Beer Forum

How does this water look? I am pretty well lost and, yeah, lost. I am looking at "How to Brew" as I write this. Any help is much appreciated! Thanks guys!
DESCRIPTION TEST RESULTS
pH
7.7 units

Color
<5 units

Alkalinity, Total
320 mg/L

Sulfate
16 mg/L
Chloride
57.6 mg/L
Nitrate
<0.01 mg/L
Mercury
<0.2 ug/L
Solids, Total Dissolved
389 mg/L
Aluminum
<0.028 mg/L
Antimony
.144 mg/L
Barium
.102 mg/L
Beryllium
<0.001 mg/L
Cadmium
<0.011 mg/L
Chromium
<0.012 mg/L
Nickel
<0.02 mg/L
Thallium
<0.017 mg/L
Zinc
<0.003 mg/L
Boron
<0.1 mg/L
Arsenic
<2.0 ug/L
Selenium
<3 ug/L
Silver
<0.2 ug/L
Calcium
74.0 mg/L
Magnesium
35.0 mg/L
Sodium
9.0 mg/L
Potassium
4.00 mg/L
Nitrite
<0.01 mg/L
Copper
.08 mg/L
Iron
.023 mg/L
Manganese
.025 mg/L
Raw Fluoride
.18 mg/L
Lead
.00012 mg/
Avg. Hardness: 26 grains per gallon
Average Chlorine Free: .60 mg/L
Average Chlorine Total: 1.0 mg/L




© 2010 ALP - Alexandria Light & Power and Craig Risnes Media

The main problem here is the very high alkalinity leading to very high residual alkalinity (247) which is off my chart.This water will have to be decarbonated before it can be used for brewing beer. Fortunately, simple boiling or treatement with lime will drop the alkalinity and RA appreciably. Both those methods are a bit cumbersome and, ideally, require some detailed knowledge of how they work and a pH meter to monitor the process. Then, when finished, you need to measure the remaining alkalinity and hardness in order to determine what you are working with.

It is much simpler to dilute with RO water assuming, of course, that you have a system installed or that it is available from a relatively convenient source at a rasonable price. With and RO dilution of 9 + 1 (9 parts RO, 1 part tap) all numbers in your report get divided by 10. Thus alkalinity goes down to 32 and RA to 25. These are workable numbers but your calcium will also have gone down to 7.4 and will need to be supplemented.

At 9 + 1 dilution it seems that you almost might as well use straight RO with some calcium salts added (chloride always, sulfate or chloride + sulfate when you want hops asserted). Many go this way but of them quite a few always include 5 - 10% or their original water for the trace elements.

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. 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. 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 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. Any
I am in the stix, so it is better for me to shop on-line. Most things in town are outdated by years and mark-ups are ridiculous.
Capiche?
Cheers and thanks!

That RO system you found seems a little pricey. You can do better than that on Ebay. A 3, 4, or 5 stage system is fine. I suggest that finding a system with a membrane from Osmotics is a good goal. They are a reputable membrane mfr. You will need to have a larger tank or just be prepared to run off the treated water into a large vessel prior to brew day.

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.

Grazie, AJ! il mio birre sarà meglio a causa di questa informazione .
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