Sulfate & Other Water Report Questions.

[Upthewazzu]

I just got a water report from Ward Labs and it lists my sulfate (SO4-S) a "2". I read in one of the stickies that you should multiply this by 3 when using the Ward Lab results. Even when multiplying by 3 this number is still incredibly low when looking at some other posts saying it should be in the 200-400 range. Am I misreading the results or do I legitimately have a really low sulfate reading? How should I correct this? Also, here is the full report, if you have any suggestions I'm all ears:

pH: 8.0
TDS, ppm: 210
Electrical Conductivity: .35
Cations/Anions, me/L: 3.6 / 3.7
(All ppm from here down)
Sodium: 25
Potassium: 3
Calcium: 24
Magnesium: 15
Total Hardness, CaCO3: 123
Nitrate: <0.1
Sulfate: 2
Chloride: 8
Carbonate: <1.0
Bicarbonate: 206
Total Alkalinity: 170
Phosphorus: 0.07
Iron: 0.31

Based on what I've read, should I just cut this with RO by 50% and add the salts back in?

 

[ajdelange]

The first thing most of us look for is the alkalinity and yours is quite high at 170. This is 170/50 = 3.4 mEq/L (the approximate amount of acid required to overcome it) and we'd like that to be less than 1, preferably about 0.5. You will have to supply those approximately 3 mEq/L acid to use this water or get rid of the alkalinity by, for example, diluting the water with at least 9 parts RO water. If you do that you might as well use all RO water. In any case a 9:1 dilution gets the alkalinity down where you want it and also knocks the sodium down to 2.5 which is probably a good thing. You can now set chloride and sulfate to any level you want by adding calcium chloride and gypsum.

There are more complicated ways to get to the same result such as precipitating the alkalinity by means of boiling or treatment with lime.

 

[grathan]

Sulfate doesn't do much to beer. Just changes the flavor ever so slightly.

As Aj said, your bicarbonate is a much bigger issue.

 

[Upthewazzu]

So in other words, this water is pretty crappy and I might as well just settle on RO water with additives. I appreciate the advice, thanks!

 

[McKnuckle]

I had a similar experience with my well water. How would you like sodium at 141? Blech. Plus alkalinity at 205 with total hardness over 300. It made several beers taste overly bitter and/or soapy before a light bulb went off and I sent a sample to Ward Labs. Ah... so that's why it tasted bad.

Now I use Poland Spring since we have the 5 gallon jugs delivered regularly for drinking. I just added a couple extra bottles to the monthly order, and use those for my brewing. I ameliorate with gypsum, CaCl, and sometimes Epsom salts. Occasionally I'll lower pH with lactic acid when the grist doesn't provide adequate acidification (i.e. lighter beers). So far the difference in my beers is dramatic. Good luck!

 

[mabrungard]

I was going to say that the water was OK, as long as you attend to neutralizing the alkalinity as needed for each brew. But that level of alkalinity is fairly high and that could incur taste effects from the acid used. But the thing that puts it over the edge for me, is the iron content. Some dilution is necessary to knock that iron content down for brewing. The rest of the ions aren't crazy bad...just somewhat undesirable.

 

[Upthewazzu]

What would I add to bring down the alkalinity? Would adding acidulated malt help?

 

[Yooper]

What would I add to bring down the alkalinity? Would adding acidulated malt help?

No.

I mean, yes, it would reduce the akalinity, but you'd need so much that there would be a flavor impact (sourness).

You would find that diluting with RO water, or going all RO water, might work best. I ended up buying an RO system for my house due to my alkalinity since buying jugs of water got old.

You may be able to do lime softening, or preboiling the water but I'm unsure since your calcium level is so low. Mabrungard and AJdeLange would be best able to hep with suggestions if you want to go that route.

 

[mabrungard]

Lorena, you are correct. The calcium level is too low for the precipitation reaction to occur with either pre-boiling or lime softening. The easiest option for correcting this water's high iron content is a 2 to 1 replacement of the tap water with RO or distilled water. The iron really needs to be brought down to 0.1 ppm or less.

If you have to perform that much dilution, it becomes questionable if you should just go with 100% RO at that point. The only reason I would retain the option to use the tap water is to employ the water's high alkalinity in those mashes that have to have it.

 

[ajdelange]

Lorena, you are correct. The calcium level is too low for the precipitation reaction to occur with either pre-boiling or lime softening.

As it is, yes. But if one does lime or boiling decarbonation he is going to supplement the calcium afterwards. In cases where the water as is is low in calcium one just supplements it first and supplements to the extent that there is enough left after reduction to suit the brewing needs. Here, for example, he has about 1 mEq/L Ca++ and 3.4 of alkalinity. Using the rule of thumb he will drop 2.4 of the alkalinity requiring that 2.4 Ca++ go too so he needs to add 2.4 mEq/L calcium salts (so that there will be 1 each of calcium and bicarbonate left at the end). In some cases he'd want to add a bit more so that there would be say 2 mEq/L Ca++ (40 mg/L) at the completion of treatment. Salt cations must be considered in making the decision to proceed this way.

The easiest option for correcting this water's high iron content is a 2 to 1 replacement of the tap water with RO or distilled water. The iron really needs to be brought down to 0.1 ppm or less.

I think that's really the message here not only in terms of the iron but wrt the alkalinity as well.

 

[TheMadKing]

I live in Pullman too and this report is a lifesaver for me. What have you ended up doing to your water, and have you had good results? I was thinking I'd just start buying distilled water over at Winco

Also you might want to have the water retested, I know for a fact that the electrical conductivity is 500-700 micromhos (unless they are using some crazy units). I work at a department at WSU and we monitor water conductivity all day every day. It might also be worth noting that Pullman has a very high silicate concentration which can gum up a wort chiller over time, but shouldn't affect flavor.