need help with my water please

[Homercidal]

Not nearly enough information to build a water with.

However, it's quite apparent that your water has Chlorine or Chloramine (as you've found out!)

So I do suggest using the bottled water, as you say you've had good luck with it previously.

Also, you know that you can remove Chlorine and Chloramine from your tap water by crushing 1/4 Campden tablet and mixing into your brewing water? Just crush it up and mix with a small amount of water until dissolved and then mix well into your brewing water. It will instantly modify the chloramines so they are not a problem.

If you want to understand more about brewing water chemistry, read good info from mabrungard and ajdelange and listen to the various podcasts that are out there, and especially Kai Troester.

You'll also pretty much have to get a water analysis report from a place like Ward Lab (less than $20) and having a pH meter is a very big help as well. But you can probably improve your water without one if you have a good report.

 

[je52rm]

Im gonna be doing my first AG (single infusion single batch) batch and I have questions about what kind of additives I should add to my water. My first two batches (partial mash) were made with bottled spring water (Zepherhills) and tasted pretty decent. My third and fourth batches (partial mash) were made with tap water and as far as i can tell so far (1 month aged in bottles) It has a really bad plastic/medicinal flavor to them. I then figured I'd inspect my tap water a bit more to see what's up. I usually drink bottled water so i didnt even realize that my tap water has a pretty bad chlorine smell. It tastes decent but the chlorine is quite evident. I looked online at the water management company that serves my area and the water quality report only listed hazardous and "bad" things in the water. It did not list the calcium, chlorides., etc.... It also said that chorine was used to treat the water.

So with that being said I don't wanna risk making compromised quality beer so I will be using Zephyrhills spring water instead of my tap water. Here is the water report from zephyrhills website.

Calcium 34.5-69
Sodium 1.9-4.5
Potassium N/D
Flouride .064-.13
Magnesium 4.4-9.1
Bicarbonate 98.9-150
Nitrate .14-2.1
Chloride 2.5-12.8
copper N/D
P.H. 7.8-8.0
Sulfate 1.5-10.6
Total dissolved solids 86-231

Heres the grain bill I will be using:

5 Gallon batch (using WLP005) british ale yeast

9.25 lbs. british pale 2-row
.75 lb. crystal 60
.5 lb. Cara-Pils
.25 lb. chocolate

Mash = 1.25 quarts/ lb. of grain. Sparge to reach boil volume

I will be making an english Brown Ale and I am wondering if the water profile for zephyrhills spring water is good the way it is OR should I make some adjustments using salts? Thank you for help!!!

 

[wildwest450]

Those numbers have a big range. Go read this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

 

[Homercidal]

I'd take an average on those readings. There is no way they can give you a read accurate measurement because they may get their water from several sources and mix it, or it might have a different makeup depending on the season.