Help with high-sodium water

[brewSJ]

I’m going to be moving over the summer and I’m wondering how I should deal with my new water. I’ll be on city water [Jersey City] and the good news is the city’s water reports are very detailed: pH 6.92–8.12, Alkalinity 33-78 ppm, Hardness 60-97 (as CaCO3), calcium 13-24, chlorine 70-130, sodium 36-71, sulfate < 9, with TDS 141-319 ppm. Magnesium isn’t listed but it must be low as well or the ions don’t balance. The city water comes from a surface reservoir, so the reported variation is largely due to rainfall. To me that calcium looks like what you get after using chemical softening, but I took more physics than chemistry so what do I know...

The brewing problem I’m having is what to do with that huge chlorine to sulfate ratio. I’m going to have to add gypsum to boost the calcium to around 50 ppm in any case, so that will help, but not enough. I’m very tight on space so buying an RO system isn’t an option and I would prefer to avoid buying RO water by the gallon (driving in the city is a pain and water is heavy). I brew ales almost exclusively, so I’m ok without being able to brew Pilsner’s.

So one thought I had was to ignore the standard US advice and just jack up the calcium to 100+ and then I can create almost any balance I want. How will that taste though? Any other possibilities or is RO unavoidable?

Jonathan

 

[G_robertus]

I have a somewhat similar profile. Not the same, but I have rather high chloride and sodium levels as well. Most beer styles come out fine, including lagers. Maybe not exactly to style, but you can still make them by approaching a more minerally version of the profile you actually want to use.
It also helps to focus on styles that work well with this water. This is great for stouts and NEIPAs for example. I would try out a few recipes that you really like and see how they come out. If for some reason you feel like they don't, you can always go for store bought water for those styles. I must say that I rarely do that anymore though.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

I’m going to be moving over the summer and I’m wondering how I should deal with my new water. I’ll be on city water [Jersey City] and the good news is the city’s water reports are very detailed: pH 6.92–8.12, Alkalinity 33-78 ppm, Hardness 60-97 (as CaCO3), calcium 13-24, chlorine 70-130, sodium 36-71, sulfate < 9, with TDS 141-319 ppm. Magnesium isn’t listed but it must be low as well or the ions don’t balance. The city water comes from a surface reservoir, so the reported variation is largely due to rainfall. To me that calcium looks like what you get after using chemical softening, but I took more physics than chemistry so what do I know...

The brewing problem I’m having is what to do with that huge chlorine to sulfate ratio. I’m going to have to add gypsum to boost the calcium to around 50 ppm in any case, so that will help, but not enough. I’m very tight on space so buying an RO system isn’t an option and I would prefer to avoid buying RO water by the gallon (driving in the city is a pain and water is heavy). I brew ales almost exclusively, so I’m ok without being able to brew Pilsner’s.

So one thought I had was to ignore the standard US advice and just jack up the calcium to 100+ and then I can create almost any balance I want. How will that taste though? Any other possibilities or is RO unavoidable?

Jonathan

I think you mean chloride, rather than chlorine, right?

 

[Yooper]

That chloride varies, but it's usable. You would add gypsum to increase sulfate, and forget you even heard the words "chloride sulfate ratio". Here's why.

If you have 2:2 that's a 1:1 ratio, but it's so low it's meaningless. If you have 400:400, that's still 1:1 but that will not make a great beer (it'll be minerally). Ratio doesn't matter- and you can see why. A 1:1 is great for a cream ale, if the 1:1 is 50:50. But not great if it's 150:150.

Unfortunately, they give you a very wide window for chloride, but you can guestimate it in the middle maybe.

Instead of a ratio, think real numbers. For example, for my current beer my chloride is around 60 or so, but my sulfate is 205- I'm making a hoppy, bitter IPA. It's not the ratio that matters- it's the amount.

Your sodium is fine, no worries there. Magnesium isn't really important- malt has plenty of magnesium- unless you are making an IPA and want to bring up a bit more sulfate and add a bit of magnesium. Anything over about 25 ppm of magnesium can bring an unpleasant flavor.

 

[jdauria]

I have almost the same water here in Mass, though my sodium is even higher at 99 ppm. Problem with the water numbers you posted, is that is some wide range of minerals across various tests throughout the year. How do you know if you are starting with say 70 ppm chloride for a brew today, or 130 ppm? You don't, so how do you know how much of any one mineral to add depending on the beer you are making? One suggestion is to go to Ward Labs site and submit a sample of your water for their W-501 Brewer Test, this way you know what exactly is the make up of your water at the time of the test. Then maybe do it again 6 months later to see how much it changes.

As I mentioned, with my sodium at 99 and chloride at 130, I was leery about using my water mainly because of the high sodium. Plus with 130 PPM chloride, I would have to use a lot of gypsum if I was making a hop forward beer, which in turn could drive the pH too low, which in turn would mean adding baking soda to increase pH, which would raise the sodium even higher. And I brew a lot of lagers, which should be on the softer side of a water profile, which would not be easy. So I use distilled water and then add minerals based on what I am brewing. During Covid I signed up with a water delivery company and just had 5 gallon jugs delivered to me every two weeks. Now I just go to the grocery store and buy one gallon jugs, or to BJ's for their 3 or 5 gallon jugs of RO water.

I will say I brewed with my water as is for the first 3-4 years of brewing, my beers were fine, but not great. Once I switched distilled or RO and adjusted my water using the Bru'n Water spreadsheet and started paying much closer attention to mash pH, my beers improved drastically. I enter beer comps a lot and have over 180 medals and I would say 175 of them came after I stopped using my tap water. As I have said to guys in my club "you look for the best hops, the best grain, fresh yeast, so why would you ignore your water when beer is 95% water?"

 

[mabrungard]

That water report is not very specific or useful. The ranges it reports are too large to make informed brewing decisions.

With respect to the sodium in that water, it appears to be generally lower than where I'd be concerned. Sodium isn't perceived by most people until it is in the 250 ppm range. The chloride level is getting on up there too, but it appears to be manageable. That chloride level could be high enough to be "minerally" when the sulfate level is boosted into the 100+ range for beers like IPA, PA, and Bitters.