phoenix water profile 5-6-2008

[beerthirty]

Ok after much hassle, the water services dept in Phoenix finally replied to my request for a water profile. Below is an excerpt from that email.

The following is the most recent information on the water profile you requested. This information was obtained from the closest sampling station to your address and is located at Van Buren St. and 51st Ave. in Phoenix. We do not sample for bicarbonate, but please find information for the other parameters below.

Results obtained from samples obtained 5/6/2008:

Calcium Total - 45.1 ppm
Calcium Hardness - 113 ppm
Magnesium Total - 16.1 ppm
Sodium Total - 103 ppm
Sulfate - 113 ppm
Chloride - 143 ppm

I hope this helps the Phoenix brewers that use city water. I am a little confused why the calcium total is lower than the calcium hardness. Maybe someone here can explain this to me(must be that new math).

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Do we have any chemist here that speaks "Politico", I sure don't.

 

[Desert_Sky]

dear god, I hope noone really uses city water to brew in. That stuff is horrible!

Everytime Ive brewed in Phoenix part of the process is going down and picking up 20 gallons of RO water and adding minerals accordingly.

 

[Bigpete9000]

Phoenix water is odd cause water from the Salt,Verde,Colorado and Agua Fria all get mixed together. So the amount of salts in the water changes all the time.

Anyone in the Phx area should remember the news recently about them finding pharmaceutics in some of the water supplies.

 

[beerthirty]

I agree, it tastes like ****. I wanted the #'s to compare to other area profiles hoping that the #'s were low enough to add minerals to achieve a decent water. Except for sodium and chloride the water here isn't too far off from several European water sources. Good thing the water and ice store is only 2 miles away.

 

[trizzant]

Bringing this thread back to life to get some real world advice. I've been using bottled water and I would like to just use tap water. Has anyone confirmed that using Phoenix city water will taste just a good as bottled water. I don't think the water tastes bad here but I'm a really lousy judge in water taste. However I am a beer snob and I will dump swill without regret. I'm using DME extract for now, but eventually will move to all grain.

 

[ryanwms]

My thought on the water is, you're going to boil the water, anyway. Cleaning any kind of water is usually as simple as boiling it, so in the end, boiling the tap vs using bottled is really going to give you the same end result.
I've been brewing for two years and have only used tap water (in York, PA). I've never been disappointed in my flavors.

 

[milleniumsmoker]

I live in Phoenix and always use bottled water with brewing salts. I've also heard the water always changes and it's never very good. Would love to be able to use tap water though.

 

[scottland]

So I actually called the City of Chandler water quality department, and spoke with a very nice man there named Wes. There's basically two big issues that make our tap water very poor for brewing.

A. The water supply is constantly changing based on demand, and where the supply is coming from. Some of the time, the water is actually fantastic for brewing. Some of the time, it's absolutely horrible, and on average, it's rather hard, and higher in sodium than we'd want.

B. It's very high in chlorine.

If you have a good activated charcoal filter to get rid of the chlorine, and/or use camden tabs, that takes care of problem B. You're still left with a contently varying water profile that goes all the way from rather soft, to off-the-charts hard on a monthly basis.

In this town, I would start with RO water, and add minerals back as needed for the beer style. Calcium chloride and gypsum are extremely cheap, and RO water is 20 cents a gallon at most places. You can also look at an under-the-sink RO system; they usually start around $150.

But honestly, spend the 20 cents/gallon on RO, and the 2cents on minerals for your brew water, I tried the tap water route, and my beer is better with RO. It's worth the $2 per batch to me.

 

[trizzant]

Thanks for the info scottland. I've been buying bottled water (2 x 2.5gl + 1gl) each time. I guess I should be refilling those 5gl bottles to save some money.

 

[scottland]

Ya, check out the water & ice stores. They sell RO water for 20cents/gallon. 25cents at the most. Which means even a 5gal all grain batch only needs like $2 of water tops.