Water

[Partridge9]

Found this water calculator online

http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/

I was looking at this as well

http://www.fingalcoco.ie/Water/DrinkingWaterQuality/DrinkingWaterQualityUpdate2012/

and trying to fill the gaps - some of it is great - like pH

Measured .. 6.5 to 9.5 -

Really - what did you use to measure it with ... your tongue ??


Looks like this information is required ..

    Calcium (Ca+2)
    Magnesium (Mg+2)
    Sulfates (SO4-2)
    Sodium (Na+)
    Chloride (Cl-)
    Bicarbonate / Alkalinity

I really dont trust the reports - thinking of getting a price from a lab...

Anyone else interested in getting these numbers ??

I would probably send my sample post filter - as I always filter to remove chlorine and Fluoride.

When I am getting the lab quote we could get a few done - might be cheaper.

[richieh]

http://www.murphyhomebrew.com/laboratory-services/water-analysis/prod_90.html

£17.95 is not bad for a proper water report. I think I'll get thsi done.

[richieh]

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1356257876

Cheers. That's detailed enough for me though!

[Partridge9]

To get a proper report will cost in the order of €70. Downside is that water varies so you really should get it done every time you brew.

"The water varies - get one every time you brew" - this isnt going to work - sounds like an excuse not to do anything.

It does vary - but the profile will be similar. So if your water is high in Calcuim and low in Magnesium, it when it pi**s rain, these concentrations will be lower.

Personally I dont see any value in treating the water when you dont know what the actual levels are.

Its like putting salt and pepper on your dinner without tasting it ..

So I think there is some value in getting your water tested.

Also - if a few of us did it - we could build up a tested profile for Ireland - now that would be very nice.

[Dr Jacoby]

Personally I dont see any value in treating the water when you dont know what the actual levels are.

Its like putting salt and pepper on your dinner without tasting it ..

I agree, but I think it's safe to assume that most Irish water supplies are deficient in calcium. In the absence of further information, it's probably a good idea to add roughly 1 tsp of calcium (sulphate or chloride or a mix, depending on the style) to the mash. If this brings your pH down below 5.2 then add a tiny amount of baking soda (about 1 gram, it's very potent) to raise it again, and for your next brew, try adding less calcium to the mash but more to the boil. 

If the pH remains above 5.5 after adding the calcium then you might need to add some acid (either acid malt or lactic acid) to bring it into the optimum range.

That should work as a good rule of thumb for people who don't have detailed water reports or test kits. For more information (though it starts to get a little complicated) see John Palmer's advice here.

I think it was Will who said on another thread that the most important thing to remember in the mash is the temperature. The thickness of the mash is also important, but there is more room for variation here. So as long as you hover near 65C (+ or - 3C) and end up with a mash thickness of roughly 2.5 - 3Kg of grain to each litre of water, you won't go too far wrong.

[Dr Jacoby]

Do you test for calcium Shane? I'd be interesting to see how it varies with the hardness. Great water for stout

[Dr Jacoby]

In case anyone's interested, I came across the EZ Water Calculator recently, which is based on figures in John Palmer's How to Brew. I think it's probably the best calculator I've used so far for treating brewing water. It's certainly the easiest.

It includes fields for lactic acid and acidulated malt additions, plus fields for adjusting your pH up or down using common mineral salts and other chemicals.

The only difficulty I can see with it is that the water profile ranges given at the bottom of the spreadsheet (which are loosely based on Palmer's recommendations) are not fine grained enough to help you design a profile for specific styles of beer. For example, the recommended range it gives for Sulphate is 50-350ppm, but 350ppm would be way too high for an ordinary mild bitter, but just about acceptable for a Burton style water profile.

In his book, Palmer does break down the recommended ranges according to broad style requirements, so you could use this in conjunction with the calculator if in doubt. In any case, there is a link on the spreadsheet to the relevant page in How to Brew.