Water/mash efficiency

Water chemistry and mashing is extremely complicated and you'd be well served to start with John Palmer's work: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15.html

If it really is RO water, then no, by itself, it's not good to brew with. I usually use RO water as my base and add minerals/acid to hit the proper water profile/mash pH.

 

Maybe you can read these bottle labels to get any specification of the water chemistry and post them here.

 

Download this and read the water knowledge section.
http://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

 

Definitely call and ask. Water chemistry is like a road map. If you don't know where you're starting from, you can't map a good route to where you need to be. If it's RO water, you might be low in damn near everything. Some filters add sodium, however, so it's best to know what your water is so you know how to make your water what it needs to be.Also, read the Palmer section that was linked above for you. I found that to be unbelievably helpful, especially the information about optimal ranges of individual salts.

BTW, why do you not like your tap water? Does it taste bad? Have you asked for a water report from your local utility? Generally if your water tastes good you can brew with it. I find the chloramine levels of the tap water here to be bad (smells like a swimming pool out of the tap), but that's fixed with a Campden tablet.

 

Most macro-bottled water that I have seen/used has little or no useful info....have gone to multiple websites and got glorified marketing materials that only contains cursory info and is more attuned to harmful chemical/bacteria info...tried again and this is what I found for a rather generic West Coast source (Georgia headquarters)...seems little more than RO water, am I wrong?

http://www.alhambrawater.com/files/nonbrand/waterqualityreports/WaterQualityCoverStatementEng.pdf

http://www.bottledwaterweb.com/bottlersdetail.do?k=745

 

I don't see where your making any adjustments now. Are you adding anything to the R-O water?

 

If it's chlorine, a crushed Campden tablet in your mash and/or sparge water will chemically alter it and take that problem away. That's a little different issue than adjusting salts, though, so I'd still recommend getting the report for your tap water, calling the company about the RO water (if they'll give you any useful info at all), and finding out where you are so you know where to go with it. Oh, and definitely read the Palmer water section. He makes water chemistry a lot easier to understand. I'm strongly considering buying his new book on the subject when it's released.

 

That's not good for all grain. The minerals are needed for the mash and the yeast. Check out these podcasts (except the hops one for now).


http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/search/water

Have you tried a charcoal filter? Do you have municipal water? Maybe if the filter doesn't do it then with the charcoal filter, cutting it 50/50 AND getting a water report you can make things a lot less complicated. You'd just have to make small adjustments.

 

One side note, you can sparge with R-O,distilled, etc. IMHO it makes the calculations easier and possibly more accurate.

 

As an aside, I believe the store bought bottled RO water (not dispensed) has some minerals added back in for taste.

 

I have yet to do it myself, but many people on HBT recommend Ward Laboratories to get a thorough water profile done ($16).

Can there be variation from what the water company reports vs what comes out of your tap?

 

Water chemistry can vary with the season. Some water reports give a range of values.

 

If I'm reading that Wal-Mart report right, it has no calcium, no magnesium, and so on, but 250 ppm chloride and 250 ppm sulfate. That's pretty out of whack for brewing. You'd have to dilute it with distilled water to get your sulfate and chloride down before you could start adding things back in, otherwise just a tiny addition of gypsum to get your calcium up to 50 ppm would put your sulfate beyond where you want it, and the same thing if you added calcium chloride would happen to your chloride levels.

Unfortunately, unless there's a secondary link I overlooked, the Columbus report is useless from a brewing standpoint. It covers only pesticides and the like, and not the commonly present elements. You'd have to call them and ask to speak to en engineer to get the levels for the six biggies, namely Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Chloride (Cl), Bicarbonate (HCO3), and Sulfate (SO4). Sometimes instead of bicarbonate they'll list total alkalinity in PPM or ml/L.

I'm guessing, but I'm willing to bet if you get those numbers, they'll be in better balance than the Wal-Mart water, and you'll be able to make adjustments to your tap water much more easily than with the store-bought stuff. In the end it'll be cheaper, too.

 

What hopfenunmaltz said. Additionally, in larger cities they'll have more than one pump or treatment plant, and numbers can vary there as well, especially if each draws from a different source. You'll need to know what area you're in so you can look at which set of ranges apply to you.