water chemistry

[big7ben]

I'm finding myself scrambling around worrying about what is in my water. (i'm making the all grain jump next week)

Do you guys think i should, skip the water part for my first few batches? Or should water be top priority from the start in all grain brewing?

[howtobrew]

Don't worry about it.


But if you are worrying about it, then look up your city's water report on the web, plug the numbers into the nomograph and see what color/styles of beer your water is most suited for, and then brew that style without worrying about it any further, until you have done all-grain brewing enough that worrying about your water is your biggest issue. (if you see what I mean). In other words, you have bigger fish to fry in starting all-grain without worrying about your water yet.

[Homegrown Hops]

Unless you have extremely poor tap water I would focus more one the process and making sure you hit the temps, OG, and flavor profile you are looking for. I used unfiltered tap water for many batches until one day I tasted the "band-aid" flavor of chlorophenols in a Pale I made.

I now carbon filter all my water but still do not adjust minerals it at all. You can get a report from your water district and go from there.

HH

[Lufah]

If your really worried about it you can send a water sample here for testing...

http://www.wardlab.com/

I would just use a carbon filter and worry about it later.

Travis

[seanhagerty]

Don't worry about it for the first SEVERAL brews. Get familiar with hitting temps and volumes. Once you get consistent with that, then you can start looking at water, and its effect.

Sean

[big7ben]

Don't worry about it.
But if you are worrying about it, then look up your city's water report on the web.

I have been web searching for some time, to no avail. I did go to my water municipal authority. They gave me a CCR (consumer confidence report), which basically gives me contaminents (i.e. barium, nitrate, flouride, selenium, arsenic, lead and copper) and they did tell me that the hardness range was between 74 and 193ppm (which telle me nothing)

I use a charcoal filter, thats enough for now.

BTW-John, I love the book. I used it in building my batch sparging system. It helped relieve my anxiety, in making all grain beer. Well Done!

[Lufah]

Take a look here and see if any of these are close to you...

http://brewing.schmidt-house.com/waterResults.asp


Travis

[big7ben]

Take a look here and see if any of these are close to you...

http://brewing.schmidt-house.com/waterResults.asp


Travis

it was worth a try, but it seems like they have every location, except mine. When i get around to sending in a sample, i'll make sure i send in my results.

Like my hat?