This should be useful to any all grain brewers...
There are 2 water supplies in Midleton.
The north side, Broomfield, has very soft water. About 20mg/l General hardness, 45mg/l KH/Carbonate Hardness/alkalinity.
The south side, Castleredmond, Ballinacurra has hard water, not sure GH, but 230mg/l KH/carbonate hardness/alkalinity.
I'm trying to get a full breakdown, when I have this I will post it.
So I have to take Your water for ales and You mine for stouts :)
so from now on we're swapping water at the meetups? :)
More of less Shamek, once you know the water profile you can treat your water.
@Brian, probably not, I prefer to swap beer!
The results I have above are from GH and KH aquarium titration test kits.
The KH is accurate - the GH less so, but good as an indicator.
I have been speaking to the EPA about water analysis.
They said that water.ie are obliged to give water analysis to customers.
I have a call in with water.ie for this, the only thing is that this will be a point in time, and that might be from some time ago.
Next stop, Sample to Murphys in the UK, sample goes today.
Did you work out your calcium content johnrm?
< 50 ppm is not so great for the mash.
Nope, but our friends across the water will tell me this.
Just checked my tap water (Castle Redmond ) with using aquarium tests and:
pH - around 7,3
GH - 11 in german degree (195,8 ppm CaCO3 )
KH - 8 in german degree ( 174,4 mg/l )
But this is only aquarium tests , could be wrong :)
I have a reading from when I was living in Castleredmond.
May 2013 - unboiled 205mg/l boiled 56mg/l
Test a cooled boiled sample and see how that comes out - now you can make great pale beers too!
Porter/Stout should be in the range 100-150mg/l
Say you're aiming for 125mg/l - Boil 1/3 your liquor then blend it.
Trial this on small volume to start, then multiply this to your full liquor volume.
Boiled water results
GH - 5 in german degree (89 ppm CaCO3 )
KH - 3 in german degree ( 65,4 mg/l )
Much better , will try go this way for the next ALE ( AIPA I presume )
That looks like pretty good brewing water.
+1
Remember when using the boiled water to leave the precipitate behind.
Does anyone have data from the same location at multiple sampling times? I'm wondering how much variability there is due to weather or seasonal changes. I could see it being significant.
Yes, this is a consideration.
I lived in a place where the water profile changed significantly from time to time as the supply alternated between ground source and lake, or a blend of the two.
Seasonality would be another cause for a change in profile.
Any analysis result is going to be at a point in time, so to be used as a guide, more results over time would allow you to interpolate.
I've taken measurements in Cork city a few times and they've been consistent.
Cork city is pretty much geared for brewing though the breweries here have always had a close relationship with the council .
Northside Midleton Water profile tested 2015.02.06
pH 6.47
All ppm
Nitrate 19.20
Total Hardness (as CaCO3) 89.00
Calcium 25.37
Magnesium 4.65
Chloride 19.50
Sulphate 19.14
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 47.00
I can have copies of the report with suggested salt levels for different styles for anyone in Midleton that wants it.
That's really interesting. Looks like the aquarium test kit was accurate enough for brewing purposes and ...you have well soft brewing water.