My Water Profile

[sremed60]

Trying to calculate how the numbers change on my water report when I dilute with distilled water?

 

[ajdelange]

It is indeed a simple calculation. If if the tap water contains w grams/Liter of a particular ion and you dilute m liters of it with n liters of deionized water the new concentration will be m*w/(n+m) grams per liter. Note that this doesn't work exactly for bicarbonate and carbonate (neither of which you really care about) unless the pH of the tap water is 7 but it does work for alkalinity about which you care a great deal.

Example: water with calcium concentration at 100 mg/L and alkalinity of 200 is diluted 1:4::tap_water:distilled RO water. The calcium calcium content is 100/5 and the alkalinity 200/5.

 

[sremed60]

Thanks. I'm probably making it a hundred times harder than it needs to be.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

Aj has commented. Therefore anything I say is worthless in comparison.

 

[SEndorf]

Aj has commented. Therefore anything I say is worthless in comparison.

Don't sell yourself so short.
I have a valuable comment to add:
"What AJ said..."

 

[ajdelange]

Until I got into brewing beer I never had much interest in science. Now I'm wishing I would have paid better attention in school.

I blame the teachers. I ran into a fellow teaching a biochem lab course. He said he kept his male students rapt by using examples from brewing to illustrate the material wherever he could. And even I remember the electricity in the lecture hall when old Doc Sienko did his lecture on fermentation in Chem 101.

 

[Terek]

download yourself a copy of brun water. It takes a bit to figure it out, but is super easy to use. it will calculate when cutting it with RO water or distilled water, and tell you what all your additions will do.

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

i see your bicarbonate and alkalinity are very high, as is your ph. This is pretty close to my water. If you add lactic acid to bring your ph down, it will also lower your bicarbonate and alkalinity as well. My water profile is pretty close to yours, and adding about 1 ml of lactic per gallon of mash water brings everything into the zone so to speak. I dont cut with RO water anymore.

 

[ajdelange]

....but is super easy to use. it will calculate when cutting it with RO water or distilled water,

I know it is 2016 and well into the era when people prefer not to use their brains except in the direst emergency but I actually feel that reasoning that if I want to cut by a factor of 4 all I have to do is dilute 1:3 is easier than going to the computer and launching the application.

If you add lactic acid to bring your ph down, it will also lower your bicarbonate and alkalinity as well.

The water has about 3 mEq/L alkalinity (that is what we care about - we don't really care about what the bicarbonate level is) and to remove it effectively will take about 3 mEq/L lactic acid which will leave 3 mEq/L lactate ion in the mash. This may be perfectly acceptable but people need to be aware that when an mEq of alkalinity is removed from water with acid it is replaced by a mEq of the anion of the acid used. This can be of benefit if one wished, for example, to increase the sulfate in ones liquor.

With RO dilution you would use 2 parts water to 1 part tap to get the ~3 mEq/L (147 ppm as CaCO3_ down to about 1 (49 ppm) and there would be no residual anion. I did this without a spreadsheet so you all will probably want to check my numbers.

 

[Biscuits]

Every time I think I have a handle on water, AJ speaks and I realize I know nothing.

 

[Terek]

I know it is 2016 and well into the era when people prefer not to use their brains except in the direst emergency but I actually feel that reasoning that if I want to cut by a factor of 4 all I have to do is dilute 1:3 is easier than going to the computer and launching the application.



The water has about 3 mEq/L alkalinity (that is what we care about - we don't really care about what the bicarbonate level is) and to remove it effectively will take about 3 mEq/L lactic acid which will leave 3 mEq/L lactate ion in the mash. This may be perfectly acceptable but people need to be aware that when an mEq of alkalinity is removed from water with acid it is replaced by a mEq of the anion of the acid used. This can be of benefit if one wished, for example, to increase the sulfate in ones liquor.

With RO dilution you would use 2 parts water to 1 part tap to get the ~3 mEq/L (147 ppm as CaCO3_ down to about 1 (49 ppm) and there would be no residual anion. I did this without a spreadsheet so you all will probably want to check my numbers.

that works, but my goal is not to have to go to walmart and buy water. I want to use what i get from my well. Just makes it feel more like its "mine"

 

[sremed60]

Thanks guys