Water chemistry

[Beenym88]

Hi everybody I know a lot of people are sick of hearing this question but I was wondering if you could tell me what you think of my water report. I’m thinking it’s good the ph looks a little high and I’m having trouble downloading software for some reason my iPad won’t let download brun or ez water.

 

[VikeMan]

The pH of the water doesn't mean much. It's alkalinity and some other ions that matter.

Judging from the ion levels, this looks like softened water. That's not a great starting place for building brewing water. The sodium is high (from the softener process), and virtually all the calcium has been removed. That matters because in the mash, calcium reacts with phosphates from the malt to counteract alkalinity and move the mash pH toward an acceptable range (for most grists).

I build my brewing water from distilled water. Unfortunately, I'd do the same for most of my recipes if I had your water.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Do you also have an analysis for your pre-softener water? It may be suitable for brewing.

 

[Beenym88]

No I don’t know how to by pass using my water softener system. I have been doing just fine using bottles spring water. So you think this water is just too much of a hassle. When I enter it into brewers friend just a little gypsum puts it all in the green okay range.

 

[VikeMan]

When I enter it into brewers friend just a little gypsum puts it all in the green okay range.

How does your mash pH look for your recipe(s)?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The bottom line is that your softened water is devoid of beneficial minerals, overloaded with sodium, and also quite high in potentially detrimental Alkalinity. Only the likes of robust Porters and Stouts would 'potentially' bring with them sufficient grist related acidity to mash at an acceptable pH when presented with such high Alkalinity. So along with a need to re-introduce the minerals that the softener has removed, there is a need to acidify whereby to suppress the Alkalinity.

In fairness, the high Alkalinity would still be there for your pre-softener water as well, as softening does not impact Alkalinity sans to perhaps increase it somewhat (with this increase in Alkalinity being my direct experience as verified via Alkalinity neutralization experiments undertaken for my well water and softened well water). For the pre-softened water the sodium would be far lower, and beneficial calcium (which the softener is replacing with sodium) would be present.

To reduce the sodium you will need to cut your softened water by at least 50% via blending it with RO or distilled. You may want to consider getting an under the sink RO unit installed at your kitchen sink.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Your 186 ppm (mg/L) Alkalinity indicates that ~3.72 mEq's/L of Alkalinity are present. To neutralize this to a typical mash pH of 5.4 will require that roughly 90% of this Alkalinity be removed via acidification (as full Alkalinity removal will result in a water pH of ~4.3).

186 mg/L / 50.04345 mg of CaCO3 Alkalinity per mEq = ~3.72 mEq/L

For the case of neutralizing 5 gallons of your water:

5 gal. x 3.7854 Gal./L x 3.72 mEq/L = 70.408 mEq's (milliequivalents) of Alkalinity in total.

90%, or:
0.90 x 70.408 = 63.37 mEq's of Alkalinity to be removed whereby to reduce the Alkalinity sufficiently to bring 5 gallons of your water to pH 5.4.

The mEq/mL acidity of 10% Phosphoric Acid at pH 5.4 is 1.0903
The mEq/mL acid strength of 88% Lactic Acid at pH 5.4 is 11.451

Therefore, to hit pH ~5.4 with 5 gallons of your water and remove ~90% of its Alkalinity the acid quantities required to be added are:

63.37/1.0903 = ~58 mL of 10% Phosphoric Acid
(or)
63.37/11.451 = ~5.5 mL of 88% Lactic Acid

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

If you cut your softened water in half with RO or distilled water, then cut the calculated acid additions per 5 gallons in half also.

 

[Beenym88]

Thanks for your help guys. I’m thinking my best bet is to just keep using deer park water. I wanted to get deeper in the process with water but I’ve yet to make a batch of beer I haven’t liked so it doesn’t seem worth it at this point to try and salvage my well water and just keep spending a few bucks.

 

[VikeMan]

Thanks for your help guys. I’m thinking my best bet is to just keep using deer park water. I wanted to get deeper in the process with water but I’ve yet to make a batch of beer I haven’t liked so it doesn’t seem worth it at this point to try and salvage my well water and just keep spending a few bucks.

If you want to get deeper into the process, as you say, consider buying distilled or reverse osmosis (RO) water instead of spring water. That way you know what you're starting with (blank slate) and can build whatever you want/need for any given recipe/style.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Deer Park Spring Water has analyticals that are all over the board. You may never get the same water twice. See link.

https://www.nestle-watersna.com/sites/g/files/pydnoa606/files/2020-01/dp_eng.pdf

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Deer Park also sells distilled water.