Water Chemical Compound

[Mobstar]

Good day.
I finally received the Drinking water quality table from my city. Just by looking at the measurements, Would anyone say that I need to treat it prior to mashing or topping up the carboy?

Thanks!

pH
9.2
Total chlorine (chloramine)
mg/L
1.61
Bromide
mg/L
< 0.004
Bromate
mg/L
< 0.003
0.010
Chloride
mg/L
5.5
Fluoride
mg/L
0.75
Calcium
mg/L
9.0
Magnesium
mg/L
2.1
Potassium
mg/L
0.68
Sodium
mg/L
15.0
Total Hardness**
mg/L CaCO3
31.3
Calcium Hardness**
mg/L CaCO3
22.4
Magnesium Hardness**
mg/L CaCO3
8.8
Ammonia
mg/L N
0.03
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen
mg/L N
0.42
Organic Nitrogen**
mg/L N
0.38
Nitrate
mg/L N
0.13
Nitrite
mg/L N
0.04
Sulphate
mg/L
25.9

 

[android]

i'm not 100% sure if the mg/L is the same as ppm (i THINK it is roughly the same) but it seems to me like you have fairly soft water. and some of your mineral contents (calcium for example) seem a little low... hopefully someone can tell you if i'm off base, but you should go here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/ez-water-adjustment-spreadsheet-135095/ and follow the directions on that spreadsheet. it will tell you exactly what beers your water is appropriate for and then you can go from there on what adjustments to make.

 

[lamarguy]

Mg/L = ppm

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

i'm not 100% sure if the mg/L is the same as ppm (i THINK it is roughly the same) but it seems to me like you have fairly soft water. and some of your mineral contents (calcium for example) seem a little low... hopefully someone can tell you if i'm off base, but you should go here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/ez-water-adjustment-spreadsheet-135095/ and follow the directions on that spreadsheet. it will tell you exactly what beers your water is appropriate for and then you can go from there on what adjustments to make.

You are off base!



But that has no impact on Mg/L = ppm or how soft his water is.

 

[944play]

Dechlorinate with a carbon block filter at very slow rate or just hit it with crushed Campden tablets at a rate of 1 per 20 US gallons. That's all.

 

[ajf]

The other thing is the pH of 9.2! That is way high, and I don't know where it is coming from. With that high of a pH, you could have troubles hitting the mash pH, and more troubles with tannin extraction when sparging. Unless it a typo, you may want to dilute your water with bottled water or add acid.
Also, you have very low Ca. You will almost certainly want to add some, either as calcium chloride, or as gypsum to get up to a minimum of 50 ppm.

-a.

 

[android]

our pH is 9.4 and i just add the 5.2 buffer from 5 star, it seems to work great, but yeah, it's high as hell.

 

[Mobstar]

Damn.. wish my local brew shop stocked the 5.2 buffer.
My tap water smells like public swimming pool water. I might get an inline charcoal water filter to reduce that. I did purchase gypsum but I'm not sure how much I should add. Would this cause my beer to have a musty grain smell? My last 2 batches had that aroma. One was a dark beer and the other was a Lager. "both partial mashes"

 

[Reelale]

Chloramines usually produce a bandaid, or medicinal taste. Wet cardboard taste/aroma is usually from oxidation. Check out the link posted earlier for the ez water calculations. It gives the optimal ranges of minerals for general brewing as well as adjustments for the particular style you are brewing. It's simply a matter of playing with the numbers to see how much you need to add.