snowcapt wrote:AJ, thanks for the response.
I do not have RO here at the house. I do have the big brita filter (2-3 gallon?), but I am guessing that will not solve the problem.
Actually it might. Brita pitchers contain cation exchange resins which remove hardness and I believe they used to contain anion exchange resins as well. You would probably run out of capacity pretty quickly with a Brita pitcher and really have no way to know so I don't think this is the best solution.
snowcapt wrote:Would I be better off just using bottled water at the ratio you quoted until I obtain a RO system? I am sorry if I do not understand this, I don't, but I am trying to get a handle on it.
Not unless the bottled water was very low in minerals. The object is to dilute the water you have with ion free (or nearly ion free water). If you have a liter of water with alkalinity of 320 ppm that means it would take 320 ml of 1 N acid to lower the pH of that liter of water to 4.3 - that's the definition of alkalinity. If you now mix 1 L of your water with 9 L of ion free water you still have all the bicarbonate but it is now spread over 10 liters of water. It would still take 320 ml if 1 N acid to take the whole 10 L to pH 4.3 but only 32 to take 1 L. Alkalinity is defined per liter. You have reduced alkalinity by a factor of 10.
snowcapt wrote:My beers have been good so far from this water source, but if there is a variable that can be controlled to make them better, I want to try my hand at correcting it.
I can't promise anything but I would say that the chances are extremely high that mash pH control through t dilution with RO and the use of sauermalz will make a noticeable improvement.
snowcapt wrote:I started looking at RO systems and they do not seem too expensive, just another piece of brewing equipment, right?
I found this one
http://www.edenfilters.com/ero-550.html and it seems like it may be a good choice.
You can get them for a little more than half this at home improvement stores but note that this is a 50 GPD unit where as the $130 itmes seem to be 5 - 10 GPD. You can always start collection of your brewing water a couple of days ahead but having the ability to crank 5 gallons in a couple of hours is nice and could potentially save a brew day which would otherwise have to be postponed if you came up short on water for whatever reaason.
This particular system has a tiny (couple gallons) pressure tank. A somewhat larger one would be handy though you can collect into anything that will hold water.
snowcapt wrote:Capiche?
Ho capisco.