Water Treatment

[donnchadhc]

Anybody any links for water testing kit aimed at brewers? Or is it a case of cobbling it together?

[Will_D]

As most of us use aquarium kits (Calcium, Magnessium, Total Hardness (kH) ) you can of course get these in our latest affiliates shoppy:
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,2550.0.html
Quote:
Seahorse Aquariums   www.seahoursaquariums.com   10% off    Valid Membership Card & ID

However the question was about a brew centric water test kit!

So what about an enterprising HB company putting together a 3 box set (like above) of the essentials?
For a good price naturally!

BTW: Sulphate test kits are not used in aquariums and are v. expensive!

[Beerbuddha]

Mr Dempsey !

[Beerbuddha]

I believe the question about water / liquor can be very technical or simple per /person.
Eg water and liquor are the same thing if your a brewer !. So this proves my taught its a minefield.

People need to ask questions and not be afraid.

To me when i google...best water for beer....comes up with top replies so as a person who is getting into brewing i go....oh....i understand BUT...i dont....i need to ask questions simple or not and the funny thing is for every total silly simple question u ask 100 people go !!!AGGGG thats what it is...i know now but im too embarrassed to ask.

End story is lets keep it simple...and if its not simple ask !

[johnrm]

Technically water and liquor are not the same thing.
Water is the stuff that comes out of your tap.
Liquor is the stuff you use to brew, so treated water that comes out of your tap (or not).

[DEMPSEY]

A good place to start for water treatment is the NHC wiki
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=water_for_brewing
It uses both CRS and DLS for treatment and salt additions.
If you want to know what they contain then here it is,

CRS
The breakdown of CRS,
250ml CRS is,
198ml water,
39ml hydro,
13ml sulphuric
- giving 65ppm cl+ per 1ml/L & 88ppm so4+

DLS
breakdown of what is in DLS,
0.95g/L of DLS adds:
172ppm Calcium Ca
5.2ppm Magnesium Mg
71.5ppm Sodium Na
169ppm Chloride Cl
353ppm Sulphate SO4

Sodium Chloride 19%
Calcium Chloride 13%
Calcium Sulphate 62%
Magnesium Sulphate 5%

[Alex Lawes]

Here's an excellent description on what each of the minerals contribute to your beer.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wsawdon/www/water.html

When using RO also be careful of what you're stripping out of the water that your yeast needs, i.e trace levels of zinc, iron etc.
Yeast nutrient or WL servo will help with this.

Try to calculate your residual alkalinity as you really need to keep every stage from mash in through to boil at a ph of around 5.2 and always under 6.0. Sparging with 7.1 RO water will pull out ash from the mash and give you a harsh bitterness from your hops in the boil that's unpleasant.

A.J. deLange is supposedly an authority on acidification of the mash so look up his papers if you can.
http://www.brewery.org/brewery/library/AcidifWaterAJD0497.html

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Rather than try to create Liquor from scratch with RO plus additions, Dempsey's excllent guide above is much simpler, or simplest of all, Dilute your well water with RO water, depending upon your original water analysis results, you could try 50:50 or 60:40 and if necessary fine tune from there

[Beerbuddha]

My water results are
Bicarbonate          257 CaCo3
Calcium                 132 mg/L
Chloride                 13.66 mg/L
Hardness                 343 CaCo3
Magnesium                8.003 mg/L
PH                                7
Sodium                          9.652
sulphate                         32.08 mg/L as SO4

So if i want to make a stout im good as i can add this n that but if i want to make pils i cannot reduce enough even at 50/50 mix so its easier for those type styles to brew with RO water. So i wanted to know is there a table or quick guide that any one can use.

For eg. If i know nothing about water chemistry i can check here and find if i want to brew a stout with RO water all i need to know is
50 litres RO water for stout you add
Calcium Sulphate (as gypsum)          4.1 G
Calcium Chloride (dihydrate):             23.38G
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salts)     5.07 G
Sodium Chloride (common salt):            9.53 G
Calcium Carbonate (as chalk):                4.17 G


50 litres Ro water for Lager add
Calcium Sulphate (as gypsum)          3.34 G
Calcium Chloride (dihydrate):            4.56
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salts)   1.01
Calcium Carbonate (as chalk)              1.25

50 litres RO water for Burton pale Ale add
Calcium Sulphate (as gypsum):                 25.77
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salts):        10.14
Sodium Chloride (common salt):               3.81
Calcium Carbonate (as chalk):              1.25

So guys dont need to know chemistry all they need to know is what to buy from brew shop....how much to add and if someone for eg spends allot time trying to find perfect recipe for  pliny the elder they can add to the list if using 50 litres RO water...... guys just add this for that type beer

[Beerbuddha]

@ donnchadhc i had my well water tested by Fitz Scientific in droghada  its the most accurate option in my opinion

[alealex]

I've never seen simpler instructions, +1.
Eventually something you don't have to study for hours or have chemistry degree to understand it.

[Greg2013]

@ donnchadhc i had my well water tested by Fitz Scientific in droghada  its the most accurate option in my opinion

BB how much did they charge for that and how do you go about getting a sample tested ?

Email enquiry just sent, will see next week if they get back to me, asked for the same stuff to be tested as you got BB 

[donnchadhc]

My water is incredibly soft (RO like) I'd be interested in a price of water tests!

[Greg2013]

My water is incredibly soft (RO like) I'd be interested in a price of water tests!

When they get back to me i will reply here 

[Beerbuddha]

It's approx 100 Euro. Not cheap but these are the things you have to do for the hobby.
You take sample in bottle and post it up or as I did drive up and hand it in.

I did explain to the lady I payed upstairs in office that allot people homebrewing and it might be a chance for sales rep to make some orders. I gave this forums name.
I'm not type person good for organizing group buys stuff but possible if few got together the price might work out cheaper !

Might be cheaper to drop ph test as it's easy to do yourself. Think 14 Euro per individual test but been a while since i got test.

Hope info helps