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Hi,
I’m seeking some advice from the revered water chemistry experts on this board .
I moved to a new place recently, and unfortunately, I just discovered that my water supply is inconsistent. According to my municipality, I am getting water from two distinct sources: one has (very) high alkalinity, around 300 ppm, while the other has a more moderate alkalinity in the range of 120-130 ppm. It seems I am getting mostly the very alkaline one (call me lucky), yet I have no means of knowing how much of the lower alkalinity water is being mixed-in at any moment. This varies depending on water use peaks, source water availability, and other factors…so the water flowing from my taps might well have, say, 200 ppm alkalinity in the morning, and 300 ppm in the evening. Calcium aside, mineral contents are very low and comparable for both sources.
Now, I know what many of you are going to advise me under such circumstances: get a RO system! ..and it might indeed be the wisest piece of advice. Yet at my previous house, I managed to brew what I thought were good beers, also the light-coloured ones, using alkaline water (ca. 220-250 ppm alkalinity). Without using any RO water, but of course I did adjust the water with acid.
So based on this experience, my plan is rather to collect all my brewing water at once before each brewday (mash+sparge and maybe even top-off water), measure its alkalinity using one of those cheap aquarium alkalinity drop-tests, plug the results into Brun Water and adjust accordingly. I’m going to get a pH meter as well, so that will allow me to double check things and also fine-tune my mash and wort pHs.
Could this be a workable plan, or am I missing something? In general, are those aquarium alkalinity drop-tests accurate and reliable enough for our needs? To my understanding, it’s like doing a titration, i.e. you count the amount of drops until the solution changes colour. So I guess it should be fairly accurate?
Thanks in advance for your opinions!
I’m seeking some advice from the revered water chemistry experts on this board .
I moved to a new place recently, and unfortunately, I just discovered that my water supply is inconsistent. According to my municipality, I am getting water from two distinct sources: one has (very) high alkalinity, around 300 ppm, while the other has a more moderate alkalinity in the range of 120-130 ppm. It seems I am getting mostly the very alkaline one (call me lucky), yet I have no means of knowing how much of the lower alkalinity water is being mixed-in at any moment. This varies depending on water use peaks, source water availability, and other factors…so the water flowing from my taps might well have, say, 200 ppm alkalinity in the morning, and 300 ppm in the evening. Calcium aside, mineral contents are very low and comparable for both sources.
Now, I know what many of you are going to advise me under such circumstances: get a RO system! ..and it might indeed be the wisest piece of advice. Yet at my previous house, I managed to brew what I thought were good beers, also the light-coloured ones, using alkaline water (ca. 220-250 ppm alkalinity). Without using any RO water, but of course I did adjust the water with acid.
So based on this experience, my plan is rather to collect all my brewing water at once before each brewday (mash+sparge and maybe even top-off water), measure its alkalinity using one of those cheap aquarium alkalinity drop-tests, plug the results into Brun Water and adjust accordingly. I’m going to get a pH meter as well, so that will allow me to double check things and also fine-tune my mash and wort pHs.
Could this be a workable plan, or am I missing something? In general, are those aquarium alkalinity drop-tests accurate and reliable enough for our needs? To my understanding, it’s like doing a titration, i.e. you count the amount of drops until the solution changes colour. So I guess it should be fairly accurate?
Thanks in advance for your opinions!