Anyone feel like looking at my water report?

[duckmanco]

I'm really after fine tuning some things I can control and water is something I haven't even tackled yet. Here is my county's most recent water report, and although it's based on 4 sources or so I'm sure it's a mixture of all the sources in an unknown ratio.

http://www.chesterfield.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=7518

So, does this say anything about the water or does it not help at all? I am looking for a water profile that accentuates hops in the west coast/San Diego style as I understand they have hard water which causes hops to burst through. Any suggestions are welcome, as in "your water blows" start with ro water and add the following." Also I'm a partial mash brewer (cant go all grain just yet but its in the works) and use about 50% grain and 50% dme to hit my gravity. Thanks for any help.

 

[Cellarbrau]

If your tap water tastes good then it's ok to use for brewing. Boil it before you use it and use campden since it looks like theres some chloramine in there. Other than that you're good to go.

 

[944play]

The only brewing-relevant ion listed there is SO4, sulfate, and it's fine for anything but very delicate beers. Conspicuously absent are things like calcium, chloride, alkalinity and TDS. The water agency probably has a more complete report on file if you ask.

 

[Mermaid]

If you're looking to match a particular regional water profile, you'll want to pick up a pH, and GH/KH water test kit (or you could always call and ask if they test this). This would tell you (duh) what the pH is, and hardness so you'll know if it's more acidic or more base than what you're looking for. Not sure how easy it would be to adjust if you have particularly hard water - I would say maybe cut the water with some distilled water?? If your water is lower on the hardness /pH then you could adjust by adding minerals (again, YMMV).

I also second the notion of using campden tabs - chloramines are yuck, but easy to get rid of.

 

[duckmanco]

thanks for the looks thus far and suggestions. I just started using campden tablets on my last batch but haven't kegged it yet, so I'll see how it goes, but either way I'm using them as they are cheap enough. I'll call the water authority and report back with what they say. On the green flash WCIPA clone, they seemed to believe along with Chuck Silva the GF head brewer that hard water lets the hops burst through. Anyone found this to be true?

Here is what the brewer of the CYBI WCIPA stated,

"I added enough Gypsum to get my water up to approximately 50ppm Calcium, Chuck's starting with 60-70ppm Calcium in Vista, CA (I said 100 on the show, it's actually 60-70), and might be hitting at least 100ppm Calcium in the finished beer. The water in Vista, CA in North San Diego county is pretty hard."

 

[duckmanco]

UPDATE --

After sending an email to utilities, I received the following:
___________________________________________
Please find below attached a table for the water quality parameters as described in your e-mail.


Calcium
18 mg/L

Chloride
14 mg/L

Alkalinity
17 mg/L as CaCO3

TDS
100 mg/L

Do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance, hope your homebrewing is successful.

Regards
________________________________________________

So, with that new info, where am with this whole water thing, and what if anything do I need to do to make the hops be all they can be?

 

[duckmanco]

Deleted

 

[JakeFegely]

I'd first recommend you get John Palmer's book "How to Brew". Good information on water profile and how to adjust.

I'd also recommend sending a water sample to Ward Labs in Nebraska. For $16.00 they will test your water specifally for brewing and e-mail the report to you. I send mine from PA on Monday and have the e-mail by Friday.

I'm no expert but your Ca level is probably low. Palmer recommends 50-150 ppm. How you get there depends on the style you are brewing and other ions in your water. Since you don't have info on sulfates, you would be guessing. Once you know sulfates, then the style will determine how much CaCl2 versus CaSO4. Again, I found Palmer's book to be very helpful.