Water report just in - Could these levels cause taste issues?

[Sidman]

Just got my wards labs results back and plugged them in to Bru'n Water and I noticed some red flags in many of the water profiles.
I have a three stage filter that i ran the water through to send in for the test and the report came back with
ph 8.5
TDS 128
Total alkalinity 61
Total Hardness 48

It looks like most profiles flagged high on:
Sodium Na 26
Bicarbonate 72

Unfortunately when checking on what i would need to add distilled or RO water wise the % was pretty close to 100 to get those levels down.

Are those high enough to be deal breakers where I need to go to an RO system?

Secondly I noticed no chlorine measurements. I have chloride which was 22. Is that a separate test that I would need to do?

 

[TheHopfather]

It's hard to say without seeing what your other salt levels are at. Sulfates, chloride, magnesium, etc. I'd imagine they are all in the ballpark and nothing too extreme. You've got a fairly high alkalinity level, which will push your mash pH up. With that water you just need to use more acid to lower it into the acceptable range then you would with say RO water. Your waters pH doesn't matter, you're worried about alkalinity and what that will do to your mash pH. Your sodium level is a bit high but nothing too extreme I don't think.

If this water is from a municipal source it will be treated with chlorine or chloramines. You should treat municipal water with 1/2 of a Campden tablet to remove either. There are other options but Campden is cheap and it works, I wouldn't mess around.

 

[Sidman]

It's hard to say without seeing what your other salt levels are at. Sulfates, chloride, magnesium, etc. I'd imagine they are all in the ballpark and nothing too extreme.

Here is the full report;
pH 8.5
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 128
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.21
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.2 / 2.0
ppm

Sodium, Na 26
Potassium, K 3
Calcium, Ca 16
Magnesium, Mg 2
Total Hardness, CaCO3 48
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.3 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 22
Carbonate, CO3 1.2
Bicarbonate, HCO3 72
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 61
Total Phosphorus, P 0. 11
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

 

[ajdelange]

Just got my wards labs results back and plugged them in to Bru'n Water and I noticed some red flags in many of the water profiles.
I have a three stage filter that i ran the water through to send in for the test and the report came back with
ph 8.5
TDS 128
Total alkalinity 61
Total Hardness 48

It looks like most profiles flagged high on:
Sodium Na 26
Bicarbonate 72

There is certainly no problem with this water. The sodium at 26 is a bit higher than typical but not by much. You'd want to think about using NaCl to increase chloride though. The alkalinity (from bicarbonate) of 1.2 mEq/L certainly isn't a problem. In fact we are generally happy if it is less than 1 mEq/L and this is pretty close to that.

I don't really know what the significance of a 'red flag' is in Brun water but it relies heavily on profiles and I expect that some of these profiles have sodium at less than 26. It is, of course, impossible to synthesize something at less than 26 if you start with water at 26. Bicarbonate, WRT Brun Water profiles you should ignore. The bicarbonate values in the profiles are only there to make them balance at pH 8.3 and are pretty useless (unless you are mashing at 8.3).

Unfortunately when checking on what i would need to add distilled or RO water wise the % was pretty close to 100 to get those levels down.

Does this apply to the sodium? Forget the bicarbonate.

Are those high enough to be deal breakers where I need to go to an RO system?

No, though there are advantages to RO systems even with water as soft as yours.

Secondly I noticed no chlorine measurements. I have chloride which was 22. Is that a separate test that I would need to do?

Yes and it requires a very sophisticated instrument, called a nose, to perform. See the Sticky on Campden tablets here.