Water delemia. 3 Wells that vastly differ

[yeast_slurry_speech]

I kept having trouble zoning in on a few recipes, so I contacted my water company. I recieved the following e-mail from my water company.

----- Original Message ----
From: "Cegnar, Camille" <Camille>
To: matt_hew@rocketmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 9:29:47 AM
Subject: RE: water question


Hi Matt:
Following are the results from the 3 wells that are your major sources of supply throughout the year.

Hope this helps.
Camille


Calcium (Ca) = 54.7, 44.3, 16.6
Magnesium (Mg) = 9.1, 6.4, 2.9
Sodium (Na) = 37, 25, 11.8
Sulfate (SO4 =43, 31, 7
Chloride (Cl) = 26, 13, 3
pH =7.5, 7.2, 7.1
Alakalinity at CaCO3 = 177, 138, 68


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.
Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta.

This communication is confidential and proprietary to United Water and its affiliates and is intended solely for the named addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you should not copy, disclose or take any action in reliance on this communication. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message and any attached documents.


While we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that no viruses are present in this E-mail, the recipient should check this E-mail and its attachments for the presence of viruses. United Water and its affiliates accept no liability or responsibility for any onward transmission or use of E-mails and attachments having left the United Water domain.

Now I have the delima. What do I enter in Promash. I don't have the equipment to do a water analysis every morning to determine what my values are. Using an average wouldn't be that accurate because the numbers are so different between the wells. So any idea for what numbers I use to base my calculations off of.

[DannyW]

You could always start with R.O. water and build with your own salts every time. That seems a little like cheating in this case, though, doesn't it?

I wonder if any one of those minerals are easy to test for with an aquarium of pool kit. If you can test any one of them you could probably tell which well you are getting today, and thus which profile you should use.

In time you will probably get pretty good at knowing which well is in use at which time of year. The soft one in the spring when the snow is melting, the hard one in the middle of summer and winter when there isn't much ground water, and the middle one in the fall and late spring, perhaps.

Maybe you could even call them the day before you brew and just ask which well has been in use the last few days.

[bergerandfries]

You have several choices in my book:

1) Ask your LHBS or brewclub what their experience is with this water supply
2) Ask for the ratio mix of these sources from your water supplier and if it changes during the year. Good luck with this.
3) Send your water off maybe 4 times a year to a lab for analysis. John Palmer recommends a lab in MN in his latest Basic Brewing Radio interview.
4) R.O. your water and rebuild it.
5) Learn how to figure out your water daily like one of the water shows here on TBN. Again, good luck with this.
6) Brew with it and look for off flavors. If none are there, don't worry about it. One caviet is that I'd ask what the iron content is of those well waters. Iron tends to be high if untreated...

It all boils down to how much you want to be concerned and how much $ you want to spend on it. I like #6 myself...

[josephus]

there are obvious differences in the mineral contents of each well but the levels are fine in each case and there aren't any real extreme outliers here.
If you are going to use this water limit your problems by getting water hardness strips. You can check the strip with your water the day of the brewing and then make adjustments accordingly. It will give you an idea of which source is hitting your home that day. The strips aren't perfect but will be able to tell the difference between an alk. of 68 ppm or 168.

[Thirsty Mallard]

Unless you have water analysis equipment (and I assume you don't) I think your best bet is just to start adding $10 worth of store bought drinking water to your brew day. That will make the outmore more consistent.

Although I would agree with bergerandfries, if it tastes fine, don't worry too much about it. If you are going for repeatablility or want to make a perfect competition brew, then RO looks like your best option.