need help understanding my water test results!

[2BeerSpeer]

pH 8.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 74
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.12
Cations / Anions, me/L 1.0 / 1.2
ppm
Sodium, Na 12
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 8
Magnesium, Mg 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 24
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 12
Carbonate, CO3 3
Bicarbonate, HCO3 32
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 31
Total Phosphorus, P 0.72
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

 

[mabrungard]

Looks good. You should download and read the Water Knowledge in Bru'n Water if you want to understand the report.

 

[2BeerSpeer]

Thanks, I'm curious if I need to add anything to my ingredients? I brew mostly IPA's...

 

[2BeerSpeer]

Lost this thread in the madness....any input on the #'s?

 

[Yooper]

Lost this thread in the madness....any input on the #'s?

It's really nice water! I'm jealous.

For IPAs, I'd add some gypsum. For malty beers, or things like cream ale, I'd add some calcium chloride.

Using a spreadsheet (bru'n water is a great one), use enough calcium chloride in those beers to get +/- 50 ppm of chloride, and that should bring your calcium to a good level as well- about 50 ppm or more.

For IPAs, I like less sulfate than some, but I tend to go with 150 ppm or so of the sulfate by adding gypsum and that brings up the calcium as well.

I almost never use sodium chloride or magnesium sulfate, and don't even know where my epsom salts are.

You generally want to target a mash pH of 5.3.-5.5 at room temperature, which may require the addition of some acids or acid malt. A stout may require a bit of alkalinity, but if that last stout you sent me was made with that water, you were perfect with whatever you did!

 

[2BeerSpeer]

it's funny that seeing a recent post in your Oatmeal Stout thread made me dig this thread up as I have no idea where my results are! Thanks Yooper...

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

What did you use to analyze your water. Did you send your water away somewhere, or are there kits available to test water. I've been looking around on the web for these items, but everything I find leaves me asking more questions. The water report from the village where I live, does not give me the information I am looking for regarding water chemistry for brewing

 

[ajdelange]

What did you use to analyze your water. Did you send your water away somewhere,

The line "Cations / Anions, me/L 1.0 / 1.2" and the fact that the bicarbonate and carbonate numbers are not correct (or, I suppose I should say 'not consistent') indicates that the test was done by Ward Labs prior to this year (the inconsistency should have been removed by now but I still haven't seen an example that lets me check that).

...or are there kits available to test water.

Yes, there are for some of the parameters. Many home brewers go to an aquarium supply outfit and obtain the simple 'drop count' kits (you add drops until a sample changes color and the number of drops tells you the value of the parameter) for hardness and alkalinity.

I've been looking around on the web for these items, but everything I find leaves me asking more questions.

The most popular test kits are made in Germany and, as such, express 'Karbonat Hartung' (carbonate hardness - though it is, actually, the alkalinity) and total hardness is German Degrees (DH). Little wonder there is some confusion but these numbers are easily converted to more familiar units (ppm as CaCO3 for alkalinity).

If you want to be able to separately determine the calcium hardness and magnesium hardness then you need a slightly more sophisticated (which means, among other things, a substantial increase in price) kit and these are sold by companies like Lamotte, Hach, Cole Parmer and others. Kits are available for other parameters too such as chloride, sulfate, nitrate, nitrite and potassium. Sodium is a tough one. It can only conveniently be done with an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) though it can, with some patience at difficulty (at the level in this report) be done with an Ion Specific Electrode (ISE) which can be used with any pH meter with mV scale.

The water report from the village where I live, does not give me the information I am looking for regarding water chemistry for brewing

The place where self testing really shines is where the water is seasonably (or otherwise) variable. It is not practical to send a sample off to Ward Labs every time you want to brew but you can easily check alkalinity with a kit every time you brew.

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

That has to be the most detailed response to any question I have ever asked any where. Thanks much

 

[2BeerSpeer]

Nice response! Could you explain the problem with the problem in the result....Cations / Anions, me/L 1.0 / 1.2? Should I resubmit my sample or is there a way to translate the problem to a more realistic result? Thanks in advance!

 

[ajdelange]

Nice response! Could you explain the problem with the problem in the result....Cations / Anions, me/L 1.0 / 1.2?

The problem is a minor one related to the way in which Ward Labs was computing bicarbonate and carbonate from alkalinity data. They were using some old approximate formulae based on P (alkalinity measured to 8.3) and M alkalinity (to 4.4 pH) but had the wrong pH for the P titration. Beyond that these formulae assume that bicarbonate, carbonate and hydroxyl are the only sources of alkalinity in water whereas, in your case, you have quite a bit of phosphate (which is also alkaline) and possibly silica which can contribute a bit (though a small amount). And beyond that water itself (i.e. pure water) has some alkalinity. Further still, the presence of other ions (sodium, sulfate ...) have an effect on the dissociation of carbonic acid and have a tiny effect on their concentrations. Considering the water's intrinsic alkalinity, the presence of the other ions and the phosphate your bicarbonate content would actually be 32.1 mg/L and your carbonate content 0.95 resulting in a balance of 1.029/1.141 which is a little closer to the theoretical 1/1 than 1.0/1.2 but not by a lot.

Should I resubmit my sample or is there a way to translate the problem to a more realistic result? Thanks in advance!

No need to. Comparing the corrected bicarbonate and carbonate numbers to the report we see that the only appreciable change is that the carbonate number is lower than in the report by 2 mg/L. This is hardly worth worrying about especially as you now have the 'correct' number. I put 'correct' in quotes because the calculated number depends on the accuracy of their measurements of pH and alkalinity.

I have corresponded with Ward about this and I know they picked right up on the problem with the definition of P alkalinity but I'm not sure they got the rest (the much more complex) of the chemistry. I offered to help but never heard back from them. I got all excited when I saw your report because it is perfect for checking as it has high pH (these problems do not effect reports with pH less than 8) but then saw it was quite old. I had this correspondence with Ward in the summer of 2013.

Actually, you probably should resubmit a sample just to see if there have been any changes in your water since the last analysis.

 

[2BeerSpeer]

I may just do that. Fyi ...it is City water and they may have changes from time to time. Thanks for your detailed responses!