peaceandbacon wrote:So do you think water with sulfate levels of 11 ppm and bicarbonate levels of 208 ppm would be acceptable?
Complete water profile:
Calcium: 136 ppm
Magnesium: 20 ppm
Sulfate: 11 ppm
Sodium: 17 ppm
Chloride: 9 ppm
Bicarbonate: 208 ppm
Alkalinty/hardness: 170 ppm
peaceandbacon wrote:I was able to obtain a partial Water Analysis Report from my local water department and my city's water has a total hardness of 50 ppm (about 61 ppm Bicarbonate) but Magnesium levels that are way too high for brewing.
This second quote is at conflict with the first. 50 ppm alkalinity is equivalent approximately to 61 ppm bicarbonate (what we care about is the alkalinity) but hardness has nothing to do with alkalinity (despite the fact that the Germans call alkalinity 'carbonate hardness').
Taking the first quote as the valid one: The 11 ppm sulfate is good but alkalinity at 170 is too high. For something with no dark malt you want the alkalinity as low as possible (below 30) and to get that here you would have to dilute 5:1. That, of course, will also drop the calcium to 23 which is probably OK but it wouldn't hurt to boost it a bit with some calcium chloride.
In most beers (certainly a Weizen) would require some acid in the form of sauermalz (or mineral acid) but I have no experience with rye malt. If it is, for some reason, acidic the acid might not be required. This is a job for a pH meter.
There are general directions for treating brewing water for those just starting out at
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewin ... er-198460/