Water

[RedRyderr]

New house. Super hard water. Finally got around to doing the Ward test. We do have a water softner, but I provided the water sample to them from a pre-softner sample. Been playing with the Palmer spread sheet and Brewer's Friend water calculator, but looking for some general advice on if this water is going to be usable. Will boiling, acid additions, etc. get me to a usable range? Dillution with RO? Or just 'F' it and buy RO and treat as needed? (I brew mostly dark beers. Stouts, etc.)

pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 496
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.83
Cations / Anions, me/L 9.7 / 8.7

ppm

Sodium, Na 27
Potassium, K 5
Calcium, Ca 104.4
Magnesium, Mg 38
Total Hardness, CaCO3 418
Nitrate, NO3-N 3.4 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 9
Chloride, Cl 48
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 399
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 329
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

 

[Gnomebrewer]

You could certainly boil then cool your water to remove alkalinity, which will also remove some Calcium and Magnesium. IIRC that should get you down to about 60ppm HCO3- (you have more hardness than alkalinity). You could also use slaked lime to reduce alkalinity - this gives more Calcium in the finished water and has the potential to get lower finishing alkalinity than boiling. You can, of course, use acids to neutralise alkalinity, but additions will be quite large with your starting water for all but very dark beers, so might not be desirable due to the associated anion you'll be adding. RO is definitely the simpler option, but comes down to personal preference. If I had your water, the cost of boiling (electricity cost) would be more expensive than the cost of buying water, but your electricity/gas costs are probably considerably lower. If you brew a lot, it might also be worth considering buying an RO unit.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Cut it in half with RO water by combining 5 gallons of each, and then hit it with 7.5 mL of 85% Phosphoric acid for every 10 gallons.

That should give you 10 gallons as follow:

pH 5.45

Sodium, Na 13.5
Potassium, K 2.5
Calcium, Ca 52.2
Magnesium, Mg 19
Total Hardness, CaCO3 209
Sulfate, SO4 13.5 (correcting it here to SO4, as opposed to SO4-S)
Chloride, Cl 24
Bicarbonate, HCO3 21
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 17

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Boiling will reduce this waters alkalinity to ~100 ppm and calcium to ~12 ppm. To go further in alkalinity reduction would require the addition of more calcium. But the alkalinity reduction achievable via boiling will likely stop occurring at somewhere around 65 ppm alkalinity, regardless of how much extra calcium is added.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

deleted: posted to the wrong forum thread by mistake

 

[RedRyderr]

Thanks all for the replies. Kind of what i had initially thought was an R.O. system in house, then build the water to style accordingly. Thinking that's the way I'm leaning yet. Cost is a factor I suppose. But so is convenience. My old back and knees aren't necessarily fond of hauling 5 gallon jugs of RO water out of walmart every week.