water advice

[marzen scorsese]

ive ingredients for a pilsner sitting in the cupboard and im hoping to brew it soon but before i do i want to get my water sorted. my options so far seem to be send some water off to murphys and get it tested and get advice tailored to my report. its only a moment in time though, still worth it for the advice maybe? is this something i can test myself and learn how to treat myself with the help of salifert alkalinity, magnesium and calcium tests.ive listed 3 there but which are worth getting and are these better utilized in conjunction with a murphys water report. my stouts are by far better than any light beers and pale ales tasted sour or like sulphur. i bought crs and gypsum and kind of guessed with additions and they have improved with those additions a lot

im leaning towards buying the kits and learning how to test and treat the water myself. is this better than the murphys route? i dont mind putting in the effort.

this is what i know from my water report and there seems to be little variation hco3- (240) cl- (24) na+ (14) so4-2 (42) theres nothing for calcium or magnesium.

if i buy the kits is it possible to make the correct adjustments and make a good pilsner or should i go the murphys route.

also there is a natural spring down the road with lovely tasting water its on top of the hill i live on and flows through a pine forestry the water tastes really nice and lots of people locally draw water from there because of the iron and magnesium content up on top of the hill whick thankfully i dont have to deal with, this might be worth testing too, what do you think?

[auralabuse]

ive ingredients for a pilsner sitting in the cupboard and im hoping to brew it soon but before i do i want to get my water sorted. my options so far seem to be send some water off to murphys and get it tested and get advice tailored to my report. its only a moment in time though, still worth it for the advice maybe? is this something i can test myself and learn how to treat myself with the help of salifert alkalinity, magnesium and calcium tests.ive listed 3 there but which are worth getting and are these better utilized in conjunction with a murphys water report. my stouts are by far better than any light beers and pale ales tasted sour or like sulphur. i bought crs and gypsum and kind of guessed with additions and they have improved with those additions a lot

im leaning towards buying the kits and learning how to test and treat the water myself. is this better than the murphys route? i dont mind putting in the effort.

this is what i know from my water report and there seems to be little variation hco3- (240) cl- (24) na+ (14) so4-2 (42) theres nothing for calcium or magnesium.

if i buy the kits is it possible to make the correct adjustments and make a good pilsner or should i go the murphys route.

also there is a natural spring down the road with lovely tasting water its on top of the hill i live on and flows through a pine forestry the water tastes really nice and lots of people locally draw water from there because of the iron and magnesium content up on top of the hill whick thankfully i dont have to deal with, this might be worth testing too, what do you think?

I have the exact same problem with dark beers tasting great and light beers muck.   I went onto the EPA website and found my water to be highly alkaline which makes sense,  so adding acid malt to the mash (amounts calculated by one of the online water chemical calcs)  sorted it right out. 

[marzen scorsese]

That's excellent news auralabuse. I have some lying around and I'll throw in about 3% of the grain bill and see what happens for now. At least that way I'll get a brew on and I can get the kits in the meantime and get I but more technical

[RichC]

You should consider getting an RO system. Its a blank slate from which you can create any water profile

[marzen scorsese]

I have been richc very seriously indeed    nearly 200 beans though. She would kill me what with getting married next year. Love one though and not just for brewing

[auralabuse]

You should consider getting an RO system. Its a blank slate from which you can create any water profile

Just out of interest richC,  if you use ro water without adding anything to match water profiles do you end up with any problems taste wise?

[Will_D]

The three kits you mentioned are the ones you need.

Rather than buy a RO system (expensive to buy and run or so I am told) go to an Aquarium/Pet Shop with fish and they should sell you 25L of RO water for €5.

Use this to dilute your water to reduce  the hardness.

[marzen scorsese]

Cheers will that's it so then I'll head into Limerick today and try maxxi pet or underwater world. One of them would have what I need

[Will_D]

If you buy the test kits there, tell them what its for and how you use the RO water. and they may chuck in the RO water free. Bring your own 25 litre container if possible. One place charged me a tenner for the container and the water was free!

Also make sure its just pure RO. One aquarium shop asked me is it for fresh or salt aquariums as they added all the right salts!!

[marzen scorsese]

Cheers will I got 20 litres and bought the mg and on/alk tests the calcium is not in stock at the moment I got 182 on the alkalinity which is better than the 240 from the water report  and I observed no change with the magnesium so I'll give it a blast again to see what happens

[marzen scorsese]

Turn out the test is out of date so I'll have to bring it back to the shop. If I use the 20 litres in a recipe that calls for 12.25 in the mash them a 7,9 to up and a 14.2 sparge will I have reducing it to acceptable levels and will I need to add any other minerals. My maths is so bad I'm struggling like a monkey with a Rubik's cube here with my calculator and notepad .

[DEMPSEY]

Are you using beersmith to build your recipe if so you can set up a water profile in it as your RO and it will work out what you need by way of minerals.

[DEMPSEY]

Had a quick look at my GOLD MEDAL winning pilsner from last year comp that also happened to get 3rd in best of show and I used 25 litres of RO. added to this was,
Epsom salt 0.33 mg
Calcium Chloride 0.25 mg
Baking Soda 0.25 mg
Chalk 0.25 mg.
All added to the mash

[marzen scorsese]

Cheers Dempsey was it only RO water you used for the whole brew or was there tap water also? Beersmith is on the list also, it's a long list and only gets  longer  well done on the gold and third in best of show. I'd love to taste a decent homebrew lager or pilsner sometime. I've never tasted anything apart from shop bought stuff that's been lagered. I have my temp control sorted so hopefully I'll be sampling my own soon. Just want to make sure I've the best chance since more time and valuable space goes into a pilsner. I'm using the homebrew companys mash kit and I have 20 litres RO so I'm going to have to make it work 
Dropped my beers off today for the competition so might have a good of my own maybe 

[RichC]

I brewed a dumper recently.  I think i may have forgotten my salt additions but im not sure. If youre using RO id recommend checking out the 'brewing water chemistry primer' on HBT