Trying to get this water thing right

[Redcat]

I've got the following for my water from Bru'n'water & these reports from my city's water engineer.

Calcium: 18
Magnesium: 11
Sodium: 15
Sulfate: 5
Chloride: 3
Bicarbonate: 98

Hardness is 98 and Alkalinity is 20. The city adds sodium hydroxide to the water to make it around 7.4-7.8 pH.

According to the engineer, prior to treatment the city water is in the mid 6 range. Would sodium still be around 15mg/l if they had to bring up the pH that much?

I'm planning on brewing an ESB via BIAB. I'm going to use 8.2 gallons of water for the mash. To that I will add 3.2ml lactic acid before the mash to bring the mash to 5.4 or so. After the mash, I'll add in 4mg of gypsum to bring up the calcium and sulfates for yeast growth and hop accentuation.

Anything else I should consider?

 

[ajdelange]

I've got the following for my water from Bru'n'water & these reports from my city's water engineer.

Calcium: 18
Magnesium: 11
Sodium: 15
Sulfate: 5
Chloride: 3
Bicarbonate: 98

Hardness is 98 and Alkalinity is 20.

Something wrong here. The calcium and magnesium add up to 90 ppm hardness and alkalinity of 20 at pH 6.5 corresponds to 22.4 mg/L bicarbonate ion.

The city adds sodium hydroxide to the water to make it around 7.4-7.8 pH.

According to the engineer, prior to treatment the city water is in the mid 6 range. Would sodium still be around 15mg/l if they had to bring up the pH that much?

Assuming that 20 is the correct alkalinity number the water has little buffering capacity and it wouldn't take much sodium hydroxide (10.5 mg/L) to raise the water to pH 7.8. This would increase the sodium by 6 mg/L (total 21). The resulting water would have alkalinity of 33.

I'm planning on brewing an ESB via BIAB. I'm going to use 8.2 gallons of water for the mash. To that I will add 3.2ml lactic acid before the mash to bring the mash to 5.4 or so.

Assuming those pH and alkalinity numbers are right 3.2mL is a lot of acid and will take you closer to pH 4. For pH 5.4 half that amount should do it.

 

[Redcat]

I was looking on the wrong page on the spreadsheet.

Total Hardness as CaCO3 is 88ppm and Alkalinity is 81ppm from the water input page.

After adding 3.2ml of Lactic Acid, I get down 20ppm of Alkalinity.

 

[ajdelange]

Starting from pH 7.8 with 81 alkalinity 3.2 mL of lactic will get you down to pH 5.9 and leave alkalinity of 35. To get to pH 5.4 you'd need 3.95 mL which would leave you alkalinity of 24. Starting from pH 7.4 you'd need 3.93 mL.

 

[Redcat]

Does that include the acids in the grains themselves?

I'm brewing a half batch of this recipe:Captain Hooked on Bitters

 

[ajdelange]

No, just the water.

 

[Redcat]

Got the report from Ward Labs:

pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 123
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.20
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.1 / 2.1
ppm
Sodium, Na 16
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 16
Magnesium, Mg 7
Total Hardness, CaCO3 69
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.4 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 4
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 107
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 88
Total Phosphorus, P 0.04
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

Anything that surprises you versus the other reports?

 

[ajdelange]

Comparable to the earlier numbers (as corrected).

 

[Redcat]

Brewing the Black Pearl Porter recipe this weekend. I'll be making a 5 gallon batch, and using 8 gallons in the mash via BIAB.

My plan is 6 mL of 88% Lactic acid in the mash, and then 2.0mg of calcium chloride, 1.6 mg of pickling lime and 1.6mg of Gypsum.

The target in Bru'n'water for a black balanced water profile is 44ppm of calcium, but I'll end up at 74ppm with this adjustment.