LaMotte BrewLab Plus

[brick_haus]

AJ or Martin, if you could answer this for me...

I found out my building filters our water through sand? I've never heard of this before and I'm curious as to how this would effect the mineral content.

Well, I am certainly not AJ or Martin, but could it be possible that your building is using sand/gravel bed water softeners? Or are they actual filters? Sand bed softeners are still in use in my industry to support the resin beads in SAC/WAC softeners.
This likely would affect your water makeup.

 

[ajdelange]

Filtering through sand is used to 'polish' water often by using it to support granulated activated carbon or other materials. It is also sometimes used by home brewers to remove iron (oxidize to Fe(III) by aeration then filter through sand to remove Fe2(OH)3 gel). It shouldn't have much effect on ion content of water except, of course, to increase silicate.

 

[jonasb23]

Finally got my results back from the state lab.

They didn't measure sodium in the test

Here's the numbers from the LaMotte kit:
My numbers are:
Ca = 32
Mg = 2.4
Chloride = 40
Sulfate = 0-50
Sodium = 122
Total hardness as CACO3 = 90
Total Alk = 320


Here's the lab numbers:
ph = 7.8
Fluoride = 1.4 mg/l
Chloride = 4.9 mg/l (LaMotte says 40??)
Sulfate = 19 mg/l (LaMotte says 0-50)
TDS = 320 mg/l
Lithium = .16 mg/l
Iron = .05 mg/l
Arsenic = .015 mg/l
Strontium = .51 mg/l
Molybdenum = .008 mg/l
Uranium = .005 mg/l

Manganese was less than .02 mg/l and no potassium listed

 

[ajdelange]

Well that's a nice comparative set of apples and oranges. It is true that 0 <19 < 50 so that's something. I'd suggest that you grab a big sample, put half of it in a bottle and send it off to Ward Labs and then run the LaMotte tests on the rest. The two sets of results will be more comparable than these two.

 

[jonasb23]

Yeah, I was disappointed when I got it back.

I will say though that I have brewed twice since then and was able to vastly improve my lighter beers. Alkalinity is my main culprit and with some of the spreadsheets help and some math, I was able to make some mineral/acid additions to hit the target ph in both mash and sparge.

I will send off a sample to Ward and get a more brewing friendly report.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[canofworms]

Saw the previous La Motte/lab test comparison. Wanted to share my most recent comparison. I just installed a new RO setup and sent a couple samples to Ward to compare with results I got with the La Motte kit. 1 sample was post carbon filters, pre RO, and the 2nd was post RO filter. I've attached a screenshot. Obviously it appears the tolerance level of the Ward tests are much tighter then the La Motte. I would by no mean consider myself a water expert but the La Motte kit seems to be an ok test kit for "spot" checking you water. I always use the Ward results when doing water addition calculations with Bru'N Water. The La Motte kit just allows a quick test to make sure there aren't any drastic differences due to any seasonal changes in my source water. It includes everything you need and explains the calculations simply. Yes without question more expensive then purchasing individual test kits from the aquarium world, but I guess there is a price to be paid for convenience.... I will say I purchased the La Motte Tracer PH Meter separate from the original La Motte kit and that meter was pretty worthless. Got it through Amazon so maybe I got a dud but I couldn't get it through the cal procedure. It is suppose to auto detect which Cal solution you have it in and it always read everything as 7.0. After reading many bad reviews afterward of that meter I would definitely skip the version of the kit that includes that. My opinion is you can go wrong with the 40 or so bucks to send a sample to Ward to get an accurate starting point.

 

[ajdelange]

You may well find that as you gain experience in using the kit your accuracy will improve with the alkalinity, hardness and chloride tests and perhaps even with the sulfate and, as the accuracy of the sodium measurement depends on those, it too may get better. On that same note you have quite a bit of potassium here which, as the LaMotte test did not measure it, you did not subtract from the alkalinity, chloride and sulfate sum in order to get the sodium equivalence. If you know there is that much potassium, as you now do, deduct and additional 3 mg/L from the final sodium estimate as calculated from the LaMotte instructions. Thus your sodium estimate is 72 - 3 = 69 mg/L.

I'll also point out that you can increase the sensitivity of drop count tests simply by using twice as much sample and twice as much indicator. You will use twice as much titrant to get the color change (and go through the kit twice as fast) but if each drop is worth 10 ppm in the normal test it is now worth 5 making more precise measurements possible.

 

[canofworms]

You may well find that as you gain experience in using the kit your accuracy will improve with the alkalinity, hardness and chloride tests and perhaps even with the sulfate and, as the accuracy of the sodium measurement depends on those, it too may get better. On that same note you have quite a bit of potassium here which, as the LaMotte test did not measure it, you did not subtract from the alkalinity, chloride and sulfate sum in order to get the sodium equivalence. If you know there is that much potassium, as you now do, deduct and additional 3 mg/L from the final sodium estimate as calculated from the LaMotte instructions. Thus your sodium estimate is 72 - 3 = 69 mg/L.

I'll also point out that you can increase the sensitivity of drop count tests simply by using twice as much sample and twice as much indicator. You will use twice as much titrant to get the color change (and go through the kit twice as fast) but if each drop is worth 10 ppm in the normal test it is now worth 5 making more precise measurements possible.

Thanks for the info on adjustment due to the level of potassium in my water and for also pointing out the ability to increase the accuracy by doubling the sample size and indicator amount. Both much appreciated!

 

[nyarast]

Martin, Ive been researching if its best to buy the Salifert test kits off amazon for KH, calcium and magnesium. Would be roughly $50 or the Lamotte Brew Lab

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EJ3DOG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EIZT4Y/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EIYBKM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
:

Be aware: the linked Salifert Mg test is for marine water only! I did not notice that, and it is really not working with fresh water. The rest is OK, just tested.

 

[juggabrew]

Be aware: the linked Salifert Mg test is for marine water only! I did not notice that, and it is really not working with fresh water. The rest is OK, just tested.

I went with the API test kits recommended by Kai and use his method to test my water. I use brunwater as well
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=At_home_water_testing

 

[mabrungard]

Be aware: the linked Salifert Mg test is for marine water only! I did not notice that, and it is really not working with fresh water.

With a reporting resolution of 30 ppm Mg, that test would be of limited use. Of course, if your tap water had Mg levels higher than that, it could be useful to know.

With the preferred limit of 40 ppm Mg in brewing water supplies, its the resolution that makes that test kit less useful.

 

[Nicolas P69]

So finaly, did you buy it??

The extra money for the ph meter worth it?, is good quality that ph meter?
It comes with the buffer and storage solutions?

So I am getting into controling my water so I will buy that kit but I dont know if it is better to buy the plus or the basic.
I have 2 options:

1) The kit plus(with ph meter)
2) The basic + ph meter from other company( maybe omega PHH-7011)



What do you think? somebody has tested the lamotte ph?