Water Help !

[BIAB-Tim]

I'm a new member and This is my 1st Post ! I have been brewing for 2 1/2 years and love it , I do BIAB 2 1/2 gal. batches so I can brew more, I'm trying to learn Water Chemistry in my quest to make Great Beer ! It's been a little tuff, but after reading and studying the last month I'm starting to figure out some of the aspects but still have a lot to learn. I like all different types of beer but I'm a big stout & potter type. I have my city water report and would like someone to help me with it. I love this forum and read it a lot and have learn much !Thanks

 

[ajdelange]

Welcome!

As to the water it's quite good. Salient points are that alkalinity (really a brewers biggest enemy) is low at 33 ppm (0.66 mEq/L). Fifty (1 mEq/L) is considered an approximate upper desired level and anything below that is good. Also notable, and considered desirable if you are interested in lagers is the low sulfate level. Ale afficionados will find sulfate low and want to supplement it with calcium sulfate which should work well here as the calcium level in the source is pretty low (22 mg/L ~ 1.1 mEq/L). Chloride is on the high side not to the extent that it is a detriment because it isn't at this level but in that you haven't much headroom should you choose to augment calcium with calcium chloride.

 

[BIAB-Tim]

So my water alkalinity is Good and sulfate is low Good for light beers or lagers but not so much for ales and my chloride is high and could be adjust down calcium is low so how would you raise it other than calcium chloride ? what about for Stouts and Dark beers ?Thanks for the input ! I re-read your post and I see to use calcium sulfate to raise both sulfate and calcium!

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

So my water alkalinity is Good and sulfate is low Good for light beers or lagers but not so much for ales and my chloride is high and could be adjust down calcium is low so how would you raise it other than calcium chloride ? what about for Stouts and Dark beers ?Thanks for the input !

I would suggest getting martin's brunwater, there is an excellent free version (i upgraded to paid version just as a thanks once i decided i'd be using it all the time) Input your water report and then have a look at the base water profiles he has, like yellow dry for an IPA, and yellow full for a lager. Or black dry for your irish stout, you get the picture.

it took me a while to get my head around all this but one day it finally clicked for me, hope you and others have luck getting to the same place easily. As AJ said your water is great as it's nice as-is for some styles, but can easily be added to for other styles or to enhance your beers a bit more.

 

[ajdelange]

It is actually very nice for sensible stouts. That little bit of alkalinity will keep the mash pH from dropping too much from the acidity of the roast barley as long as you keep the roast barley to sensible levels i.e. below 10% or so of the grist. The question of sulfate is one only you can answer. Try a batch without sulfate augmentation and taste it with and without a pinch of gypsum in the glass. Be guided by your preference.

I should also comment that nice as this water is you will always get the best results if you take complete control by removing everything with an RO system and then putting back exactly what you want. This is probably not the first thing you should spend your hard earned brewing dollar on but it is something to keep in mind.

 

[BIAB-Tim]

Thank's AJ I appreciate the help, I want to keep this fun and I want to make Grest Beer also, a little tweaking if you know which way to go is cheap & easy and I know it takes your brew to the next level I have a big charcoal filter and using my city water is so much easier and cheaper but I know you have to have good Base Water to begin with !

 

[mabrungard]

Having a water supply that has relatively low ionic content makes it much easier to fortify the water with salts to create the water you want for your current brew. That is the attractiveness of using RO or distilled water. You don't need to worry about your source...unless its quality varies. It appears that there is only a single sample for any of the parameters. I would contact that utility's lab manager to find out if they find that the water quality is stable or if it varies.

 

[BIAB-Tim]

Thanks Martin ! I'm going to purchase your burinwater as soon as I can get to a wifi source I have a I Phone 7 what program do I need to run it in I don't think my phone supports addobie Thanks Tim

 

[mabrungard]

You're out of luck with only a phone. Bru'n Water operates under a spreadsheet program such as Excel or LibreOffice. A cheap desktop or laptop may be in your future if you want to pursue this. The good thing is that your water is almost low enough in ionic content to be considered RO quality. Then you could employ the recommendations of the Water Primer that AJ authored on this forum.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Thanks Martin ! I'm going to purchase your burinwater as soon as I can get to a wifi source I have a I Phone 7 what program do I need to run it in I don't think my phone supports addobie Thanks Tim

it runs in excel, FYI.

 

[BIAB-Tim]

Thank's

 

[BIAB-Tim]

Thanks !