Water Report Questions

[radwizard]

I was hoping to get some insight with my new water report. I have not been able to brew for a little over a year due to a move. The new house is on a well which I have installed an iron filter to. The iron filter has brought my total iron from 2.08 ppm to .42. That is still a bit more iron content then I have brewed with before. Is .42 still within the threshold for OK water?

I do have an RO system that I used previously from Buckeye Hydro. I most likely will need to replace the membrane before I can use it again, I don't believe I stored it correctly, and didn't think it would sit this long. I am not sure if I should filter or not.

Also there was a correction number for Sulfates that I recall needed to be added to these reports, is that my reading times 3?

Anyways, I finally have the brewery plumbed in and the electrician will be here next week to seal the deal. I am pretty excited to get some beers going again. Any feedback on my water report would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[VikeMan]

IIRC, at least one of the german brewing texts calls for 0.1 ppm or less Iron, though I don't know how that number was determined. Iron aside, your water is a pretty clean slate to start with. You could build water suitable for pretty much any grist/style from it. And yes, since your SO4 was specified "as S," you need to multiply by 3.

 

[radwizard]

IIRC, at least one of the german brewing texts calls for 0.1 ppm or less Iron, though I don't know how that number was determined. Iron aside, your water is a pretty clean slate to start with. You could build water suitable for pretty much any grist/style from it. And yes, since your SO4 was specified "as S," you need to multiply by 3.

Thanks. Yeah the water is great in the house after adding the iron filter, but I think it is still pretty far off brewing quality.
I reached out to Buckeye Hydro, I am hoping this lower level will be adequate to run through the filters.

 

[tracer bullet]

Agreed you're off to a good start. And Buckeye Hydro is good obviously as well. I think other than the iron being high, you're good to go. It is at a level said to be detectable by taste in the finished beer, supposedly even more so after mashing than before (something to do with interaction with the grains).

Just repeating what's been said I guess. Would be interesting to know what they have to say. I think there are smallish filters dedicated to that job.

 

[day_trippr]

The Massachusetts "action level" for iron is 0.3 ppm (a more aesthetic than health related recommendation, I believe). Our untreated well actually runs right at 0.3 ppm but post treatment it's 0.02 ppm. I still run it through my RO system for brewing...

Cheers!

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Iron at 0.3 will stain your tubs and sinks and toilets etc, and will shorten the life of an RO membrane.

Is your iron filter undersized? Could you tweak its operation any to improve performance?

 

[radwizard]

Iron at 0.3 will stain your tubs and sinks and toilets etc, and will shorten the life of an RO membrane.

Is your iron filter undersized? Could you tweak its operation any to improve performance?

The way I understood it, in order to completely remove the iron content from 2.1 ppm, I would need to have a two-stage filter (Iron Breaker + Softener). I had a company that specializes in well water install the iron filter. He said the iron breaker might be "good enough" for us, but there wasn't a way to know where the iron level would end up at until we installed the filter. He said the iron basically was in two different forms that would need different filters for removal. I opted to just try the one filter and see how it went. The water improved a great deal, and removed the slight sulfur smell we were getting and staining.

I am thinking now it might be best to add the other softener system to get the iron down to zero and run that water through the RO system for brewing.