Question about my water report and Bru'n Water spreadsheet

[Big_Belgian]

I am just getting into water chemistry issues and working my way through the Bru'n Water information. I'm not a scientist, so it has been slow going, but I am looking forward to finally addressing this part of my home brewing process. Currently, all I do is add a campden tab to address the chlorine/chloramine in our water. The common wisdom among homebrewers in Milwaukee is that our water is fine for homebrewing "as-is", and the Milwaukee Water Works even puts out a publication declaring our water is excellent for hobbyists such as homebrewers (http://milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/WaterWorks/files/2013WaterQualityBasicsforHobby1.pdf).

As I begin this process and realize it is going to take a significant time investment, I've begun to wonder whether the water report put out by Milwaukee Water Works is sufficient, or whether I need to get a report from Wards. The report I'm using is here: http://milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/WaterWorks/files/2013DistributionSystemWaterQua.pdf

I've been advised by someone at the water dept. that these values don't change much at all from year to year because our water resource (Lake Michigan) is so huge.

One question I have is whether it is likely that the water coming out of my taps is changed in any significant way from the water tested at the source. I live in the city near the lake. On a typical brew day, me and my fellow homebrewers get together in one of our garages and just use water out of the garden hose.

Very much appreciate any thoughts on this. I've been trying to simplify my hobby, but it keeps getting more complicated. Ideally, I'd love to have just a few simple rules like - "for darker beers add XX, for hoppy beers add XXX" etc. that I could follow going forward. Do I have enough to get this result using our report linked above and the Bru'n water spreadsheet?

TIA, BB.

 

[Big_Belgian]

Additional comment - regarding the report I linked, the Mil. Water Works guy said, "Just keep in mind that we report Calcium and Magnesium as both the cation, and as the mineralized form, so you will see calcium carbonate hardness, total carbonate harness (plus magnesium) and the cations then listed by themselves."

I'm confused by this in terms of what values actually need to be entered into the spreadsheet, noting that my first crack at filling in the Bru'n Water spreadsheet produced an error message, so any thoughts on this would be helpful.

BB

 

[zwiller]

I would use the median values from the report you posted. Pretty good water and similar to mine. Looks like everything you need is there. What is giving the error?

I trust the water guy and that the fluctuations are minor. RDWHAH... I would not use water from a hose though. You might be picking up some rubber/vinyl stuff. White food grade line will work though... Stick to the campden tablet treatment.

As to simplifying things, I would start with this. Add baking soda to dark beers until mash pH is 5.5, add gypsum to hoppy beers up to 300ppm sulfate or until mash pH is 5.4. When you are ready look into acidifying sparge water.

Give bru'n water some time, it will click!

 

[mchrispen]

Looking at Brewer's Friend, there are a few posts relative to the muni report here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/ - compared to the 2013 distribution - it looks fairly consistent. The Hobby report is missing key ions - sulfate, chloride and bicarbonate. Given the similarity of the other ions to the profiles on Brewer's Friend, I would probably use one of the 2012 profiles.

Of course, campden tablets for the chlorine treatment.

If you are looking for simple recommendations - then follow the Primer sticky for your mineral addition needs. You will need to deal with the alkalinity - and that can be done with liquid acid, looking to get the 137 ppm (in the hobby report) at least in half. A few ml of 88% lactic acid should reduce your alkalinity well below the Primer recommendations (for 5 gallons, 2.3 ml of 88% lactic acid will reduce to ~31 ppm Alkalinity as CaCO3). Someone should check my math on that.

Otherwise, while Bru'n may seem daunting, it allows you to more tightly manage mash pH and the target water profiles for your recipes. Input the following values into the top section of the Water Report Input...

Milwaukee, WI, USA

Ca+2 = 35

Mg+2 = 12

Na+ = 9

Cl- = 13

SO4-2 = 26

Alkalinity= 134 CaCO3

pH = 7.6

From there - give the knowledge page a read.

 

[masonsjax]

Matt's walkthrough was very helpful when I started using brunwater.
http://accidentalis.com/archives/275

 

[Big_Belgian]

Excellent - thanks guys


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