Got my water report in.. I'm still dialing in my water and adjustments, and have been using RO in the past. I'm using my house water, through a carbon filter at a very low/slow rate, and using campden tablets just in case. Water smells and taste great. Trying to figure out where I stand water wise- 8.3 pH Sodium, NA- 4ppm Potassium, K- 1ppm Calcium, Ca- 10ppm Magnesium, Mg -2ppm Total Hardness, CaCo3 -33ppm Sulfate, S04S- 4ppm - would be 12ppm of Sulfate Chloride, Cl - 6ppm Carbonate, C03- <1.0 ppm Bicarbonate, HC03- 26ppm Total Akalinity, CaC03 - 22ppm So... from reading that quickly, and knowing a bit about water.. it doesn't appear I have terrible water, but will need some solid adjustments when brewing all of but maybe some lagers? Any insight from the folks who know the lovely liquid of H2O?
Your water is not far from RO. A little bit of alkalinity that will make your mash pH only slightly (but insignificantly) higher than when using distilled. If I had this water, I would simply continue to do whatever has been working when starting with distilled. Your source must be surface water of some sort, a river perhaps.
I was so happy to see you respond, I should have tagged you. Good to hear it's okay as a blank canvas, as I have only brewed a couple ( 4 beers ) with this new water set up. So I should be okay. I guessed on the water and added my normal amounts, plus the lactic acid in the paler stuff. Looks like my alkalinity will have me always using lactic acid in lighter beers to get it down during the mash. You are right about the water. Surface water mostly, lakes and streams, and then pumped to holding lakes before treatment. Much appreciated. Good to know now!
For light colored brews, you probably want to raise your Ca to >50 ppm using CaS04 (gypsum) and CaCl2, with the balance depending on whether you are emphasizing hops or malt. You are not making these adjustments for the mash, but to help with the yeast and flocculation (Ca) and flavor. For darker brews, you probably need to increase your alkalinity some using baking soda and chalk to optimize the mash. My water is somewhat similar, i.e., fairly dilute. I use Bru'nWater to guide my adjustments.
To think... I've been brewing for several years now with the water from my local grocery stores RO filter system. The water comes from the same source as my house water, except I was paying $3 for 5 gallons of RO water and building from there. RO probably wasn't doing me much good versus what was coming from my hose out back. I have a RV hose, and an inline carbon block filter to use when I brew now.
Thats pretty much what I've been doing. Good to know I haven't been misguiding myself. I actually normally don't have to make too much adjustment on darker beers, unless I have a boatload of dark malts in there, north of 2-3 pounds.
nice soft water! wish i had a similar profile My alkalinity is like 240ppm, better than permanent hardness, but still wish it were softer. +1 to pweis's advice,
