Belfast Water - mineral content

[Quiet_Man]

Any of you guys been able to track down an analysis of Belfast water quality, i.e. mineral content (calcium, sodium, magnesium, bicarbonate, sulphates, etc)? Seems most reports focus on pathogens and viruses.

[sub82]

No - I've been looking for the same. NI water appear to offer an analytical service, might be worth asking them?

[BrewBilly]

There is a guy I know that has the Belfast water analysis, I will ask him if he would be happy to share it. I'll keep you posted

Cheers
BrewBilly - aka Andy

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[matthewdick23]

ive a report. i can give u an email address of who to contact, or can email u the report. dont want to post it here cos it has my address on it

[matthewdick23]

dont know if this makes sense- i didnt ustand any of it!

was v surprised to hear bout the calcium, though.  ive never thought my water was hard- v little limescale on my kettle etc

[sub82]

Hi Matthew - can you send me the email address of your contact. Would they have a report for Banbridge?

[matthewdick23]

"Gee, Andrew" <Andrew.Gee@niwater.com>

thats who replied to my initital request.

[Quiet_Man]

Great! Many thanks Matthew! I'll have a read and try to make sense of it. Guess some of the books (Palmer or Briggs) will help and quote hardness figures for other beer producing regions for comparison?

Andy

[sub82]

Thanks for the email - just contacted him!

[matthewdick23]

yeah shane thats wot i thought- emailed him again asking for those specifics u mentioned years ago but no response

[Quiet_Man]

I contacted NI Water who were quite helpful. The reply was narrowed down to the BT6 area, which is sourced from Silent Valley (SV), Lough Neagh (LN), or a blend of both! Some of the mineral analysis is performed at source, so not knowing what is coming out the tap at any one time is subject to some variation. These are typical values recorded over the last 12 months........

Water Hardness as Calcium Carbonate: 120 mg/L (moderately hard)

Calcium + Magnesium: 49 mg/L (mostly Calcium ?48mg/ml? by calculation?)
Sulphate: 12 mg/L (SV) - 63 mg/L (LN)
Sodium: 13 mg/L
Chloride: 10 mg/L (SV) - 22 mg/L (LN)
Bicarbonate: 25 mg/L (SV) - 100 mg/L (LN)

I have put the figures into Palmer's table to compare with other brewing centres.

[spacebandit]

If you send an email to waterline asking for the analysis for your postcode, they will treat it as a freedom of information request and gou should get the answers you are looking for. I have done this twice now for where I live...

[Will_D]

OMG: You really do live in a progressive part of the world

We also have a FOI Act - currently being used by various newspapers re. TDs expenses.

Would it work for water?

Hmm methinks someone down here with more time to spare could ride this thread!

[irish_goat]

If you send an email to waterline asking for the analysis for your postcode, they will treat it as a freedom of information request and gou should get the answers you are looking for. I have done this twice now for where I live...

Not this crowd? http://www.waterline.co.uk/

[Ciaran]

Some extra info in addition to the online tools report for the BT8 area
(might save someone else the hassle)

Based on 2014 results, the ZS0501 Drumaroad Lisburn supply zone covering the above area had the following average results:
Magnesium level of 0.07 mg/l.
Permanent Calcium level of: 8.25 mg/l
Temporary (CaCO3) Calcium level of: 21mg/l
Hydrogen Carbonate level of: 6.00 mg/l
Following these results, I can also confirm the water in this area would be classified as soft water.