newtobrew1981
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- Mar 10, 2017
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I have hard water and was wondering if I should treat it. I plan on all grain brewing. Advice is appreciated.
Yeah I was thinking the same. Im a big fan of stout and dark beers but want to brew ales. Brewing ales is what makes me nervous
I have the kit from my local lab just was kinda unsure what minerals to have them target as they charge 8 dollars for each one
You can get a full report for about $26 from Ward Labs. It's a "household minerals test", and it has all that you need. The only other thing you'd want to know is if chloramines or chlorine is in your water, and your local water company (if on municipal water) can tell you that.
We have hard water, but it has iron and some sulfur smells, and water sitting soon turns kind of opaque yellow.
You need to understand that while alkalinity of 179 (3.48 mEq/L) generally implies hardness of something not too far from 3.5 mEq/L is is also quitepossible to have water with this level of alkalinity that is much harder (sulfate and chloride present) or much softer (sodium present).my water is hard enough (179 alkalinity) that my paler beers were pretty astringent and tannic before i discovered chemistry. Now i add a little lactic acid to the mash and a little more to the sparge, and everything turns out groovy.
I've managed to mess up a few brews by adding acid to my low alkalinity mash water. After adding the grain I didn't bother to take pH measurements and ended up with beer that wasn't worth bottling.
Quick side-track:
I'm just curious, how were they messed up?
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