Campaign #1

[Will_D]

Threading with johnrm about water analyses made me think:

The water companies/councils/whoever only really publish water data to confirm that the stuff you pour out of the cold tap won't kill you!

They are interested in things like:

"Total coliforms"( ie E-Coli aka. the bacteria in S***e)
Phosphates, Nitrates, Nitrites ( what the farmers are wasting their money on as the feritliser run off is a waste to them and not good to us in the  water supply)
Aluminium (a well know Alzheimers kick starter)
etc etc

We should all (350 members of the NHC) of us contact the responsible local water authorities and ask them to make sure they include in their published analyses:

Calcium (Ca)
Magnessium (Mg)
Total Carbonate Hardness
Sulphate
pH ( most do)
Chlorine

[johnrm]

The detail I have was emailed to me from the CorkCoCo Water Lads.
I'll email them about this now.

[brenmurph]

What the county council tell u is not necessarily whats in your tap. Figures can be dickyed up and a sample in summer may show a lot less shit than the winter when all the sewers are swelling and there may be more farmers waste in summer.
For good health use a water treatment system, Reverse osmosis is a bargain at about 200 euros once off investment and about a euro per week for proper filter set. kpt up to date. You then know what you have coming out of the tap and into your body and into your beer.

the Plus side is that the water is H2O and pretty much nothing else and for brewing this may be an advantage, if u need specific water add gypsum or whatever depending on the brew.

I strongly recomend get treated water in your house, we have had fiddle after fiddle and scandal after scandal re public water and I agree  re previous comment EU water quality standards are to help ensure water is relatively safe compared to what they drink in some very poor countries; it is not a guarantee of quality and also try remember that samples are potentially fiddled to cover ass and meet standards for inspecions just like EFISIS and HACCP in the food industry so they cant be trusted anyway.
For those who can afford a monthly personal / private water test ( 50 euros each test) I can guarantee that what the council tells ya wont be accurate, it varies enormously especially in kildare hwen they switch to Rathangan well water when poulaphouca / liffey water runs low and Im sure other counties do the same when they want to.

Worth considering take control of your water.. water2buy.ie by far the cheapest and best supplier of RO systems. well worth the investment.
There was previous forum posts a few months ago on RO and brewing also worth back tracking to those debates.

[RichC]

Brens right about RO water. Using RO has made a big difference to my beer. I use RO combined with HBTs brewing water chemistry primer to target my water for style. The only way to be sure if your water profile is to use RO and build it yourself

[Chris]

I got my treatment system from perfect water systems in Charleville, once I paid for the installation I only pay €30 a year for servicing. And around €50 a year on salt. There is no comparison to the water we used to have.

[brenmurph]

Glad to see some people agreeing with me, I spoke John RM from cork  today and he was referring to this thread and would love an RO. Specifically Id like to see people going RO rather than using all sorts of chemicals or boiling everything at a huge environmental cost just to soften water.

BTW I hav a salt system water softened which only uses a sack of salt per year (20kg  cost 7 euros) so my RO system is already getting softish  water with low PPM. My softened water is 50-60 PPM and my RO water is 0 or sometines 1 or 2 PPM.

And no comparison to the water in my sisters house next door, its like she has been washing her floors in bleach when u run the cold tap and god knows what else is in the water. So re taste and brew quality Im sure theres significant advantage to RO over mains water both re brewing and ur health.

Personally Id like to know a lot more about brewing water coz I think its a key part of producing some of the more specific styles and hitting competition succcess as I believe water profile contributes to subtle flavour devellopment.

A workshop on brewing water would be great hitting the basics and maybe a concise table of treatments depending on style.

[Hop Bomb]

Two of my mates have the RO set-up below. I used it for my last brew. Takes a good while to collect enough but Im gona get my own installed in the house so I can collect my own RO water instead of annoying them for two days.

[brenmurph]

Thats a standard kit and has a 2.5 gallon tank for brewing most people want more. All you need to do is the night before your brew day draw off into a clean container and leave this 2.5 gallons to the side, the RO system will refill the tank overnight and next day you have the other  2.5 gallons available in the tank. Otherwise you can connect a bigger tank ( as far as I know they are available in many sizes) or add a second one in parallel to have a  5 gallon supply to use for brewing..

re speed of flow.
Ive seen people with the RO system and the flow is terrible. The tank in the pic is a steel tank with a bladder inside, the tank have a valve the same as a car tyre and should be set at the correct pressure with the tank empty ( i think its about 12psi) and pressure at your tap will be perfect.