My Ward Labs water report - Any help would be awesome!

[shotinthedark]

I recently purchased a house with well water. This is uncharted territory for me.

I also recently brewed my first batch with the water and my new equipment (Grainfather). The beer was bottled yesterday so I have yet to taste a final product. So far it tastes great though. Citra Pale Ale.

I ordered the water kit after completing the first brew and reading up on water chemistry a bit. Here are my results. Anything super scary? And recommendations on what spread sheet to use for adjusting it for batches? Should I be doing more than just adding my 5.2 pH stablizer to the mash?

Thanks in advance!

pH - 7.7
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm - 415
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm- 0.69
Cations / Anions, me/L - 7.1 / 7.4
ppm
Sodium, Na - 25
Potassium, K - < 1
Calcium, Ca - 92
Magnesium, Mg - 17
Total Hardness, CaCO3 - 301
Nitrate, NO3-N - < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S - 10
Chloride, Cl - 56
Carbonate, CO3 - < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 - 319
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 - 263
Total Phosphorus, P - < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe - 0.44

 

[mabrungard]

It's usable, but not great. The mineralization is a little bit high. The alkalinity is the main thing that needs to be neutralized.

 

[Kerrbrewer]

My water here in TX is very similar to yours. My lighter beers had astringency and aftertaste issues until I got the HCO3 below 80. I used the ez water calculator and diluted with distilled water to get that down. I do not recommend the 5.2 stuff. I add calcium chloride, gypsum, acid malt and lactic acid

 

[ajdelange]

Anything super scary?

The alkalinity is a bit frightening at 263/50 = 5.26 mEq/L. You'll need to knock that back which is easy enough to do by dilution with RO water but it will take 4 parts RO water to get it down to around 1 mEq/L and if you are going to use 4 parts RO to 1 part tap you might as well go all the way and use all RO thereby solving several potential problems and making you life lots easier.

You do have 4.6 mEq/L of calcium. Add another 2 from gypsum or calcium chloride for a total of 6.6. Then heat the water and approximately 4.26 mEq/L alkalinity will fall out taking approximately 4.26 mEq/L calcium with it leaving about 2.34 (47 mg/L) which is, to many peoples' way of thinking ideal. Remaining alkalinity will be 1 mEq/L (50) ppm which is about as high as we want it to be but acceptable. You could brew with the water treated as it is or you can dilute it 1:1 or so to get the alkalinity down further and reduce chloride and sulfate (which you have augmented) to lower levels for applications where lower levels are desired.

You could also deal with the alkalinity by neutralizing it with acid. You will need about 5 mEq/L acid and adding that will add the equivalent amount of the acid anions. For example, using sulfuric acid you will add 5 mEq of sulfate which is about 240 mg/L. Added to the 30 in the water would give you a total of 270 which is right around where many sulfate fans like it. But you will have trouble obtaining food grade sulfuric acid in the US and it's pretty dangerous stuff when concentrated (rips the water out of everything - nasty burns). Most guys that attack alkalinity use phosphoric or lactic but 5 mEq/L of those cations is a bunch.


Your water really isn't that great and while you can, as discussed, clean it up in various ways it would be much easier for you in the long run to go to an RO system thus effectively throwing it away.

And recommendations on what spread sheet to use for adjusting it for batches?

You should understand water chemistry to the point that you can do your own spreadsheet in Excel or whatever you prefer. I recognize that I am the vox clamantis in saying this but say it anyway.

Should I be doing more than just adding my 5.2 pH stablizer to the mash?

5.2 stabilizer is a mix of sodium phosphates. Phosphate does not buffer effectively at mash pH and so adding it to your mash does not do anything but add sodium and diphosphate ions to your beer. Use it to fertilize plants that like phosphorous.

But you will need to take other steps. Once past the capital investment RO is the simplest solution as it puts water completely under your control.

 

[shotinthedark]

Thank you all for the input. I definitely need to do some more reading up on this to have a better understanding and grasp of it all.

 

[wapitiscat]

I recognize that I am the vox clamantis in saying this but say it anyway.

Forget water chemistry. I had to go look up vox clamantis and came across some neat web sites. Thanks

Todd