Please, tell me what to do with my water!

[Brulosopher]

Just got an email from my municipal water district with all the proper levels. Here's what it looks like:

Ca: 3.6
Mg: .95
Na: 12
SO4: 7.1
Cl: 1.9
HCO3: 21
pH: 9.1

I've never messed with my water, and my beers have been pretty doggone good, but I'd like to do whatever I can to make them better. I'm looking forward to hearing the suggestions of others.

(a nice citrusy IPA I brewed 3 weeks ago)

 

[ETCS]

I've just started getting into the whole water profile, figured that was the next step I need to work on. I've used this calculator once before,

http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/

you can try it and see. You can also google "John Palmer - Water profile" and find another one also.

 

[mabrungard]

That appears to be a fairly soft water that should be a great starting point for brewing. The calcium is too low and needs to be boosted to at least 40 ppm at an absolute minimum with a preferable minimum of 50 ppm.

This water will be well suited for pale colored beers, but may have problems with darker styles. I suggest a greater understanding of alkalinity producers is going to be necessary in order to brew better dark styles. I suggest you check out Bru'n Water if you really want to learn about brewing water chemistry.

 

[Dr. Francois]

What about that pH of 9.1? Is it even possible to get the mash pH down without acid adjustment?

 

[hoppymonkey]

What about that pH of 9.1? Is it even possible to get the mash pH down without acid adjustment?

That PH stands for phosphorus.

 

[Waunabeer]

I checked out the drinking water quality report for my local municipality and it includes a bunch of other minerals/contaminants than what most water profiles are asking for, but not the things I need to include. Has anyone else run into this?

 

[mabrungard]

P stands for phosphorus. pH stands for the acidity or lack of acidity in an aqueous solution. Don't worry about the pH alone. Just because its 9.1 doesn't not mean that the water won't work. The alkalinity is a more pressing bit of information needed. If that is high, then acid or some other means will be needed to achieve a proper mash pH.

 

[Mermaid]

The thing you want to look for is chlormaines - if your city treats the water with chloramines you'll want to look into using campden tablets (I used 1 tablet crushed and added to my mash and sparge water).

YMMV but chloramines can add a funky chemically aftertaste to your beer (I found it's somewhat plastic tasting).

 

[Dan]

I checked out the drinking water quality report for my local municipality and it includes a bunch of other minerals/contaminants than what most water profiles are asking for, but not the things I need to include. Has anyone else run into this?

No idea what you just said.. looking at your avatar. :rockin:

 

[HItransplant]

Go to the "brew science" forum and read the first sticky, entitled "Brewing water
Chemistry primer." it's a good place to start.

 

[ldave]

Wow. pH 9.1. I've never seen that before anywhere I've lived. It's not really all that relevent though without the akalinity numbers, which would have to be pretty low with a carbonate count like 21. Think of it like this: pH (in brewing water chemistry) is a measure of the balance between acidic ions and basic ions. If you don't have many ions to begin with (and you don't), and they're predominantly basic (like the COx series), then you're going to have water that tests high in pH, but would be really easy to change that balance with small additions of ions that move pH down. I believe alkalinity is the measure of how hard it is to change the pH. Low alkalinity is like a bicycle on a tennis court. High alkalinity is like a train on the tennis court. It doesn't really matter where the bicycle starts out, since its so easy to just push where you want it. But the train. Now with that it matters alot what the difference is between where it is and where you want it. I think you've got a bicycle, here. Sigh. I just use phosphoric acid to adjust to 5.3 no matter what's in the dang stuff.