I have acquired my city's (Louisville KY) water report, but all that I've read is Greek to me! Anyone know what I should do with this info?? Alkalinity (as CaCO3)- 73 mg/L pH - 8.2 Standard Units (SU) Calcium (as Ca) - 48 mg/L Magnesium (as Mg) - 7 mg/L Sodium (as Na) - 33 mg/L Sulfate - 74 mg/L Bicarbonate (as CaCO3) - 73 mg/L Chloride - 38 mg/L Hardness (as CaCO3) - 144 mg/L (8.4 grains/gallon)
My advice would be to read up on the 'water knowledge' pages at the Bru'nWater site if you haven't already. (Later, read the more complex and academic papers written by utahbeerdude.) You'll need a brewing water spreadsheet to make the data useful in terms of mash pH. There's Bru'nWater and EZWater. Both are good and popular. And the BrewCipher spreadsheet also has an integrated water sheet.
what Vike said. but now that you have the data, it depends on what you want to do with it. chances are, unless you are an advanced all grain brewer, the information is mostly useless. nice to know, but otherwise not going to be much value. if you are an advanced all grain brewer, prepare for quite a bit of chemistry. nothing too complex, but don't be fooled into thinking you can "fix" your water and make great Pilsner or Stout after a few minutes on the web. ain't gonna happen. many people find it much easier to build water from distilled with mineral additions than to engineer a solution to your water supply. however, you might compare your water to some famous brewing cities water supply. then do some all grain brews in that style. Cheers.
Not bad, not great. Read up on the water of Bru'nwater or buy the book Water by Palmer. I have not looked to see if it balances electrically, that is one quality check on the report. Water pH does not mean much in brewing, mash pH does. Do you have a pH meter? The suggestion on brewing cities water is nice, but you don't know what the breweries do with that water to make it brewing liquor before the mash. Even in Germany they can use boiling or slaked lime to drop the alkalinity. There is currently a series being published in Zymurgy on the famous brewing cities water and what the brewers do with that water. Dublin and Burton has been covered so far.
Like what everyone suggested, read up on mash chemistry first. Water by Palmer is a great book, just make sure your chemistry is up to date. I had to look up a few things, but if you took Chem in College you should be fine. There are also lots of sources online. My advice is to play with it at first, but make sure you have everything else down in your brewing process before. Mash chemistry is usually the last thing you learn as a brewer. Also if you do plan on doing this, get a pH meter like hopfenunmaltz said.
Bru'nwater gets my vote. May seem a little overwhelming at first but it's fairly simple and intuitive to set up and use. There's a lot of material to read but it's not necessary to read it all before using the spreasheet.