Nashville Water Report

[Ranger9913]

Just got this in today from Ward Labs:

Ca - 23
Mg - 6
Na - 5
Cl - 8
SO4 - 36
CaCo3 - 83
PH 6.9

 

[arnie7781]

Cool! So, that means the water is soft, right? I've been brewing in Nashville for about a year and my favorite style is IPA. I just haven't made one that knocks my socks off...yet. Hopefully some water adjustments will help. Thanks a ton for posting!

 

[mcnewcp]

Are these ppm?

EDIT: Dumb question, I just looked it up myself and they obviously are.

 

[ajdelange]

Not that dumb. In a Ward Labs report Ca, Mg, Cl, Na, K are in mg/L as the ion. Sulfate is in mg/L as Sulfur. Nitrite and Nitrate are mg/L as Nitrogen and what OP calls CaCO3 is alkalinity which is in units of ppm as Calcium carbonate. For Ca, Mg, Cl, and Na and K the mg/L number is the number of mg of the ion found in 1 litre of water. For all the others you must multiply by a scaling factor.

 

[mcnewcp]

So if there is one atom S per one molecule SO4, wouldn't the scaling factor be 1 in that case?

 

[ajdelange]

No. The atomic weight of sulfur is 32 and the molecular weight of sulfate ion 96. Thus if I see a report stating that sulfate is 32 mg/L "as sulfur" that means the water has 32 mg of sulfate in each litre of water. Each millimole of sulfate (32 mg) is bound to 4 millimoles of oxygen (64 mg). That's where the 96 comes from. So 1 mg/L sulfate as sulfur is equivalent to 3 mg/L as sulfate.

 

[mcnewcp]

Right, after checking back to my water chem class, I agree. Are you sure that Ward Labs reports it in mg/L as S though? I found the Nashville Metro water quality report here and it reports nearly the same sulfate concentration but has no mention of the units being reported as S.

EDIT: Just found support for that here and here. I really wish the Nashville Metro would note this on their water quality report. Maybe this is why my latest IPAs and APAs have been coming out more bitter than intended. Thanks for the heads up AJ, but as an environmental engineer, I must say that I'm embarrassed I didn't realize this sooner.

 

[wcfsmu]

Would anyone know what style of beer is best suited for the Nashville area - compared to the water profile?
Any response would be helpful, its for a class presentation.