So another one! water report!

[Nico93]

Hi

I found a water report made for a school that is very near to my house,
the aqueduct is the same, so the water is the same that i normally use for brewing

until now i never looked at water but i want to start within the next brew! i read bru'n water website to start to understand something but i want to ask you some advice!


so here's the report


alkalinity 2,3 meq/l
aluminum 8 µg/l
free carbon dioxide 2,8 mg/l
arsenic 4 µg/l
barium 23 µg/l
calcium (Ca) 37 mg/l
chlorides (Cl-) 6,4 mg/l
hardness 13,6 french degrees
iron 5 µg/l
HCO3 146 mg/l
magnesium (Mg) 10,5 mg/l
lithium 62 µg/l
ph 8
potassium 2 mg/l
sodium (Na) 5,1 mg/l
sulphates (So4) 17,3 mg/l


i hope i written it right!

thanks for your help!

 

[ajdelange]

All around pretty good but you will have to deal with the 2,3 mEq/L alkalinity. For most beers you will need about 2,1 mEq of some acid for each liter of the water you use.

Hope that lithium keeps the school children quiet!

 

[Nico93]

All around pretty good but you will have to deal with the 2,6 mEq/L alkalinity. For most beers you will need about 2,3 mEq of some acid for each liter of the water you use.

Hope that lithium keeps the school children quiet!

the children stay very quiet, maybe is the arsenic?

I read on bru'n water that the problem of alkalinity is that lead to a higher ph, so i have only to be careful to mash ph? or there is other problem correlated with alkalinity?
when you say that i need 2,3 meq of acid you mean before mash in in order to reduce alkalinity?
excuse me for my ignorance

thanks you a lot!

 

[ajdelange]

I read on bru'n water that the problem of alkalinity is that lead to a higher ph,

Yes, that is correct.

...so i have only to be careful to mash ph?

You have to be careful with pH all the way through to the finished beer but in general if you get the mash pH correct the pH will track correctly throughout the rest of the process. Some brewers will add additional acid to their worts but that should not be something to concern yourself with as a beginner.

... or there is other problem correlated with alkalinity?

Not really. In setting proper mash, wort and beer pH all the alkalinity originally in the water is turned into more water and CO2 gas.

when you say that i need 2,3 meq of acid you mean before mash in in order to reduce alkalinity?

When I said 2,3 mEq I made a mistake because 2,3 is the alkalinity of your water. You need about 90% of the alkalinity, approximately 2,1 mEq/L to treat the 2,3 mEq/L in the water. That 2,1 mEq will get rid of most of the alkalinity.

 

[Nico93]

So if I understand correctly my problem within alkalinity (that is my only problem) can be solved just taking ph controlled in all brewing phases, no other things needed

After that I have to use calculator like bru'n water or beersmith in order to reach desidered water profile that change style to style

Thanks!

 

[ajdelange]

More or less. The exact amount of acid you need depends of the pH of the source water and the pH of the mash you are trying to establish and I don't really trust either Beersmith or Bru'n water for those calculations but they should get you close. In addition to the acid required to neutralize the alkalinity of the water you will need acid to neutralize the alkalinity of the malts. Some of the calculators will do that for you but you should only use their numbers as guidelines. The best approach is to mash a small portion of the grist with a small amount of the water to be used, check the pH, add acid as necessary and then scale that acid addition to the full mash size.

 

[Nico93]

thanks!

i hope controlling water profile can give me the opportunity to step my game to a upper level!