Is Ward Labs report worth it for me?

[jpb2716]

Hello All!

I've been considering sending a water sample to Ward Labs for analysis to compare to my water company's water analysis. However, according to my water company's analysis, calcium, magnesium, chloride, total alkalinity and TDS "will change seasonally". So would I have to send in a sample every season?

My local water analysis can be found here:

http://www.westviewwater.org/index.php/customer-information/water-analysis

Thanks everyone!

 

[cannman]

That's a good start.

My understanding is that depending on what time of season it is, your municipal may be letting in more river water vs more ground water. Or your specific location may be under contract to only get ground water etc. So what I would do is pick a time of year when you would do most of your brewing and test that water. Or even better is doing a test at the start of spring and at the end of fall to account for snow fall water etc. You only need to order Test w-6 for $21 and shipping in an old water bottle helps save serious cash.

I have two water sources, but I only have figures found in April/May and this has worked well for me. Check this out:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/brew-strong-water-testing/

The whole thing is pretty focused on commercial clientele but the points made about source water are the same especially minutes 38~48

1:10:00 talks about using Ward 4 times a year and use those numbers for the time of year

 

[cannman]

Alternative: buy an Ro/di water machine and build from scratch 100% of the time.

 

[dyqik]

There is also the BrewLab test kit, which lets you test a few things yourself at home. I have no idea of the accuracy or quality of that test kit. I guess someone like AJ or Martin Brungard might have more to say on the test kit quality, accuracy and difficulty of use.

EDIT To Add: Found a discussion on the BrewLab kit here, and other alternatives for testing your water yourself.

It looks like your water's current contents are high enough that you want to know what's going on, but not so high that you couldn't brew certain styles with it as is. It looks like the sulfate range is particularly wide, but probably usable for hoppy beers, even at the upper end of the range. For anything light or delicate, you're probably going to need RO or distilled water.

 

[jmitchell3]

I used carbon filtered city water for about a year before giving up and going 100% RO. its literally $2 for 8 gallons from the vending machine and is consistently 10-11ppm TDS. Only downside is the time to go get it.