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My Well Water vs my Tap Water

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KortzBrewhouse

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Just got my reports back from Ward Labs and entered into BeerSmith I still need to run the numbers either in BeerSmith or Brew N Water and order supplies before my next brew day.

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Makes me want to submit a sample to Ward Labs. Did you have any other report such as from your water authority for the tap water? If so how did they compare? Did you do the brewers test W-5A at Ward?
 
It's also been through a neutralizer which is definitely not needed with this well. Bypass it or remove it. Use the well water for brewing unless you decide to use RO water in which case install the RO unit downstream of the softener. Also check the softener. It should be getting the calciu and magnesium down to, say, less than 2 mg/L each and shouldn't double the chloride unless you took the sample right after regen.

The well water will need to be decarbonated before brewing with it. Calcium will need to be supplemented before decarbonation by lime or boiling.
 
Makes me want to submit a sample to Ward Labs. Did you have any other report such as from your water authority for the tap water? If so how did they compare? Did you do the brewers test W-5A at Ward?

I had no other info prior to sending into Ward for a brewers test.
 
@ajdelange I don't think his tap water is actually coming from the well? The way I understand it he could use either his (softened) municipal (tap) water or the water from his own well.
 
He doesn't actually say and so I drew what seems to me to be the obvious conclusion though, of course, it may not actually be so obvious at all. In any case, he should use the well water, not the tap water, and he'll need to decarbonate it.
 
@ajdelange I don't think his tap water is actually coming from the well? The way I understand it he could use either his (softened) municipal (tap) water or the water from his own well.

Yes I have two sources one from the city which is my Tap Water and the other is from a well we have on the property. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks.
 
In my opinion your well water is much better for beer brewing than your tap water. Kill the alkalinity (to ~pH 5.4) with the addition of 1.1 mL of 85% Phosphoric acid per every gallon of your water.

Did you remember to multiply your Ward Labs SO4-S readings x 3 to convert them into SO4? If not, they are only reporting the 'S' portion of the SO4 ion.
 
In my opinion your well water is much better for beer brewing than your tap water. Kill the alkalinity (to ~pH 5.4) with the addition of 1.1 mL of 85% Phosphoric acid per every gallon of your water.

Did you remember to multiply your Ward Labs SO4-S readings x 3 to convert them into SO4? If not, they are only reporting the 'S' portion of the SO4 ion.

I did not multiply, good catch. Thanks.
 
It's also been through a neutralizer which is definitely not needed with this well. Bypass it or remove it. Use the well water for brewing unless you decide to use RO water in which case install the RO unit downstream of the softener. Also check the softener. It should be getting the calciu and magnesium down to, say, less than 2 mg/L each and shouldn't double the chloride unless you took the sample right after regen.

The well water will need to be decarbonated before brewing with it. Calcium will need to be supplemented before decarbonation by lime or boiling.

@ajdelange How would I go about decarbonating my Well Water before use? Thanks.
 
You have about 4.8 mEq/L alkalinity and would like to reduce this as much as possible. You can do that by adding 4.8 mEq/L acid which replaces each mEq of alkalinity with 1 mEq of the anion of the acid. Thus, were you to use sulfuric acid your sulfate would increase by 4.8 mEq/L (230 mg/l) and similarly for other acids. Were you to use hydrochloric acid your chloride would go up by 165 mg/L. In the UK they sell a equinormal blend of these acids which, if used would increase your chloride by 83 mg/L and your sulfate by 115 mg/L which would result in a reasonable content of those ions for many traditional British beers and is a commonly used approach to water like yours in the UK. For other beers (delicate lagers) you would not want to take this approach as your sulfate is already marginal for them and going the whole distance with chloride will get that up to where many would find it excessive. For those beers decarbonation by other means is sought. Many home brewers use lactic acid and while quite a bit of it can be tolerated before its flavor effects are noticed it does have flavor. Phosphoric acid is often used because it is pretty flavor neutral (the extra phosphate contributed by the acid is swamped by the phosphate already in the mash from the malt).

The easiest decarbonation method by far is RO but that requires an investment in RO equipment. That leaves the old traditional methods: boiling and lime precipitation. The former is easier than the latter but uses energy. Both take time. In both you first supplement the calcium in order to get it up to above the level of the alkalinity. In this well water you have 64/20 = 3.2 mEq/L Ca++ and thus need to add at least 1.6 mEq/L more. Thus even using these methods you will have increased chloride and/or sulfate and, as that isn't always wanted you are driven back towards the RO solution.

Having gotten the calcium level up the next step is to boil the water. It will turn milky and upon cooling and standing chalk will precipitate. The clear supernatant will have alkalinity (and hardness) of about 1 mEq/L which is much better than 4.8 and 1 mEq/L Ca++ (20 mg/L) isn't bad either though you may wish to add more.

In lime treatment you add lime, stir and let the chalk precipitate. You then "neutralize" the excess alkalinity (from the lime) either with acid or untreated water to pH 8.3. The result is, again, water with alkalinity of about 1 mEq/L. Lime treatment really requires a pH meter and some knowledge of what you are doing. Either method is clearly a PITA relative to drawing some RO water or dumping in some acid but in the latter case you have to accept the anion.

I'm sure this must all be confusing at this point. For that, and other, reasons I generally recommend RO. But, should you find brewing water chemistry interesting I recommend using the other methods for the learning opportunities they grant.
 
Wow thanks for the explanation I think I’ll start using RO water and adding in what I need. Thanks for all the help. Cheers.
 
Wow thanks for the explanation I think I’ll start using RO water and adding in what I need. Thanks for all the help. Cheers.

The choice is obviously yours, but your well water already has what you need, and after its alkalinity has been addressed via the addition of Phosphoric Acid (in accordance with the needs for each recipe you brew) it is (to my way of seeing things) some really nice natural brewing water. If you need to purchase RO, it may be more economical to acidify your well water.

The best way to decide how to proceed going forward might be for you to brew your favorite recipe twice identically (rapidly, back to back, perhaps on two consecutive days) sans for the use of acidified well water vs. mineralized RO water, and then judge for yourself (OK, allow your friends in on it also, but don't tell them which is which) as to which tastes best when sampling both at the same time.

85% Phosphoric Acid:
http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=FGphos
 
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