Best water off the shelf?

[sivdrinks]

Not sure what's in my tap water but it's soft and has 9.9 ph. I usually use the water you buy to fill gallons at Weis Markets. Mix them together? I don't have any chemicals on hand and brewing this weekend.

 

[Grinder12000]

Well. Not distiller water for sure. You are probably missing calcium. Is it soft water from a water softener? What are you making. Darker is better. AG? Mini mash? Extract?

 

[sivdrinks]

Doing a cream ale right now. Went with half RO and half tap. My tap water is just soft. Previously did all my extract batches with RO. Tasted like beer but I'd like to make it better without being a chemist.

 

[ajdelange]

As you have told us nothing about either your tap water (except that its pH is improbably high) nor about the water you buy at Weis market it is impossible for anyone to make a sensible recommendation.

 

[sivdrinks]

Alkalinity 24
Aluminum 71
Hardness 49
Iron 13
Manganese 8
pH 9.9
Sulfate 26

 

[sivdrinks]

That's all I really know about my tap water. The stuff at Weis is RO, carbon filtered and UV ray gun treated or something.

 

[ajdelange]

You left out alkalinity, arguably the mostimportant parameter. It is 24 which with the hardness of 49 (both ppm as CaCO3) and sulfate at 26 mg/L give a clear enough picture to make a recommendations. And the improbably pH of 9.9, while well above who recommendations is, apparently, correct for your water. Not sure I buy the explanation that it is needed to prevent corrosion of the distribution (they could just add some more calcium) system but as the state health department has approves it, well, there it is.

You should be able to brew many styles of beer with it without any supplementation though it would be a good idea to supplement the calcium for most as your calcium content is, at most, 20 mg/L. It would probably be a good idea to send a sample off to Ward Labs to see what the actual calcium level is or you can try calling CLA and asking what the calcium and magnesium hardnesses are.

As is this water qualifies as soft to the extent you could use the recommendations of the Primer as as starting point.

 

[sivdrinks]

So 1 teaspoon of Calcium Chloride would benefit me? If so where can I get that locally, no homebrew stores.

 

[mabrungard]

Calcium chloride can be found in the home canning section of some stores. Look for a product called Pickle Crisp.

PS: I see that you are on the internet. I'm betting you can actually find an on-line retailer that will grudgingly sell you some calcium chloride.

 

[ajdelange]

You can, of course, order it from a mail order brewing supply. If your supermarket has a canning section they may sell 'pickle crisp'. That is calcium chloride. Make sure you don't get 'pickling lime' which is calcium hydroxide.

 

[sivdrinks]

HaHa, Internet. Brewing tonight and Sunday so I'd like to find it elsewhere. Thanks for the pickling tip though.