New well/old well water comparison

[demetman]

Hi guys, just had a new well installed and I wanted to share the difference in water profiles. I thought this info could be interesting for comparison. My old well(original) was dug in 1970 at the time the house was built. The well casing was iron pipe of 2" diameter. Depth is not known, but estimated at 70-90ft. This is my old well Ward Labs water profile from 2/8/16
pH 5.7
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 267
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.44
Cations / Anions, me/L 4.1 / 3.9
ppm
Sodium, Na 58
Potassium, K 3
Calcium, Ca 8
Magnesium, Mg 13
Total Hardness, CaCO3 74
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.8 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 2
Chloride, Cl 113
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 27
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 22
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.06
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

The new well casing is 4" pvc and dug to a depth of 67Ft. 1/5hp submersible pump is providing excellent water pressure. I went from 3gal per minute to 12gal per minute. Anyway, here is my new well Ward Labs water profile
pH 5.7
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 137
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.23
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.0 / 1.9
ppm
Sodium, Na 28
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 6
Magnesium, Mg 6
Total Hardness, CaCO3 40
Nitrate, NO3-N 2.5 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 6
Chloride, Cl 45
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 4
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 3
Total Phosphorus, P 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.02
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

The main difference I see here is the reduced chloride level. I assume this allows me more leeway with the use of calcium chloride for augmentation. I have not brewed with my new water source yet, but am eager to do so. I have been diluting my old water profile 1:1 with distilled for brewing. Any suggestions as to evaluating my new water profile would be greatly appreciated. I'm new to all grain brewing and trying to wrap my head around the science of water chemistry. Thank you
Demetrios

 

[ajdelange]

Before drawing any hard and fast conclusions you will need to run several more tests to be sure that the variation between the two wells isn't just the typical temporal variation for your location. Perhaps you could get only an alkalinity test kit or alkalinity and hardness and check those two parameters for variation over time.

 

[demetman]

Before drawing any hard and fast conclusions you will need to run several more tests to be sure that the variation between the two wells isn't just the typical temporal variation for your location.

Perhaps you could get only an alkalinity test kit or alkalinity and hardness and check those two parameters for variation over time

.

Ok, I'll look for an alkalinity test kit that I can do from home. At what intervals would you recommend re-testing? I had a water testing laboratory test my water for bacteria and sodium levels and it wad deemed safe and fit to drink. I don't think the new water tastes very good, honestly. The water from my old well tasted much better, imho. I'm getting a high mineral flavor, or some sort of an earthy flavor. I also smell a little chlorine in the hot water, which must be concentrated in the tank. It's been 2 weeks with the new water system. For now, I'll brew with 100% distilled. Thanks

 

[krackin]

You have to pump a lot of water out of a new well, a lot. A real lot. I run at least 200,000 gallons through my driven points in sand aquifer. After than critters can have it. Drillers say at least 50,000 and that isn't enough IMHO to get the taste of grindings out.

 

[ajdelange]

Ok, I'll look for an alkalinity test kit that I can do from home. At what intervals would you recommend re-testing?

Once a month? Every three weeks? Something like that.

I also smell a little chlorine in the hot water, which must be concentrated in the tank. It's been 2 weeks with the new water system.

This is, I presume, from when the well was shocked after it was completed. Should was out eventually. Surprised it has taken this long.

 

[demetman]

You have to pump a lot of water out of a new well, a lot. A real lot. I run at least 200,000 gallons through my driven points in sand aquifer.

After than critters can have it. Drillers say at least 50,000 and that isn't enough IMHO to get the taste of grindings out.

Wow! that's an insane amount of water. The well drillers provide very little information regarding post drilling conditions. I was advised to run my water for 1 day after they bleached the system. It was suggested to keep my eyes closed when showering for the first two days, ha ha! I presume it's going to take at least a couple months for my water to neutralize. For the first four days, I ran my water through my garden hose(water softening/filtration bypassed) non stop. By my calculations, I ran out 60,480 gallons plus normal use of water for the past 10 days. today I still smelled a little chloride in the water. After checking my water softening salt tank, I realized the bleach water must have back washed into the tank, contaminating the salt. I dumped the salt, scrubbed the salt tank and dumped a couple of bags of potassium chloride into the tank. Hopefully this will help with bleach in the hot water heater.

In the coming months I'll be getting very busy for my summer season and will most likely have no time to brew until sept/oct. In the meantime, I'll be logging the variations of alkalinity and hardness for further review. Thank you guys for the reply.

 

[krackin]

It is a bit of water for sure, I should have mentioned that it is used for irrigation so it isn't just wasted energy and runoff. Some of my ground also has a lot of fines and veins need opening up asap so semi trash pumps work for me to start with as they are shallow wells.

My brother has a well not too far from one of mine and he had high manganese so it was lousy to drink. A family of 5 drawing for 20 years never changed that. All that time on a 1/2 hp Gould pump too. He always figured when that fail he would drill a new well, not yet.

Best of luck to you.

 

[demetman]

Just thought I would update this thread as a current comparison of my new well water profile after 5 months. I now have the time to brew again and would like to consider brewing with my well water. I would assume that any temporal variations would have stabilized by now. The well report was analysed by Ward Lab on 9/2/16
pH 5.4
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 134
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.22
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.2 / 1.9
ppm
Sodium, Na 30
Potassium, K 4
Calcium, Ca 7
Magnesium, Mg 5
Total Hardness, CaCO3 38
Nitrate, NO3-N 1.9(SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 8
Chloride, Cl 44
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 1
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 1
Total Phosphorus, P 0.02
Total Iron, Fe 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

I will assume that this water profile should allow me to brew light colored ales with the addition of calcium carbonate. I have been brewing recipes from Gordon Strong's books and was wondering if I used my well water to brew with dark grains and added all dark and steeping grains at vorlauf, should my mash ph be in range? Just wondering how I should look at my water profile when considering brewing a dark colored ale. Thank you for any advice

 

[ajdelange]

Interesting water. No alkalinity to speak of means that you are free of one the brewers biggest pains but you will still need some acid for most beers because water is not the only source of alkaiinity in the mash tun. Base malts are alkaline (relative to mash pH) too. It is seldom that any alkali is required and when it is (with darker beers) it is usually supplied by sodium bicarbonate but as you already have appreciable sodium you might prefer to use calium hydroxide. Calcium carbonate is never a good choice (unless you realy know what you are doing).

On another subject alkalinity as low as 1 is not possible for water at pH 5.4. The minimum is closer to 2. The formula for converting alkalinity to bicarbonate does not appy when the alkalinity is so low (because there isn't any bicarbonat) so the reported bicarbonate should be 0.