Up-to-Date Water Profile for Ballymore Eustace

[Shane Phelan]

Latest water profile as of this morning. The only change I notice between this one and one from 2 years ago is a reduction in Fluoride.

Liffey Works
Ballymore Eustace

Water Quality - Guide Values

     Volume Produced (m3/day).............................     250 000

Colour (Hazen)................................................      < 10
Turbidity (NTU)..............................................      < 1
pH...................................................................      7.5 - 8.5
Conductivity (µS/cm).......................................      140 - 150
Chloride (mg/l)................................................      < 25
Sulphate (mg/l)................................................      < 35
Total Dissolved Solids (mg/l)...........................      95
Total Residual Chlorine (mg/l).........................      0.05 - 0.10
Nitrate (mg N/l)...............................................      < 1.0
Nitrite (mg N/l)................................................      < 0.01
Ammonia (mg N/l)...........................................      < 0.02
Phosphate (mg P/l)...........................................      < 0.02
Aluminium (mg/l).............................................      < 0.1
Iron (mg/l).......................................................      < 0.05
Fluoride (mg/l).................................................      0.6 - 0.8

Total Coliforms (MPN/100ml)..........................      <1*
E.coli (MPN/100ml)........................      <1*
Enterococci (CFU/100ml).................      0
Heterotrophic Plate Count 22°C (CFU/ml).......      < 20
Heterotrophic Plate Count 37°C (CFU/ml).......      < 20

Odour..............................................................      None
Taste................................................................      None

Magnesium (mg/L)........................................      1.5
Calcium (mg/L).............................................      18 - 20
Total Alkalinity (mg CaCO3/l).........................      28
Calcium Hardness (mg CaCO3/l).....................      45 - 50
Total Hardness (mg CaCO3/l)..........................      55

Saturation pH..................................................      8.7   to  9.2
Langelier..........................................................      -0.9
Ryznar.............................................................      10.2  to  11.2

*      <1 MPN (Most Probable Number) is a statistically derived value and is equivalent to 0 CFU/100ml.

[Shane Phelan]

This thread on Beoir was my starting point.

I emailed that guy Andrew last week and he got back to me this morning. Given that he works in the central laboratory, I don't think it would be out of the question to assume he would have access to the Lexlip numbers too.

[Shane Phelan]

What values are people using for Sodium content in PPM?

I have spent half an hour trying to find the value, it doesn't seem to exist. The BeerSmith profile for 'Dublin' water is 12ppm but I doubt that has any relevance to this water profile given that the other values are completely different from this.

[Dr Jacoby]

Just so everyone knows, the sodim level is negligible according to a water scientist I spoke with in the HSE. She said it's less than 5ppm, and more like 2 or 3 ppm. It's very low in any case. There's be no harm throwing a tsp of salt into the boil for most brews.

[Shane Phelan]

The concentrations would be much higher when you are cooking. For example if you were adding 5g of salt to 1L of water works out at 5000ppm. With brewing volumes you would be adding the same amount to much bigger volumes of wort to get concentrations in the 50-100ppm range depending on the style. I assume that level of salt wouldn't have much of an effect on the yeast?

[mabrungard]

Oh My! This is exactly what I'm looking for!  Thank you for posting this information.

From that limited water report, I was able to estimate some remaining concentrations for your use.

Ca: 20 ppm
Mg: 1.5 ppm
Na: 14 ppm
SO4: 22 ppm
Cl: 20 ppm
HCO3: 34 ppm

The chloride and sulfate values are guesses since the report just says that their concentrations are below 25 and 35, respectively.  With an assumed sodium content of 14 ppm, the total dissolved solids value for the estimated profile is about the 95 ppm that is shown in the report.  As mentioned above, 14 ppm is close enough to zero to be negligible. 

The bottom line is that this is a darn good starting point for brewing water. 

Now on to my second quest, please visit this thread to learn about my need for the Stillorgan water quality numbers:
http://nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,2404.0.html

Shiny, if you could follow up with the person in the laboratory, I would be greatly indebted!  As noted in the thread, I need to find out the Stillorgan water quality so that I can properly assess how Guinness worked with these two water supplies in fashioning their stouts.  I fully expect that the Stillorgan water is quite similar to the Ballymore numbers, but need confirmation. 

I found out from another thread that now Guinness has their own water supply for brewing.  That makes sense given the tight water supply in Dublin.  I'm guessing they are using RO or nanofiltration to treat either Liffey River water or local groundwater for their brewing.  That water quality would be similar to the Ballymore numbers above and would explain a lot about their brewing methods and beer character. 

By the way, a bit about me.  I am a consulting engineer dealing with water and wastewater in the states.  I have been a technical editor for Palmer and Kaminski's upcoming book on Water for brewing.  I am also the author of the Bru'n Water program and the Bru'n Water website.  I look forward to your help on my quest and I hope you take a peak at the Bru'n Water website and the Water Knowledge page. 

Thanks!