Beer Forum

Greetings all,
I'm wondering what your recommendations would be as to my WATER situation. Can I use my tap water or should I use Culligan water (or other purchased water at the grocery store)?

My city government information site says this about my town's water:

• Nitrate in excess of 10 milligrams per liter (mg/1) (as Nitrate-Nitrogen) is a health concern to infants. High nitrate water should not be used in formula for infants under six months of age. Kearney's water contains on average 1 mg/1 nitrate.
• Fluoride is important in the development of teeth in children. The optimum fluoride concentration is 0.9 to 1.5 mg/1. Kearney's water contains 0.5 mg/1 naturally and 0.5 mg/1 is injected to achieve a target of 1.0 mg/1.
Chlorine is added to the water to insure that it is free of bacteria. Kearney's water contains between 0.2 and 0.6 mg/1. The maximum contaminant level for chlorine is 4.0 mg/1. Most swimming pools maintain a level of 1 mg/1 to 5 mg/1.
• Hardness: averages about 320 mg/1 or 19 grains per gallon.
• PH: 7.9
• Iron: .12 mg/1
• Maganese: .14 mg/1
• Total Solids: 575 mg/1

First off: Is this enough information to evaluate my tap water for brewing use?

Secondly: What is your opinion of this "profile"?

Thirdly: What would you recommend for water if you were brewing in my shoes?

Thanks in advance for dropping some knowledge on me.

There are several problems that make this water less than desirable to drink or brew with.

The hardness level is not a big deal as long as most of it is from calcium. If the magnesium is over 30 or 40 mg/L, then you might have a worry. The big deal for this water is the manganese concentration. Since the manganese taste threshold to most people is around 0.1 mg/L, there might be a perceptable metallic taste in the water and it will probably carry over to the beer. The iron concentration is below the typical taste threshold, so that may not be a problem. Both of these metal concentrations can be reduced by using a Greensand filter. I'm sure the water treatment companies from around that area will be glad to sell you one.

The water report is too limited to provide you any other guidance. But the most important result that is needed is the Alkalinity. I'd suggest calling the City's water utility and asking to speak to someone in their water laboratory. They have most of the water information that you need to assess the water, but they didn't bother posting it.

Martin

Try asking for their mineral analysis. I did that with my water company and it had much more information on the things brewers want to know.
Or send a sample off to Ward Labs.

Oh, and I am making a big assumption here, if you are new to brewing don't worry about your water unless you don't like to drink the tap water. Then use bottled water.

There are so many other things to concentrate on in the brewing of beer, water will be the last thing. It will make your head spin.

Check this site out. Lots of highly technical information
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotec ... water2.htm

Or you could do what a lot of people do.
Brew with the water you have and decide if you need to futz with it after.
Odds are unless your water is god awful, you will be fine.

Now, if you plan on competing and want to brew styles you'll have to have water that fits the style. So you may end up purchasing some RO (it's cheap) and building it to your specs.
I can't imagine wanting to enter a competition 'cause to me it seems like a total boring toe jam, but hey, it's a hobby it's not supposed to make sense.

You obviously have water from the Oglala aquifer like mine. First you need to confirm whether you have chlorine or chloramines in your water. You can eliminate chlorine simply by filling your kettle and letting it sit overnight or by carbon filtering. Chloramines you can treat by grinding up a campden tablet and stirring it into the water before letting it sit overnight.

I brew with the same water without the chlorine problem. You are just fine for dark beers like stouts and porters. For most other beers I dilute it about 50/50 with RO water. For light beers, I use straight RO water and add gypsum and calcium chloride and a few other items to get it right.

I do recommend sending a sample to Ward Labs for analysis to figure out exactly where you are on your water chemistry. You can't fix anything unless you know what or if anything is wrong.

You might even ask down at Thunderhead what treatment Trevor does on his beer. He told me once but I was drunk (I think he was too) so I forgot what he said.

Wayne