Help with water adjustments.

[Jezwald101]

Hello all,
I sent a water sample to ward labs and got the results back the other day, tried messing with the adjustments to get the profile right on brewers friend but can't seem to get it right. Can someone help me understand how to adjust properly. Here is the results.
Ph 8.0
Sodium.na. 45
Potassium.k. 2
Calcium.ca. 86.9
Magnesium.mg. 29
Total hardness,caco3 338
Nitrate.no3-n. .3
Sulfate.so4-s. 11
Chloride.cl. 69
Carbonate.co3. <1.0
Bicarbonate.hco3. 329
Total alkalinity.caco3 272
Total phosphorus.p. .80
Total iron.fe. .03

 

[kevin58]

I am not familiar with Brewers Friend but in Beersmith you use that Ward Labs report to create your base water profile. Then in the water tab you select your base water and then select a target profile and the software will tell you how much of each water additive you need to meet that target.

 

[jdauria]

Not familiar with Brewer's Friend either...but just one note, Ward Labs reports Sulfate as S04-s or sulfate sulfur, you need to multiply by 3 to get regular S04 to put in brewing software...so you have 33 ppm of sulfate really not 11.

 

[Jezwald101]

The Brewers friend doesn't tell u what u need to add. Just what happens to the numbers when u add ingredients to it. Thanks for the sulfate clarification .

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Sweet mother of pearl! Have you considered using RO water? Hopefully you have a whole-house water softener.
Russ

 

[Jezwald101]

Sweet mother of pearl! Have you considered using RO water? Hopefully you have a whole-house water softener.
Russ

It's that bad?

 

[brewbama]

300+ ppm. Yep it’s that bad. do your faucets get build up on them? For comparison, unfiltered my water is 127.

 

[Jezwald101]

Yes my faucets get black build up on the screens.

 

[catalanotte]

I brewed with similar water for years without RO, but you will need to reduce the alkalinity to have any chance at brewing all but the darkest of beers due to mash pH. Brewers friend has a section where you can select the addition of slaked lime and then decant off the precipitate. This will require the addition of calcium in the form of gypsum and possibly CaCl. This approach will work for most beers except for the lightest of Pilsners.

 

[wdavis2003]

I'd recommend just going to the store and grabbing some distilled water. I brew about every 6 weeks and 8 gallons of distilled water isn't going to break the bank. Then in Brewers Friend you can easily enter the source water as all 0's and a ph of 7

I did the Ward labs things as well and it wasn't that it was to complicated, but how can trust that your water profile will always be the same?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

but how can trust that your water profile will always be the same?

At home water testing equipment has been discussed recently here at HomeBrewTalk.

It's an option, along with buying low mineral water, installing a home RO filter, ..., ..., ...

 

[Jezwald101]

I was using distilled water in the past, but I have recently been mixing distilled and house water recently. Last 2 brews were with house water. One is still in the fermenter and the other is a Baltic porter which turned out pretty good imo!.. guess I'll have to go back to distilled water and add minerals to get to target profile.

 

[catalanotte]

I was using distilled water in the past, but I have recently been mixing distilled and house water recently. Last 2 brews were with house water. One is still in the fermenter and the other is a Baltic porter which turned out pretty good imo!.. guess I'll have to go back to distilled water and add minerals to get to target profile.

Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator - Brewer's Friend

This is an example water build with the lime treatment. I know a lot of people hesitate to do this, but I prefer it as an alternative to buying and hauling jugs of RO/distilled water around. I put a spigot a few inches off the bottom of a plastic trash can that lets me draw water off the chalk that precipitates (photo). Works great for most beers. I do still use RO for pilsners and other very soft water beer styles because you cant reduce anything other than alkalinity and calcium with this approach.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Yes my faucets get black build up on the screens.

Is this well water?

Black staining is typically manganese - but the test you chose didn't look at levels of Mn. [solution: whole house softener, if the Mn concentrations are low]

Your hardness (20 gpg) is probably ok for brewing, but absolutely not ok for your water heater, dishwasher, washing machine, faucets, toilets, and your plumbing pipes. Have you tried to wash your car with that water?! That would be a hoot. [solution: water softener]

Your alkalinity is about ~3x the max of what you want for brewing. [solution: RO after the softener]

Your softened water will have too much sodium (200+ ppm) to brew with [solution: RO]

Russ

 

[Jezwald101]

Is this well water?

Black staining is typically manganese - but the test you chose didn't look at levels of Mn. [solution: whole house softener, if the Mn concentrations are low]

Your hardness (20 gpg) is probably ok for brewing, but absolutely not ok for your water heater, dishwasher, washing machine, faucets, toilets, and your plumbing pipes. Have you tried to wash your car with that water?! That would be a hoot. [solution: water softener]

Your alkalinity is about ~3x the max of what you want for brewing. [solution: RO after the softener]

Your softened water will have too much sodium (200+ ppm) to brew with [solution: RO]

Russ

This is my municipal (city) water.