How bad is it?

[Airplanedoc]

Got these numbers from my local water dept today. Can/should I brew with it? Which numbers should I enter in my water profile on brewsmith?

Calcium (Ca+2) = Tap 61 mg/L typical range 50 - 80
Magnesium (Mg+2) = Tap 80 mg/L typical range 50 - 90
Bicarbonate (HCO3 -1) We do not monitor Bicarbonate; Non-Carbonate hardness is 76 mg/L
Sulfate (SO4 -2) = Tap 36 mg/L
Sodium (Na +1) = Tap 5.7 mg/L
Chloride (Cl -1) = Tap 31 mg/L
Alkalinity as CaCO3 = Tap 65 mg/L
Hardness as CaCO3 = Tap Total 141 mg/L typical range 100 - 170
pH = 9.40 units typical range 9.00 – 9.50
Chlorine = Free residual 1.40 mg/L
Chlorine = Total residual 2.10 mg/L
Nitrate = 1.8 mg/L

 

[afr0byte]

That magnesium level is likely wrong. You probably want to get that double checked. Obviously you also want to get rid of that chlorine. If you get rid of the chlorine you can definitely brew with that water. You'll likely want to add some acid though. You can use either Bru'n Water or EZ Water Calculator to get yourself in the pH ballpark.

 

[ajdelange]

Pretty much OK. Calcium is at about half what most people recommend at 24 mg/L and so you might wish to supplement that with some calcium chloride and or calcium sulfate though sulfate is already reasonably high at 36. This would be a factor mainly if delicate lager type beers are being brewed. Nothing funny about the magnesium level at 20 mg/L (the numbers in the report are ppm as CaCO3).

Easiest thing to do with this water is cut it 1:1 with RO and follow the recommendations of the Primer though lots of beers could be brewed with it as is just by adding a couple percent sauermalz to the grist.

 

[truebe]

If you want to enter those numbers into brewsmith's water calculator then you need to convert the mg/l as CaCO3 to the mg/l of each respective ion like aj was doing.

for ions with charge of +/-2 then multiply by (molecular weight of ion)/100
for ions with charge of +/-1 then multiply by 2*(molecular weight of ion)/100

 

[Airplanedoc]

If you want to enter those numbers into brewsmith's water calculator then you need to convert the mg/l as CaCO3 to the mg/l of each respective ion like aj was doing.

for ions with charge of +/-2 then multiply by (molecular weight of ion)/100
for ions with charge of +/-1 then multiply by 2*(molecular weight of ion)/100

I just woke up, and chemistry class was a long time ago and is kind of fuzzy anyway. You lost me. is there some online calculator that will convert this for me?

 

[ajdelange]

"As CaCO3" means 50 times the equivalent weight. The equivalent weight of calcium is 20 g/Equivalent. Thus

mg/L_Calcium = ppm_as_CaCO3*20/50 = 0.4*ppm_as_CaCO3 or
ppm_as_CaCO3 = 2.5*mg/L_Calcium

The equivalent weight of magnesium is 12.15 g/Equivalent thus

mg/L_Magnesium = ppm_as_CaCO3*12.15/50 = 0.243*ppm_as_CaCO3 or
ppm_as_CaCO3 = 4.115*mg/L_Magnesium

Yes, there are online calculators. In my spreadsheet you enter whatever number you have then use a selector to choose the units (mVal, ppm as CaCO3, mg/L as the element,gpg) and the conversion is done for you. It's simpler to just multiply or divide by 0.4 than it is to mess with a spreadsheet or calculator though.