Water Chemistry - High Na and Cl

[SteveHeff]

Hi gang. I've been posting around here for a few years and I finally got into adjusting my water chemistry. This has been a big goal of mine, both in understanding how water chemistry improves beer quality, and making sure I am putting the best beer I can make in the fridge.

A few months ago I order a brewing water analysis from Ward. I'll post the results. Nothing was overtly surprising expect for my sodium and chloride amounts. Both were at (or near) 150 ppm. Almost an exact 1:1 ratio.

I have a Culligan water softener, which utilizes Solar Salt in order to drive off high amounts of Manganese in my area of town. So much that it would stain white shirts brown after 3-5 washes. Nasty stuff. I also have a specific 5 foot tall carbon tank which filters out PFOAs in my neck of the woods in NH. Overall there has been a huge improvement in the quality of water in my house.

Some of the beer styles I really enjoy are German lagers, Pilsners, etc. I'm not much of an IPA fan but I do brew them once or twice a year, but my always on tap beers are generally lagers. I'm trying to figure out if the water treatment system is causing the influx or leaching of NaCl into my house water...I was under the impression there would not be residual material from the system floating around my water.

If this is not correctable on my side, how would you change the water profile to best meet the needs I am looking for? I am still learning how to look at the adjustment tables of Brewer's Friend to achieve what I am looking for but with my sodium and chloride as high as they are, I am really trying to meet the best quality standards that I can while using my home water. Thank you for whoever responds.

 

[day_trippr]

That report looks like a water softener doing it's job pretty well. On the upside the residual alkalinity is manageable with acid additions, but replacing the bad stuff with salt ions leads to those sodium and chloride numbers.

If you're serious about brewing, I would add an RO system sized for your brewing needs. It makes brewing water so easy to dial to style it's worth the modest investment, imo...

Cheers!

 

[Vale71]

Softened water is never suitable for brewing.
As to the chloride levels they do appear to be quite high. Do you have any data on the untreated water? If untreated water has high level of chloride (calcium or magnesium) those will carry over to the treated water as sodium chloride. If that is not the case then it might indeed be salt contamination due for example to insufficient rinsing of the resin bed after a regeneration cycle.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

What is needed here is a Ward Labs analysis of the pre-softened well water. It may prove to be really nice brewing water.

 

[SteveHeff]

What is needed here is a Ward Labs analysis of the pre-softened well water. It may prove to be really nice brewing water.

My pre-treated water is terribly high in manganese as well as PFOAs. This water is dangerous to drink and my town has been working on remediation for several of the town wells. My next step is brewing with RO water, but until then I will continue to use my tap.

 

[SteveHeff]

Just as an example of where my water is currently and where I want to brew, I added 8g of CaCO3 (chalk) and 1g of Gypsum to get my dark lager profile at Ca-61, Mg-0, SO4-22, Na-150, Cl-150, HCO3-319...all in ppm. I just brewed this a few days ago and will add to the thread once I have it kegged and lagered.

 

[marc1]

Just as an example of where my water is currently and where I want to brew, I added 8g of CaCO3 (chalk) and 1g of Gypsum to get my dark lager profile at Ca-61, Mg-0, SO4-22, Na-150, Cl-150, HCO3-319...all in ppm. I just brewed this a few days ago and will add to the thread once I have it kegged and lagered.

Chalk is notoriously difficult to dissolve. If you didn't go above and beyond to get it into solution it probably didn't contribute much. Just something to keep in mind when trying to correlate beer flavor to water profile when tasting.

 

[Taket_al_Tauro]

FWIW I'm having good results brewing with ion-exchange softened tap water.
I should say, though, that the system at our place is only partially softening the water.
Or better put, the softened water is blended with some portion of untreated water as to mantain some hardness which is apparently better for everyday use (soap is e.g. easier to rinse when there is some Calcium in the water).
So the Na concentration in my tap water lies in a more moderate range of 60 - 90 ppm.

I then remove alkalinity using phosphoric acid and add salts (CaSo4 and CaCl) depending on style.
Alkalinity can be very high, up to approx. 260 ppm. I know that most people here would strongly advise against brewing with such water, but I had great results with simple acid adjustments and I do not feel the need for a RO system.