Please check out my water

[Mothman]

I recently posted in the Beginners forum about my water source for all-grain brewing, and part of it was about how I don't particularly want to get into the nitty gritty of water chemistry.

An experienced brewer told me it really isn't difficult to do.

I still don't really want to go down this road, at least *not yet*... I've only done 2 brews so far, and my 3rd brew will be my first attempt at all-grain (BIAB). Thus far I've used tap water for my extract brews and the beer is good, I will use tap water in my first BIAB batches as well, and hope that beer is even better. I want to keep my life simple as I learn the brewing process better.

However, as a bit of a pre-emptive strike, somewhat in preparation for down the road if I do end up choosing to modify my tap water, I'm wondering if someone could take a look at a water report for my water, and just give me some basic, noob-friendly, info.

Specifically:

1 - generally, what is my water like, where am I starting from here? Not so much beer-style specific, but as a base-line, what am I looking at.

2 - what parts of the report are relevant for brewing, and may call for modification?

The most recent comprehensive report from the supplier (from last December) can be found here: http://www.bmid.ca/media/6583/Dec20_Comprehensive.pdf

That file shows data for "Booster 1" and for "Well 5". I've contacted the provider and they indicated that at my home, our water is the "Booster 1" source.

 

[stz]

Your water kicks ass. It is low in everything, so not only do you not really have problems which need correcting you have the freedom to manipulate your water if needed without readily creating other problems. I would be looking to add calcium, but you'll get that from most brewing salts. Alkalinity is pretty good for pale grists, mash pH won't require heavy modification to get it in the ideal range for average beer, though you might wish to use bicarbonate of soda when brewing dark beer such as stouts and porters and acids when brewing lager.

Ca - 11.6
Cl - 9.35
SO4 - 4.2

As a basic guideline when people talk about flavour specific ions they are talking about chloride and sulphate. Chloride is supposed to accentuate malt sweetness, fullness and flavour much like salt does for food and sulphate is supposed to accentuate a crisp and dry character which favours a good clean bittering and hop character. People lean towards a 2:1 ration of sulphate to chloride for hop forward styles such as IPA's and towards a balanced ratio of 1:1 for less aggressively hopped beer and even 1:2 for darker beers and milds which are malt forward. These are starting points based on industry guidelines and you can play with it to dial in your preference. The ratio is supposed to be more important than the actual amount, but to give you an idea we are typically talking sulphites of 400ppm as an upper limit (I prefer no more than 200-300ppm).

There are people on here far more qualified than me to talk about water treatment and chemistry and I fully expect people to argue with me, but if there is one thing to get across to you it is that you should just have a go. So many people seem daunted by and put off water treatment because of the way it is often explained as some sort of dark art and that is a shame.

As a basic working outline ppm (parts per million) converts quite nicely into mg per litre which makes calculating additions a doddle. Most people use calculators, but very basically ..

Calcium sulphate (gypsum) and Calcium chloride flake are the two easiest ones to add sulphate and chloride to your brewing liquor. Both add calcium ions and their respective flavour ions. Calculate it based on the entirety of your brewing liquor (mash water, sparge water and any make up water in the kettle or dilution). Calcium sulphate contributes 232.8ppm Ca g/L and 557.7ppm SO4 g/L. Calcium chloride contributes 272.6 Ca g/L and 482.3 Cl g/L.

So if your water already contains 4.2ppm sulphate and you want 150ppm you need to gain 145.8ppm. So just divide 145.8 by 557.7 to give the amount of gypsum to add to give 145.8ppm as g/L (0.26) and then times it by the amount of liquor to be treated in litres which would give 13g for 50L. You can do the same with the relevant figures for the chloride and you can even calculate the calcium contribution. You want it above 50ppm ideally though not higher than 150ppm though people will argue 200ppm and then some is fine (and usually is, but I believe excessive salts are unnecessary and create other issues).

 

[Mothman]

Stz, thanks for this! I read your post a few times and I think it's settling in.

A couple follow up questions / clarification to see if I'm getting this...

-1- What impact would my water have, with NO modification, on say a full-volume BIAB mash of a standard Pale Ale recipe, for example?

For context, I downloaded EZWater and input the water chemistry from my water report, then entered some grains from a random 3.5 gal Pale Ale Recipe I found... the spreadsheet indicated that the pH in my example would be just a smidge high (5.68, just barely outside the 5.4-5.6 range, so maybe negligible), and Ca, Mg and SO4 are showing as well below desired ranges, and the Cl-SO4 ratio is super low.

Am I correct to understand that an overly high pH will reduce mash efficiency, while the Ca, Mg, SO4, etc, and the Cl-SO4 ratio, impact flavour?

I'm wondering what impact my unmodified water would have on a brew.

and

-2- Continuing to play with EZwater, if I, say, add 5 g each of Calcium Chloride and Epsom Salt, it brought the pH down slightly to within the ideal range, brought all the ions into green, and brought the Cl-SO4 ratio to a balanced 1.28. Is this the gist of how a person might go about doing this?

 

[stz]

Ok. When you mash the optimal pH is 5.2-5.5. The impact of this is faster wort separation, increased extract, faster fermentation, increased attenuation, improved head retention, decreased beer haze, improved beer stability and improved beer flavour. The grain will acidify the mash and drop the pH (especially dark/kilned malt) of the water used and the water will resist this dependent upon its ability to buffer this drop which for our purposes is expressed as alkalinity. Your water is very low in alkalinity and as a result will have little ability to resist the pH drop in the mash. Even a pale ale without much dark malt as indicated by the calculator gets you quite close and as you've noticed, some salts, especially the typical amounts used in brewing (the calcium content) will help to bring it down to the optimal range. Most other people would be reaching for aciduated malt, lactic acid, phosphoric acid etc when tackling pale styles. So yes, mash pH is mostly an efficiency thing (though pH will influence flavour) and ratio of mineral ions Na, Mg, Cl, SO4 (chloride and sulphate in particular) is mostly a flavour thing. Calcium is mostly an efficiency thing, but I also believe you should control it as excessive calcium (some other process issues aside) I feel contributes to a hard, muddy bittering which can obscure some delicate flavours.

So, calcium is critical in lowering mash pH. Gives heat stability to alpha amylase to enable it to do its job. Improves wort viscosity. Helps coagulate protein. Is important in yeast flocculation and is important to many biochemical reactions in brewing that lead to improved stability in the final beer. Aim for 50-150ppm. Lower than 50ppm can be the point where there isn't enough for proper hot break in the copper and for yeast to flocculate like it should.

Magnesium should be 10-30ppm. I wouldn't worry about it as all grain brewing tends to give more than enough for our needs.

Sulphate should be 50-300ppm. It gives beer a drier, crisp flavour and enhances bitterness. Over 300ppm I believe gives an unnecessary harsh character and there are nicer ways to increase perceived bitterness than pushing sulphates to silly levels.

Chloride should be 20-100ppm. It helps to provide fullness/body and to an extent sweetness. High concentrations can lead to TCP like flavours. Remember though the most important point with sulphate/chloride balance is less the concentration and more the ratio.

Bicarbonate and carbonate alkalinity is good for neutralising dark malt acidity. When levels are too high it can taste astringent. 0-250ppm is normal, but lower for pale and lager is generally the rule. I try to get it below 30-60ppm when brewing hop forward pales, especially drier ones, medium or fuller bodied ones less critical, but below 100ppm if I can. Because your water is very low in residual alkalinity please consider that dark malts will lower your mash pH. I find 20% of the grain bill as crystal or roasted malt will drop mash pH by around 0.5. I use sodium bicarbonate directly in the mash to counter this (don't bother with calcium carbonate).

I wouldn't bother with epsom salt. Get calcium sulphate and calcium chloride. The chloride is a great drying agent chemically and will absorb moisture from the air to the point where it dissolves itself so keep it dry and in an airtight container. In your case you will need so little salts when brewing they can be added directly to the mash where they will help to bring down the mash pH. Others split them between the mash and the sparge to avoid too many salts in the mash, but this won't be an issue for you and your sparge should be better than most because the low alkalinity will help prevent the pH climbing. I have to acidify the mash directly with pale beers to correct the pH, bringing down the alkalinity and acidify the sparge liquor to prevent the pH climbing too high.

Your second question, people go about it all sorts of ways. Many use calculators. I prefer to just calculate the ion contribution and the differential required and scale the amount to the liquor to be treated because once you start working that way it is really quite straightforward and it is very useful to be able to do it with pen and paper rather than needing to be on your computer. Whatever the route, as long as the result works then it works. Even if your method isn't sound, as long as you adjust from that point using the same method your taste buds will eventually get you there. Like I said don't be afraid to start somewhere and adjust from that point, it is a shame so many avoid the topic because it is presented like wizardry.

I'd just work out how much water you need to treat (the whole volume) say 50L and how many ppm over baseline you are aiming for. If 1g in 1L gives 557.7ppm SO4 and you want 195.6ppm then 351mg per L will get you the 195.6ppm plus your baseline level of 4.6ppm brings you to 200ppm. So if you've got to treat 50L you'll need 50 * 351 which brings you to roughly 17.5g which you'd add directly to the mash. For the chloride lets say you want 90.65ppm plus your baseline of 9.35ppm to bring you up to 100ppm then 482.3ppm with 1g in 1L then 188mg per L gives 90.65ppm or 9.4g for 50L again, directly into the mash.

You'll get 51ppm calcium from the chloride and 81ppm from the sulphate plus your base line giving 144ppm which is acceptable. You'll get 200ppm sulphate and 100ppm chloride which is good starting point on your quest for a perfect hoppy pale ale.

That is how I like to work it out. You just need calcium chloride, calcium sulphate, lactic or phosphoric and sodium bicarbonate. Occasionally you might want some sea salt if you want to get really snazzy.

 

[flars]

The water report doesn't have anything about how much chlorine or chloramines are added to the water. I can't imagine any municipality not adding at least chloramine to keep the water bacteria free in the distribution lines.

 

[Mothman]

Stz, thanks a ton. I only played with Epsom salt in rhe calculator as was trying to get the magnesium in green, but with your explanation that magnesium isn't that important, everything you said makes sense.

Flars, yes they do chlorinate.

 

[Mirilis]

The water report doesn't have anything about how much chlorine or chloramines are added to the water. I can't imagine any municipality not adding at least chloramine to keep the water bacteria free in the distribution lines.

I agree here.. you may want to add some k-meta or campden tablet to get rid of chlorine and chloromine. It takes very little (1 tablet per 20g or 35mg of powder per gallon)..

Just make sure to add a little calcium chloride, gypsum or both depending on your brew to get a min 50ppm Ca.. since you don't have a pH meter it will be tough to verify your doing it right

 

[Dadof5]

I thought i had this water chemistry thing sort of understood but i keep reading and getting more confused. I'm about to take the plunge into all grain but want to try and get some variables under some form of control. my dilemma...my water source has a total alkalinity that runs consistently at 200 mg/L as CaCo3 and a hardness of 200-250 mg/L as CacO3. I dont know the Ca or Mg numbers. what is the most effective way to get this into a more usable source. Dilution? please help.

 

[Yooper]

I thought i had this water chemistry thing sort of understood but i keep reading and getting more confused. I'm about to take the plunge into all grain but want to try and get some variables under some form of control. my dilemma...my water source has a total alkalinity that runs consistently at 200 mg/L as CaCo3 and a hardness of 200-250 mg/L as CacO3. I dont know the Ca or Mg numbers. what is the most effective way to get this into a more usable source. Dilution? please help.

Yes, dilute with RO water to get the alkalinity down. It's pretty high, and you may find that diluting 4:1 and still not knowing the other numbers is more bother than its worth, and just go with 100% RO water.

 

[Dadof5]

Thanks Yoop, it's a shame...its good, filtered, clean water AND it's free! But, you're absolutely right. Seems an awful lot of RO to dilute....might as well go all RO. Was hoping there was hope for it. Say Yoop, in my forum creeping on this topic I came across a thread that had a baseline for building up RO water. What would you suggest if I may pick your brain? Thanks in advance! Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yoop, it's a shame...its good, filtered, clean water AND it's free! But, you're absolutely right. Seems an awful lot of RO to dilute....might as well go all RO. Was hoping there was hope for it. Say Yoop, in my forum creeping on this topic I came across a thread that had a baseline for building up RO water. What would you suggest if I may pick your brain? Thanks in advance! Cheers!

I'd really suggest starting a new thread, along with the beer you want to brew. A baseline for, say, a Czech lager, would be totally different than for an American IPA. We can help out with the specific things we'd suggest.

 

[Dadof5]

Makes perfect sense. Aiming for a simple APA for first all grain. I'll be certain to post a recipe when it's completed. Thanks Yooper!

 

[ajdelange]

Since the hardness and alkalinity are about the same the hardness is 'temporary' and can be removed (or at least a good part of it) by heating the water or by treating it with lime. This is relatively difficult compared to using RO provided that you have a readily accessible source of RO but you then get to use your own water if that is what you really want to do because you like its properties, other than the alkalinity. OTOH you can set the properties of RO anywhere you like. As a starting point use just 1/2 tsp CaCl2 per 5 gallons treated - half what the Primer (qv) recommends.

 

[Dadof5]

Thank you for your input AJ. I'm striving to make my first All Grain attempt go as smoothly as possible.... and as simple as possible. I was ready to blow a gasket trying to wrap my head around how seemingly complex water chemistry is in this process. I've certainly gained a greater understanding of the role alkalinity plays and it's been refreshing. True, I wanted to use my own water in order to develop my own "house beer" but oh well. I'm very fortunate to have a supply of cheap RO water at hand. So now I can "build" my own house beer. I greatly appreciate the baseline you proposed. Its exactly what I needed. Thanks again. Cheers!