard as hell, I can tell you that. Tons of crap are left behind after boiling water, and all the faucets build up deposits something fierce. I can tell you from experience that this water is NOT good for light ales, and that it seems pretty decent for stouts. Right now I’m using spring water for brewing. I’ll read the primer as soon as time permits. Maybe I won’t be busy at work tomorrow.

pH - 7.5
Total Dissolved Solids 186
Sodium 1.76
Calcium 53.7
Magnesium 15.10
Total Hardness 196
Nitrate .55
Sulfate 5.59
Chloride 3.10
Total Alkalinity 158
Total Phosphorous
Total Iron ND

 

[mabrungard]

That is a decent brewing water, but it will require acid to neutralize that alkalinity. Your result with light ales is expected, but it can be corrected with proper acidification.

 

[ajdelange]

Yes, that's pretty crunchy. Were you to supplement the calcium with some gypsum, which most would want to do to get the sulfate up for ales, and calcium chloride which you would want for most beers, you could then boil and get the alkalinity down to around 50 with modest hardness depending on how much calcium you put in. You could also neutralize the alkalinity with acid. In fact you are the poster boy for CRS, an equimolar blend of hydrochloric and sulfuric acids sold for that purpose in the UK as both sulfate and chloride are low but alas it is not available in the States. Here the choices would be lactic or phosphoric and as quite a bit would be required (because the alkalinity is steep though it could be worse) phosphoric might be the better choice. Well maybe lactic wouldn't be so bad. You've got about 3 mEq/L alkalinity and so will need somewhat less that that to mash pH (for the water alone - you'll need more for the grain in most beers). Since it's about 12 N that would be approximately 1/4 mL per L treated water (perhaps 4.5 mL for 5 gal).

You could also cut it 2:1 or 3:1 with RO water and supplement with CaCl2 and CaSO4.

 

[phyllobeddo]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I appreciate the input. Glad to know that my water is not as bad as I thought that it might be.