Brewing with spring water

If you want to start building custom water for your beers, the first thing is to find out what's in your water to start with. "Spring" water could be almost anything. I would see if I could get a water report from the company that distributes it.

Also, is there a report available from you tap water supplier? For many people, tap water makes an okay starting point.

A final option is to start with RO or distilled water, and build from there. That's what I do for almost all of my beers, because my tap water is very hard and alkaline, and not very suitable for most styles.

 

I know a local home brewer who brews with softened well water. As a result, his Sodium is a bit high (compared to typical tap water levels), but it doesn't seem to hurt anything, and he's able to use it as a starting point. Of course, not all well water is created equal.

 

I would recommend that you have your well water tested so you know what you are brewing with. A vendor that some homebrewers discuss here is Ward Labs: W-501 Brewer’s Test.

https://www.wardlab.com/product/water-test-kit/

Below is a snippet of Mr. Wizard discussing this topic:

“First, brewing water with too little permanent hardness can be remedied by adding calcium sulfate (gypsum) and/or calcium chloride. Some brewers like to add some magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts), but calcium is absolutely required for mash enzymes and is more effective at adjusting mash pH than magnesium . . . not to mention that too much magnesium tastes very bitter and may cause GI tract “issues.” Second, water softeners produce water with essentially no hardness, and softeners do not remove carbonates. This means that softened water requires further treatment (calcium is required for brewing), and also means that softened water is usually high in carbonates because, as mentioned above, most hard water comes from limestone aquifers.”

https://byo.com/mr-wizard/low-water-softeners-brewing/

Cheers!

 

I use well water and have a softener. I think it was John Palmer's book HowToBrew.com that recommended to bypass the softener when collecting water for brewing. Of course, that is contingent upon having a good profile on the well water, which mine is and was verified with a water lab's report. OP, if you can bypass your softener, get the well water tested to see what you have. You can save money from not buying water and maybe some chemicals.

 

You beat me to it for the testing recommendation.

 

You kind of answered your own question there.
There is nothing wrong with exploring brewing water chemistry and many of us like to mess around with this.
But, in the big scheme there are maybe 10 other items in your brew day that could also use some attention, no matter how good your beers are. Unless your water supply is truly foul, brew water adjustments are really one of the last things most homebrewers tackle. It can get real complex real quick.

So I'm not saying don't (follow the good advice often given in this forum, there are some crazy good brew water chemists hanging around). Just keep in the back of your mind that your effort might be better placed somewhere else. For now.
Cheers

 

spend the money to get tested
plug the results into a bru'n water calculator

better water makes better beer

 

I've used spring water the whole time I've brewed. Got it tested once, and I did add some chems to it, but do not believe my beer was better and others I share with did not think so either, and I stopped doing it.

So,,,

I say if you curious, test it and try additions. If you think it's better than rock on. If not, use the water as is.

 

You need to define “spring water”. That can mean all sorts of things.

Does your local grocery store have water dispensing machines? Every grocery store does around me but the water in our town is notoriously bad (old mining town). That should be RO water and if they change the filters regularly should be pretty much devoid of any minerals so it’s like starting from scratch. You can add minerals from there. “Spring” water can be high in Ca, Mg, Bicarbonates, who knows.

Even if your well water is softened, if it’s plumed correctly the cold water out of at least your kitchen sink shouldn’t be softened, if not the cold water to all faucets in the house. General consensus Is they don’t want people drinking that much sodium. You can make great beer with well water that might need to be softened, you just need to know how to manipulate it.

You want to make better beer, especially better hoppy beer, I’d recommend learning a lot more about your water and buying a nice pH meter. (And learning how to use it)

 

I often use pure spring water for a certain type of Pilsner that I enjoy. Contrary to spring water generally not being suitable for Pilsners, this Pilsner is an exception and the resultant flavor is quite enjoyable. Of course I had the water specifications for the spring water, so I could match it against the water used by the Brewery who brews the Pilsner. (almost identical).

When I use tap water for other beers, I just adjust it with a proportion of RO water and a few additives to match the profile I wish.

 

I should add that the only additives I have used are lactic acid, calcium chloride and gypsum. I have recently purchased epsom salts to assist in the adjustments. If you were to only purchase one additive, I would chose lactic acid. The acidity is a real key, especially to mashing, and somewhat to boiling. The rest is a complete guessing game, as water profile calculations are still very much a primitive and inexact science. Until we know more about what minerals, etc. the malt and hops actually add to the resultant beer (a very significant amount based on preliminary studies), something that I still can't understand why it has hardly been studied more thoroughly, the only advantage to existing water profile calculators IMO is in their ability to estimate the pH.

Getting back to spring water (or tap water), the real key or critical component is the amount of bicarbonates that are present. This can be reduced with adding reverse osmosis water or distilled water. The rest is more or less academic.

 

It sounds like you are buying water. If so, I recommend that for brewing you buy distilled or RO, as others have mentioned, assuming you can get it where you get the spring water. The ion content should be negligent, making it easy to build your water profile from scratch on a batch by batch basis. Use an app to guide the construction of your profile. Many free ones are available. I started with BruNwater and found it suited me.

 

What spring water do you buy? Have you looked it up for mineral content? Many have that information online.