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TheCondor

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Messages
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Location
Sacramento
So I just recently got into looking at my brewing water and possibly adjusting it. The reason for that was all my darker beers turned out great and complex. While trying to make anything remotely hoppy and lighter in color was muted and basically tasted the same. So here's my water report, any help would be greatly appreciated:
Calcium: 15 ppm
Magnesium: 9ppm
Sodium: 11ppm
Chloride: 8ppm
Sulfate: 2 ppm
Bicarbonate (hco3) 150ppm
I started treating with campden tablets for chlorine removal. I did use some gypsum, calc. Chloride and Epsom salts in my last IPA. Used bru'n water but didn't know what values or ratios I was shooting for. Thanks in advance. I live in Elk Grove California by the way.
 
That almost looks like water straight out of the Sierra Nevadas, but the bicarbonate value is almost certainly wrong. The report doesn't come close to balancing. Try again.
 
I am service area 2, I may have read the report wrong. Again I am very new to adjusting water and water reports.
 
Ah! There's your problem. I'm guessing that it doesn't balance because you're using average values. With the data that you have, you probably won't get a balance - unless all the ranges were small. Given the variability, I'm not sure how useful that report is except to tell you that the variability is big. But there are lots of folks smarter than me that may give you better guidance.
 
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