Ward Labs test results

[nickbarley]

Here are the results from Ward Labs for my municipal water profile. Unfortunately, these line up with the monthly water analysis that I already get from the city. So, I may have wasted money here, but at least it's reassuring to know I can rely on the city reports in the future.

Would you brew light lagers with this profile, with the addition of Campden tablets to remove chlorine/chloramine? For a light lager grain bill and 3 gallons of beer, Brewfather estimates that I'll need ~5ml of 88% lactic acid to reach a pH of 5.3. Would that be above the flavor threshold for most light beers? From what I gather, this appears to be manageable water to brew pale beers with.

pH 8.3
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 162
Sodium, Na 20
Calcium, Ca 26.3
Magnesium, Mg 6
Total Hardness, CaCO3 90
Sulfate, SO4-S 6
Chloride, Cl 22
Bicarbonate, HCO3 77
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 65

Cations / Anions, me/L 2.7 / 2.4

 

[Bobby_M]

It looks good. I would recommend erring on the lower side of lactic additions. Whenever Brewfather misses pH estimates, I'm always reading lower.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

It looks good. I would recommend erring on the lower side of lactic additions. Whenever Brewfather misses pH estimates, I'm always reading lower.

Brewfather (as for many others) is perhaps looking at all of a recipes various of grist components (with respect to their potential for acid and/or base release within the mash) as if the grist has been fully pulverized.

This is a (if not the) major defect in a lot of mash pH assistant software. It leads directly to over correction...

 

[dmtaylor]

That's very good water.

I would aim for a mash pH of about 5.55 though, not 5.3... at least, "as measured at room temperature". However 5.3 is correct at mash temperatures. Rabbit hole:

Will it mash at pH ~5.00?

If there were no difference in mashing at a very low pH and a normal pH, Guinness would have not implemented their practice of steeping the very acidic roast barley separately from the pale mash and adding that roast liquor AFTER the mash. Excessive proteolysis will destroy the character of a...

www.homebrewtalk.com

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Brewfather (as for many others) is perhaps looking at all of a recipes various of grist components (with respect to their potential for acid and/or base release within the mash) as if the grist has been fully pulverized.

This is a (if not the) major defect in a lot of mash pH assistant software. It leads directly to over correction...

The scant number of available mEq/Kg.pH (BC) values for malts, etc... are all lab derived from pulverized malts. If you are not similarly mashing with pulverized malts, just as for deliverable sugars, deliverable mEq's will be less for typically mill gap crushed malts than for pulverized malts. If the mash water isn't reaching every last sugar molecule whereby to release it into the wort, it isn't reaching potential malt acid/base either whereby to release it into the wort. Kai Troester gets the credit for noticing and quantifying this. But it seems that many if not most software developers ignore this, and happily presume 100% acid/base release.

 

[nickbarley]

That's very good water.

I would aim for a mash pH of about 5.55 though, not 5.3... at least, "as measured at room temperature". However 5.3 is correct at mash temperatures. Rabbit hole:

Will it mash at pH ~5.00?

If there were no difference in mashing at a very low pH and a normal pH, Guinness would have not implemented their practice of steeping the very acidic roast barley separately from the pale mash and adding that roast liquor AFTER the mash. Excessive proteolysis will destroy the character of a...

www.homebrewtalk.com

Wow, all this time I thought I've been mashing at "too high" a pH, when in reality my cooled samples measured at 5.6 have been 5.35 at mash temperatures this whole time. Okay - this is a huge discovery for me. Thank you