water chemistry

[eric_lord]

how does your water taste now?

I never worried about water until I had to. I moved to iowa and the water here sucks ass! Ruined several batches.

You say you filter your water. Does it taste good after it is filtered? If it does your OK.

I bought a whole house filter for my brewer, turned out it didn't filter out very well, and the chloramines came right on through. Which in turn ruined a few batches.

eric.

[big7ben]

PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:54 pm Post subject:
how does your water taste now?

I drink alot of it. It isnt bad. I do know that it instantly clouds my starsan. From what i understand, that is a sign of hardness.

[eric_lord]

Hard water isn't bad, just know your pilsners aren't going to taste right. My water, for instance makes great stouts, but terrible lighter beers. It sounds like your water is a little hard.

What style of beer are planning on brewing?

eric.

[Tom-O]

my advice is don't worry about it for now.

But if you want to hedge your bets, don't brew anything lighter than a deep amber. 193 hardness isn't that bad. Thats maybe 54 ppm Ca and 14 ppm Mg worst case.

And even if all that hardness is balanced by carbonates instead of sulfates, you are maybe 40 to 80 residual alkalinity and can brew a decent /anything/ without treating.. something light brown to dark brown would be my advice..

so, my advice is to relax, focus on hitting your strike temps (have some boiling water and cold water on hand), drawing out clear wort, getting a decent efficiency, etc... and worry about water chemistry only after many batches, or until you think its a problem..