Water report and adjustments for beer style using the beer cube as guide

[enganeer]

Digesting some information here on minerals, alkalinity and acid modification.

I ran my city water through a carbon filter for about 15 minutes and took a sample and sent to Ward labs for analysis. Based on the information below and using a calculator, I have an RA of 249. ya it's hard.

So if I wanted to brew hefeweizen style beers , I would do the following:

1) Play around with the chloride to sulfate ratio with Calcium Chloride if I want to move the
beer flavor emphasis from hoppy.
2) Add acid to lower the RA down to the negative side, also helps pull the ph downward.

Thanks,

JE

.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I would be curious what others would do. Your water is much harder than mine and the starting levels of Calcium and Magnesium seem like they would make it hard to bring your Sulfate and Chloride levels into more standard ranges without pushing Calcium or Magnesium rather high. Seems like that level of Alkalinity will be a challenge to deal with as well.

It would not be a bad idea to try some batches with your tap, with RO (adjusted with salts) and with a 50/50 blend and see how you like the resulting beers.

 

[mabrungard]

That water is hard and alkaline. Not an ideal candidate for brewing use. However, that water can be treated with lime to remove both the Ca and Mg along with some alkalinity. All it takes is a large tank, lime, and a pH meter. Stir in lime to the water to raise its pH to around 12. The water becomes cloudy and you let the sediment settle. Once cleared, you decant the clear water off the sediment. Air or CO2 is bubbled into the clear water to help bring the pH down. Some acid adjustment may be needed to bring the pH under 8.

That treatment can bring both the Ca and Mg concentrations to under 20 ppm. It works, but its a lot of work. Getting a RO machine may be much easier.

 

[enganeer]

I played around making a spreadsheet and compared to inputs with Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator from brewers friend to double check for diluting the filtered tap water with distilled and then adding specific salts and lactic acid. I used the ranges from Palmers book. If I cut it with distilled and some mineral addition and lactic acid, it might be in acceptable.

Just for kicks, I am going to go through my notes for 2 batches of Hefeweizen I did awhile back (1 with all distilled and the other with just straight tap water / 1/2 Camden tablet) I did awhile back, as one turned out pretty good (wife approved) while the other was okay.

 

[copper2hopper]

I’m a big IPA brewer...is this water suitable? Just wondering if it’s worth my while to make adjustments where needed or keep buying my Walmart water gallons

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

This appears to be a cross-post. What objective or goal are you seeking that is not being addressed in your other post to this same sub-forum?

 

[copper2hopper]

Nothing other than just tying to maybe tap into other people’s opinion that might not be in the other thread. Is this a problem?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Nothing other than just tying to maybe tap into other people’s opinion that might not be in the other thread. Is this a problem?

Running two threads with the same subject and intent and content gets confusing to those participating. Only a small bunch of us religiously case the Brew Science forum, so at the very least it is not likely that you will rake in more interest by cross posting within the very same sub-forum.