Water report.. I am clueless

[OHIOSTEVE]

My buddy works at a water treatment facikity so he ran some of my water through a couple of tests...he told me to post this and see what else I need to know.. I live in the country...private well and no softener. he didn't test for chlorine or chloramines because he said I will not have any...if anyone would like to look at this and poibnt me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I use this water straight for the darker stouts etc but buy spring water for lighter blonds...ANYWAY any and all advice will be appreciated.. My buddy recommends just a sediment and carbon filter and brew......

HARDNESS=338mg/l
ALKALINITY=330
MAGNESIUM=27mg/l
PH=7.47
IRON=.42mg/l
FLOURIDE=.64mg/l
NON CARBONATE HARDNESS= 8mg/l
CALCIUM = he didn't get that yet

He said whatever else I need let him know

 

[ajdelange]

Guess your buddy isn't a brewer. Alkalinity is very high as is hardness. The alkalinity is a killer but can be removed (mostly) by boiling or lime treatment. Just heating this water in an HLT prior to strike should drop quite a bit of precipitate. Doing that should make the water suitable for very dark beers (as you have figured out) were it not for the iron which is above the EPA SMCL of 0.3 mg/L which means the water is going to taste metallic and so probably are beers made with it. For brewing a level of 0.1 or less is desirable. Again, iron is not that difficult to remove. Aerate the water and pass it through sand. Or you may want to consider installing a greensand (or other oxidizing) filter in your house as you probably taste the iron in this water and it is probably staining clothes, fixture, toilets etc.

Other things you would like to know are sulfate, chloride (not chlorine/choloramine) and sodium.

Purchased water for anything other than dark beers is a necessity and not a bad idea for the dark beers as well because of the iron. For reasons other than brewing you would probably want a softener and iron removal unit (a softener might take care of enough of the iron for you). For brewing/drinking adding an RO unit would be a good idea. It will, of course, cost you some money but, depending on how much you pay for the spring water and how much you brew, will eventually pay for itself.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

thanks.....more money....ugh

 

[ajdelange]

thanks.....more money....ugh

If it didn't cost you at least $100 a glass then it's not real homebrew. Just dropped about $600 on a vacuum pump so I could fix the refrigeration on my cold room. Sure I saved probably $595 on the cost of calling in someone and I now have a vacuum pump but I'm still out $600. It's part of the 'fun' of the hobby.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I am about moneyed out right now... I gotta figure a cheap DIY fix.. buying water every time is a pain and I can definitely taste the water in the lighter beers

 

[Yooper]

See if you can get the rest of the water report- calcium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate.

To save money, maybe lime softening would work for you. It tried it, and while it worked, I didn't like having to mess around with all that water and stuff in my brewing room. Someone else said they just used a big garbage can with a bottom drain to do their lime treatment, though, so there are ways.

I'm not expert on water, but I'm sure the others can tell you how lime softening works, plus I know there are a couple of threads on it in this area of the forum.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

See if you can get the rest of the water report- calcium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate.

To save money, maybe lime softening would work for you. It tried it, and while it worked, I didn't like having to mess around with all that water and stuff in my brewing room. Someone else said they just used a big garbage can with a bottom drain to do their lime treatment, though, so there are ways.

I'm not expert on water, but I'm sure the others can tell you how lime softening works, plus I know there are a couple of threads on it in this area of the forum.

should have it today yoop...I have ( somewhere) an RO system a buddy bought for me at a yard sale.. I never opened the box.. it is a small one and I am not sure how long it would hold up to the hardness of this water but I may go upstairs to the attic and try to find it....if I do not post for a while send help

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

OK the company I wpork for sells small RO systems with prefilters.. they are designed for under the sink operation....I am getting info but if they can handle the volume I think maybe I will get one add a second prefilter....what do you think of that idea? Maybe just fill gallon jugs with it and store water for use to speed up things on brew day?

 

[ajdelange]

The system will surely handle the volume...eventually. Getting a tank to store the volume of water you need on brew day and starting to collect it several days before is the way to go and many brewers do exactly this. The most convenient way is to simply install a larger pressure tank than the one that comes with the system. This gives you pressurized water in larger volume but reduces the throughput of the system as that depends on the difference between the mains pressure and the RO system's pressure tank. Having the tank at atmospheric pressure gives higher throughput but you must then have a means of moving the water. Pumps work as does gravity.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

Just got a call back from our water guy at the company.. he said the system we have will not handle what my water needs done ( sent him the numbers) Back to the drawing board

 

[ajdelange]

Interesting comment. What your water needs to have done to it is to have its minerals removed for the most part. That's what RO systems do. Perhaps he was concerned about membrane fouling by the high hardness. An RO system should be fed with softened water where hardness in the feed is this high.