Water profile East Co. Galway

[Callan86]

Good evening all,

I'm still very much on the steep end of the learning curve when it comes to all grain brewing, so as another step on the road to improvement I recently sent a sample of my water to Murphy and Son in the UK for analysis. I got the results today:

pH                        7.14
Nitrate                  9.10
Total Hardness   436.00
Calcium             125.56
Magnesium          19.83
Chloride               18.11
Sulphate              11.18
Alkalinity            350.00

I'm based in East Galway, not far from Ballinasloe. Not surprised at the hardness levels. It's interesting to compare with levels of the same minerals in Clada mineral water, which I'm assuming is sourced at or near their plant on the Headford Road:

http://www.clada.com/composition.html

Ballygowan also provide compositional analysis of their water on their website, overall profile is closer to my water than Clada, particularly for hardness:

https://www.ballygowan.ie/our-water/ballygowan-water-source/

Irish Water/GWS reports don't include calcium and hardness, so I'm happy to share my results here. I'm guessing that they're fairly representative of any area with a lot of hardness.

[phynes1]

Hi, I'm in New Inn are you close to there?

[Callan86]

Hi phynes1,

I'm in Fohenagh, so less than 10 miles away as the crow flies.

[phynes1]

I know it, we're on different water schemes.

[Callan86]

That's true. Before getting the water tested I checked any available water reports for this part of the county on www.water.ie. Sulphate & Chloride levels in Loughrea, Mountbellew and Ahascragh were consistent with the results of my water analysis. Sulphate levels in Athenry were higher (50-60 mg/L), and even higher in Ballinasloe (as high as 200 mg/L). I'd hazard a guess that New Inn wouldn't be all that different to Fohenagh when it comes to water chemistry, that said individual water scheme data should be accessible with a little bit of digging.