How Important is Water to your Brewing?

shark_sandwich · Mar 12, 2015

How do you measure the ppm for the mineral additions?

rmyurick · Mar 13, 2015

@mattmmille what kind of trouble?

Tippsy-Turvy · Mar 13, 2015

Great article, thanks! So far my water treatment has focused solely on getting the correct proportions of the good ions. This article has made me realize I've neglected the bad stuff (except chlorine, where I use the aeration method). Does anyone have guidelines on acceptable concentrations of the bad ions (copper, iron, manganese, nitrite)?

dave8fire · Mar 17, 2015

Living in the country, my water supply is well water run through a softener. I have no idea what chemicals are present. Any thoughts as to checking for chemicals.

KPBrews · Jan 30, 2016

@TooDogly Chlorine comes out easily... a couple of days on it's own, faster if you bubble it out. Chlorine is simple.
NOT simple is Chloramine, which most municiple water suppliers have switched to. Check you local service: It's likely they're using Chloramine, either instead of, or in addition to Chlorine.
The reason is simple: See how easy it is to remove Chlorine? It leaves all on it's own... it's just too volatile. Not good if you managing millions of gallons. Chloramine lasts for weeks or months, so it's much more effective. And a LOT harder to remove.
I recommend just using RO or distilled water, and add the elements needed back in to build back up. I use Burton Water Salts for my brewing, which is simple way to give you a water profile that's great for most English Ales, stouts and porters. You could dial it in further to customize for each, but that's a lot more stock to keep on hand and measure out for every single batch, so I stick with Burton to KISS.

culliganwater · Dec 26, 2016

Soft water is used by all commercial brewers. Best if water in non-municipal water, that is non chlorindated and bufferred, that is "hardened". Deionization is almost always needed. This has to be carefully monitored so that shed sodium is tolerated.