My first water report, advice on results?

[Wyobrew22]

I live on public land so I was able to sift through a pile of government reports and obtain the source number and subsequent composition data for my water. I have more info if needed but here are the highlights.
PH 7.4
NA 12
MG 2.1
CA 21
Chloride 6.2
Sulfate 15

What does all of this really mean? How would you adjust? I have brewed only a couple of batches here. 5 gal. BIAB, 2-3 week temp controlled ferment, primary only, to keg. I really liked how a stout turned out, it was one of the best I have ever brewed but I have done an American pale and a neipa that came out very flat in both hop aroma and flavor (I use brewers friend for the recipe design and have always felt IBUs come out as less than calculated, not just at this location)

 

[mabrungard]

Its fairly lightly mineralized water. While you still need to find out what the alkalinity or bicarbonate content is for that water, its probably pretty low. It should be good for brewing as long as iron or manganese aren't present.

 

[Wyobrew22]

I have a couple of those numbers too.
Bicarbonate is 80
Manganese is .03
Iron is .06

After looking around at various sources my water is the closest to Pilsen water as far as notable historic sources. Perhaps a pilsener is in order......

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

you might want to know how those values change through the year if you live in a mountainous region. In Golden Colorado where i live the water goes from pilsen-like with the spring runoff to quite high in sulfates (and higher in everything else) in the winter when we switch to mountain reservoirs. it's pretty consistent year-to-year in each season, I have quarterly water data from my municipality for the last 4 years. I even took that data a step further to calculate my profile on any given day using the average historical values of each season.

Cheers!

 

[Wyobrew22]

I do live in the mountains (near Jackson, Wyoming) the data I have is an older report from June several years back. I’m working with the GM at our resort to see if the park service regularly tests the water or not. If that info can’t be found I’m going to do a ward labs test now and one in June when the melt is full on. I do know that the well was moved fairly recently but is within a quarter mile of the well I have a report for, so the info I have is not exact....just all I can find. Our supply is switched to an underground reservoir right next to where the new well is based on flow. The water tastes exceptionally clean I just haven’t been happy with hop utilization while brewing.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Sounds like you have a similar situation to me. If you like I can email you the spreadsheet for golden, it will give you a feel for how much variability there is for another rocky mountain source. I definitely feel like certain styles got alot better for me (hoppy beers, stouts and british beers in particular) when I started to treat my water.

 

[Wyobrew22]

I would appreciate that...any way to attach it to a PM here?

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I would appreciate that...any way to attach it to a PM here?

I will try, otherwise you can PM me your email and I can send it that way.

Cheers.

 

[secondbase]

Your water is very similar to mine. I do have to adjust for pH when brewing light beers, but a lot of darker styles fall right in line for a perfect mash pH. I don't usually have to add more than 5g of any salt to the mash when building water profiles.