Water Report: Should I brew with this???

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by MmmmmmBeer123, Jan 20, 2017.

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  1. MmmmmmBeer123

    MmmmmmBeer123 Initiate (0) Nov 15, 2015 Connecticut

    Hey gang,

    I've been using store-bought spring water and adding CaCl2 and CaSO4 since we moved to our new house. This is getting to be a bit of a hassle though and I'm considering building up from tap water.

    We have a "shared well" system that services the neighborhood.

    Looking for some feedback about pros/cons of using my tap water. I'll post screengrabs of pertinent sections of the PDF report and paraphrase a few other pertinents here...

    The water is drawn from 8 separate wells in my town. According to the report "Your water is collected in wells, treated, and delivered to you through an extensive underground piping system...Well water is filtered naturally underground. All the wells are disinfected, and Wells #1 and #6 are treated further to protect the distribution system. Wells #7 and #8 are treated to reduce water hardness"

    Here's the biggest summary table:
     
    #1 MmmmmmBeer123, Jan 20, 2017
  2. minderbender

    minderbender Initiate (0) Jan 18, 2009 New York

    Does the water report indicate hardness or alkalinity anywhere?
     
    #2 minderbender, Jan 20, 2017
  3. MmmmmmBeer123

    MmmmmmBeer123 Initiate (0) Nov 15, 2015 Connecticut

    Nowhere I could find. But it's probably pretty hard water judging on my state (CT) and from the white deposits that have been building up on the spray hose nozzle at the kitchen sink fairly quickly :grinning:.

    I sent the company an email and actually requested the list of water quality items that you posted in a previous water report test thread (thanks for the great posts in that thread BTW!).

    In the meantime, I do have an aquarium hardness testing kit that could at least give me a ballpark estimate...

    And if I get nothing helpful back from the water company, I'm not averse to either buying a kit or sending off a couple samples...

    Another question:

    Give that amount of chlorine in the water, what would folks suggest for quickest/cheapest/most efficient removal? Pour the needed water the night before and leave it in a brew bucket to degas??? Pre-boil quantities and let cool to strike temps??? Buy some campden tablets and use those?
     
    #3 MmmmmmBeer123, Jan 20, 2017
  4. minderbender

    minderbender Initiate (0) Jan 18, 2009 New York

    The average amount of chlorine in your water (0.71 ppm) is very close to the average for New York City (0.67 ppm), where I live. I almost always measure out my water the night before and let it sit overnight. At some point, I started adding a very small amount (1/8 teaspoon) of vitamin C crystals to my water on brew day (that is, after the water had already sat around for ~12 hours). To be honest I don't know if it makes any difference - I never had any issues with my water before I started adding vitamin C, and I've never had any issues after. I view it as cheap insurance in case there is any significant amount of chlorine that didn't degas. If you prefer not to add vitamin C for whatever reason, I think you should be fine just letting the water sit overnight.

    I guess the exception to that would be if the water is treated with chloramine, which doesn't degas (or at least, doesn't degas nearly as quickly as chlorine). Your water report gives no indication of any chloramine treatment, but again, vitamin C would do the trick, so you could regard it as cheap insurance.

    Many brewers (as far as I can tell, pretty much everyone but me) will tell you to use campden tablets for chlorine/chloramine removal (appropriate dosage is apparently 1 tablet per 20 gallons). I have never used them, so I can't really give any advice.
     
    #4 minderbender, Jan 20, 2017
  5. Hanglow

    Hanglow Pooh-Bah (2,051) Feb 18, 2012 Scotland
    Pooh-Bah

    campden is great, you can use it for water treatment, rinsing anything you need to soak in bleach, use it in ciders, meads, wines, foods you want to preserve etc. One of the best food/drink ingredients around.


    There's a huge range for sulphate in your report, which suggests your water supplier switches supplies quite a lot. Might be best to go the RO route or at the very least get an alkalinity test for each brew you make and go on experience gained from there
     
    #5 Hanglow, Jan 20, 2017
  6. utahbeerdude

    utahbeerdude Maven (1,374) May 2, 2006 Utah

    White deposits on spray nozzle suggest your water has a very high level of temporary hardness, which goes along with a very high level of alkalinity. This water is probably not-at-all suitable for brewing. Personally, I'd buy RO and build up salts from there (which is what I do, as my water has lots of alkalinity). Cheers!
     
    #6 utahbeerdude, Jan 22, 2017
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