Water Chemistry question - and using calculators

[rkhanso]

I've brewed about 5 or so extract kits and paid no attention to the water used. The first couple kits, I used spring water bought from the grocery store. I later added a whole-house water filter and have been using my tap water (NOT-softened, but filtered through a Morton Whole House Filter) for the last few kits.

I'm switching to all-grain BIAB and have read that it's important to watch pH during mashing.

I've contacted our city and they sent me the attached water report.

I've tried to enter the info in the brunwater spreadsheet and the brewersfriend.com water calculators with no success. I'm sure it's me that's doing it wrong, or I just don't have all the info needed. I know their report is not geared for anything to do with brewing water.

Does the attached document look to contain all the info I need to use these calculators? If so, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

View attachment WaterInfoFlyer (2).pdf

 

[McKnuckle]

Ca 212 ppm
Mg 168 ppm
Na 6.2 ppm
SO4 20 ppm
Cl 38 ppm
Alkalinity as CaCO3, 335 ppm
pH 7.5

Should all be there. The alkalinity is a problem. It is very high, and will necessitate acidification for probably any type of beer, but especially for anything pale. Also, the magnesium is very high and I would consider it to be unusuable for that reason alone. The calcium is high too, so any gypsum or CaCl additions to raise SO4/Cl respectively will also increase Ca even more.

 

[rkhanso]

Thanks. I'll just pay attention to those numbers on the calculator and see if it says something more than "unbalanced"

Maybe I should just get a water test from my tap specifically. I wonder if my water filter changes the numbers a lot.

Or, am I just over-thinking this and should just try a BIAB brew first, and see what happens?

 

[McKnuckle]

Since you don't have experience with this, I fully understand the desire to just "go for it" and see what happens. But those of us who have struggled with their tap water will try to convince you that it's a lost cause. Your alkalinity is very high, so you will need to add acid to even the darkest styles. And you won't be able to brew lagers successfully, because of the high Calcium content (which can't be lowered except maybe by pre-boiling all the water).

Your magnesium content, though, triggers the Brewer's Friend water calculator to state harmful.

Here's what John Palmer says about Mg on his How to Brew website:

"This ion behaves very similarly to Calcium in water, but is less efficacious. It also contributes to water hardness. Magnesium is an important yeast nutrient in small amounts (10 -20 ppm), but amounts greater than 50 ppm tend to give a sour-bitter taste to the beer. Levels higher than 125 ppm have a laxative and diuretic affect."

Laxative... now that takes the fun out of drinking beer!

You have 168 ppm. Even a 50/50 dilution with distilled water won't make that nastiness go away. I would use 100% distilled/RO and add salts if I were in your shoes.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I'm pretty sure for 'extract' batches water properties are not important. Since the wort pH, prior to being condensed into an 'extract' syrup, was already setup correctly when it was mashed.

In other words the mash pH is something the manufacturers set using their own water profiles. After they produce the wort, they condense it into a syrup, package it and ship it off to homebrew shops everywhere.

For all grain brewing if your water is too high in any mineral, try diluting it with 50% distilled or reverse osmosis water. Then plug your numbers into a brewing water calculator using the diluted water, adding salts, minerals and /or acid as needed.

 

[rkhanso]

McKnuckle: I tried those numbers in the Brunwater spreadsheet and it still said the water report was unbalanced.
I'll see if there are any videos or other help online for the Brunwater calculator spreadsheet.

I went back to brewersfriend.com and was going to set up a water profile and found there's already one in their system for my city's water:
Name Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2 Alkalinity pH Shared
Plymouth, MN Water Profile 85 41 6 1 36 335 (CaCO3) 7.5 No


I think those numbers look better than that report the city gave me (except for Alkalinity). Which numbers are accurate? I don't know. And, what is my tap water? I don't know.

Maybe using distilled water will be the way to go - though it's just more crap I have to mess with on brewing day....adding minerals to water.

View attachment citywater.pdf