Seattle water chemistry

[Shawn Hargreaves]

So far I have entirely ignored issues of water chemistry, and been happy with my results. But as part of my ongoing quest for knowledge, I find myself wondering, maybe I could do better if I stopped ignoring this?

So I read John Palmer's excellent overview of the subject from How to Brew. And I looked up my local (Seattle) water report: very soft and clean.

Calcium: 17.0 ppm
Sulfate: 2.0 ppm
Magnesium: 1.0 ppm
Chloride: 4.0 ppm
Sodium: 4.0 ppm
Bicarbonate: 18.0 ppm
PH: 7.8​

So where do I go from here?

The geek in me is having fun playing with the water profile tools in Beer Smith, picking a target profile from some famous brewing area, then figuring out exactly what should add to match it.

But when I end up with a complex list of 5 or 6 different additives, with quantities of each measured in fractions of a gram, I can't help thinking this may be overkill

Any experienced water chemists (especially anyone from my neck of the woods) care to share how you usually approach this? Is a complex set of additions worth the hassle, or do you normally simplify to just one or two key minerals? How close is close enough?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

You can try to emulate water profiles of other regions/styles...usually the style of a region was dictated by their water and available ingredients.

Or you could play with the nomograph and spreadsheet from Palmer's book (the downloadable spreadsheet is in the online version of the book) and just try to achieve a residual alkalinity that's appropriate for the style. Once you get the residual alkalinity right your mash pH should naturally fall right into place and it's really mash pH that we're most concerned with. Right now that's what I'm doing. I would encourage you do to print out that nomograph and plot your water on it...then plot a water from another area...I promise just doing that will help you see the balancing act between effective hardness and alkalinity when it comes to residual alkalinity.

 

[Glubki]

I wouldn't ignore the water chemistry with water like that - it reminds me of the water in Portland, OR when I lived there for a brief period - which was one micro-step above distilled water. It sounds like you have a basic understanding in calculating which/amounts of proper additives are needed so just whip up a batch according to your calculations and beer style and see if you like the differences in your brews.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Any experienced water chemists (especially anyone from my neck of the woods) care to share how you usually approach this?

I'm not experienced but from what I learned from playing with the nomograph/spreadsheet from Palmer's book is that for light beers you want low residual alkalinity (which can be a negative number...and is for light beers) and dark beers higher residual alkalinity. Residual alkalinity is mostly dependant on effective hardness and 'alkalinity as CaCO3'. High effective hardness/low 'alkalinity as CaCO3' yields a low residual alkalinity and low effective hardness/high 'alkalinity as CaCO3' yields a high residual alkalinity. See how they change the 'slope' of that last line you draw? Changing 'alkalinity as CaCO3' and effective hardness at the same rate just shifts the whole line left or right.

Your water is 'low everything' so for light beers you might add some Calcium (and Magnesium to a much lesser degree...obvious from the nomograph) to increase the effective hardness (but don't use chalk because that also increases the 'alkalinity as CaCO3'...use Gypsum or CaCl). For dark beers you might add some CaCO3 (chalk) to increase your 'alkalinity as CaCO3' (although it won't dissolve until you add the grain...the acidity of the grain allows it to dissolve).

That leaves SO4/Na/Cl. Palmer gives some guidelines...the ratio of Cl to SO4 has an effect on the crispness/fullness and on the bitterness. High Cl:SO4 ratio is fuller/maltier and low Cl:SO4 is more crisp/bitter. I usually try to keep Na low because Palmer says you want EITHER the Na or the SO4 to be low and Na is poisonous to yeast...so Na lost out. But if you need Cl without adding Ca then NaCl is a way to add it.

Hope that helps...and I hope I didn't step in it anywhere. Again...I'm not a chemist or a brewing expert or anything close...I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[paysse]

I had my water tested by Ward Labs this week and wanted to tack my results on here rather than starting a new thread.

September 2010

Residential Seattle water from North of the Ship Canal Bridge (supplied from the Tolt River). My house in is Phinney. The sample was taken from a hose bib that comes out directly from the main water supply to the house, through a hose and then through a carbon filter that I use to remove chlorine.

pH - 7.3
Total Dissolved Solids: 52
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm: 0.09
Cations / Anions, me/L: 0.7/0.7

in ppm:
Sodium, NA: 2
Potassium, K: <1
Calclium, Ca: 10
Magnesium, Mg: 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3: 29
Nitrate: 0.3
Sulfate: 1
Chloride: 4
Carbonate: <1
Bicarbonate, HCO3: 29
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3: 24

 

[bvn]

Thanks - we get Tolt water also. I do toss some salts in (PDS metrics) Pinch, Dab, & Smidgen. But, I cannot detect a noticeable result. Things like step mashing, dry hopping, grain bill, yeast bill, and hop bill have such huge effects. Unlike the brew-house I am not trying for a specific flavor, mouth, overtones, and aftertaste. Though I do try to tweak for particular notes based on what I got on the last time I brewed the style. So I guess, that for now, it must be for religious reasons of which I am not aware.
Cliff's beer <www.cliffsbeer.com> on Vashon has been trying to nail it down. Next time I see Cliff, I will ask about his success to date.

 

[Soldevi]

I live up in Everett and filter the water to remove the free chlorine. I haven't gotten too far into water chemistry, but for my last few brews I have been following the Water Chemistry Primer with very good results. The water up here is very similar.

Just realized how old this thread was. Sorry for bumping it again. = (