Well water profile - any hope for brewing?

[acarter5251]

So I just moved into a new house that is on well water. I ordered a test kit from Wards and decided to get a profile for the well water, bypassing the softener system, as I assumed the sodium would be too high with the softener (we have very hard water).

I was wondering if there’s any hope for this water for brewing? I know it has very high alkalinity and hardness. Any insights or advice?
Thanks in advance!

 

[day_trippr]

Woof. That makes my well water look soft
I recommend investing in a Reverse Osmosis system.
Give HBT member Russ @Buckeye_Hydro a private message and see what he comes up for this,
My well runs around 300 tds with an RA well over 200 and borderline iron, and I went RO years ago and never looked back.
So much easier to build style profiles with an essentially blank slate...

Cheers!

 

[couchsending]

My well water is actually quite similar to your’s, shockingly so.

You can do two things.

Preboil and decant method. You can find the calculator online somewhere (or someone else will chime in) that will tell you your ending Ca and Bicarbonate levels after boiling. Your water is fine except for the bicarbonate, you need to reduce that. Boiling and leaving behind what precipitates out will get you to a much better bicarbonate number (somewhere around 80 I think???) where you don’t need to add a ton of acid to hit pH goals. Your Mg is a touch high as well.

Dilute with RO. I’ve been diluting my well water that’s similar to your’s 50/50 RO/Tap since Covid took off and I’ve been really enjoying the results. You’ll still have some relatively high bicarbonate levels but the amount of acid required to hit optimum pH targets for pale beers isn’t going to be noticeable flavor wise.

 

[Vale71]

You already have a lot of sodium and chloride as it is, running it through the softener would be a catastrophe.
I too would recommend either buying RO water or investing in your own RO system.

 

[Jocky]

Your water profile isn't too far off from what most of southern England has, aside from the high amounts of sodium and chloride. If you can get food or lab grade sulphuric acid* for alkalinity reduction then you can balance the chloride out, and it will work well for all but the palest or delicate beers (e.g. Helles, Czech Pils, American Lagers) where water with much lower ion content is desirable.

Having said that, even balanced out you might find that the high ion content is not to your taste and you might want to trial brewing with RO water too.


* ideally get the sulphuric acid in a diluted form. I use 1 M concentration. Don't buy the high strength/near pure stuff unless you are confident in handling acids safely.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Aside from brewing water considerations for just a second... at 380 ppm (22 grains per gallon) of total hardness, you don't have much choice - you'll have to get a whole house water softener.

Do you have the smell of "rotten eggs" in the water as well?

You'll not enjoy drinking 566 ppm TDS water - softened or not. So you'll likely want an RO system under the kitchen sink to provide drinking water.

We can spec a softener for your entire house, and configure an RO system to provide pressurized RO water to a faucet on your sink, and unpressurized RO water to a tank/kettle for brewing.

Feel free to give us a call.

Russ
513-312-2343

 

[acarter5251]

My well water is actually quite similar to your’s, shockingly so.

You can do two things.

Preboil and decant method. You can find the calculator online somewhere (or someone else will chime in) that will tell you your ending Ca and Bicarbonate levels after boiling. Your water is fine except for the bicarbonate, you need to reduce that. Boiling and leaving behind what precipitates out will get you to a much better bicarbonate number (somewhere around 80 I think???) where you don’t need to add a ton of acid to hit pH goals. Your Mg is a touch high as well.

Dilute with RO. I’ve been diluting my well water that’s similar to your’s 50/50 RO/Tap since Covid took off and I’ve been really enjoying the results. You’ll still have some relatively high bicarbonate levels but the amount of acid required to hit optimum pH targets for pale beers isn’t going to be noticeable flavor wise.

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking I may need to cut with RO at the very least. What styles have worked well with your water profile?

 

[acarter5251]

Your water profile isn't too far off from what most of southern England has, aside from the high amounts of sodium and chloride. If you can get food or lab grade sulphuric acid* for alkalinity reduction then you can balance the chloride out, and it will work well for all but the palest or delicate beers (e.g. Helles, Czech Pils, American Lagers) where water with much lower ion content is desirable.

Having said that, even balanced out you might find that the high ion content is not to your taste and you might want to trial brewing with RO water too.


* ideally get the sulphuric acid in a diluted form. I use 1 M concentration. Don't buy the high strength/near pure stuff unless you are confident in handling acids safely.

I am comfortable working with acids as a chemist, but also don’t have a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid sitting around haha. Thanks for the advice! I’ll play around with my water some and see how it turns out

 

[acarter5251]

Aside from brewing water considerations for just a second... at 380 ppm (22 grains per gallon) of total hardness, you don't have much choice - you'll have to get a whole house water softener.

Do you have the smell of "rotten eggs" in the water as well?

You'll not enjoy drinking 566 ppm TDS water - softened or not. So you'll likely want an RO system under the kitchen sink to provide drinking water.

We can spec a softener for your entire house, and configure an RO system to provide pressurized RO water to a faucet on your sink, and unpressurized RO water to a tank/kettle for brewing.

Feel free to give us a call.

Russ
513-312-2343

I hope to get an RO system set up in the house someday, but just not in the cards right now. I do have a softener and the water off the softener tastes fine to me and no problems with hydrogen sulfide fortunately. Will keep you in mind if I decide to pull the trigger on an RO system down the road!

 

[couchsending]

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking I may need to cut with RO at the very least. What styles have worked well with your water profile?

I can make anything work honestly. I’m not a huge fan of the amount of magnesium I have and I think I can pick it up but other than that I tweak for whatever style. A Helles is a bit tough at a 50/50 ratio so I’ll go more like 75/25 RO/Tap. I too am rather low in Sulfates and higher in chlorides. For beers where I want a bit more Ca I’ll add some Gypsum but that’s about it. (And the correct amount of either lactic or phosphoric acid to hit target pH)