I currently live in GA and brew with some great city water. I am in the process of purchasing 47 acres in Alabama and plan on building a home there in the next couple of years. It is in a rural area and I will more than likely be digging a well for water. How many of you are brewing on well water and what are the concerns ect?
Brewing on well water?
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Concerns? Well water is a delight! No chlorine or chloramine. You will get spoiled by this and wrinkle up you nose when you go back to the city.
There are, of course, some concerns relevant to use both as a source of brewing water and water for other purposes. The first and foremost would be contamination of your well by something harmful such agricultural or industrial runoff or high level of dissolved radon i.e. microbiological, chemical or radiological threats. Before you will be given an occupancy permit you will have the well tested for these so if you can use the well legally it will be safe.
Second would be the presence of something that tastes bad such as high levels of iron or manganese. If your well has those you will need to install equipment to remove them as not only do they taste bad but they stain porcelain, clothes etc. Organic substances such as geosmine can lend an earthy or musty taste. They can be removed with an active carbon filter.
Third might be low pH. In mesic regions the soil contains bacteria which respire. This results in the presence of carbon dioxide which is at partial pressure well above the 0.0003 atm found in the air. As a consequence well water in these regions is often at a pH of around or even below 6 and can be quite corrosive. This problem is dealt with by trickling the water over a bed of dolomitic limestone (another tank in your basement).
Fourth is hard water i.e. water in which a lot of calcium and/or magnesium are dissolved. This can be a problem for brewing and for the household as it leaves encrustations on faucets and shower heads, results in increased soap consumption, plugs up your water heater and is bad in some types of beer. Hardness is solved by ion exchange softening in which the water is trickled over a bed of resin beads (yet another tank in your basement) charged with sodium ions. The beads release the sodium ions in preference for magnesium and calcium ions with the result that you wind up with high concentration of sodium and low concentration of calcium and magnesium. This is a problem for the brewer who prefers calcium and magnesium, up to a point, to sodium in his beer.
Two through four are problems in brewing but also in the use of the water for other purposes. Therefore you house will have as many of the treatment devices mentioned above as are needed. This leaves the fifth potential problem: alkalinity. Alkalinity is the main concern of brewers as it pulls the pH of mash high. Home owners don't care about it so there is no device that eliminates it and that is usually left to the brewer. Elimination methods consist of boiling, treatment with lime, neutralization with acid and removal of the responsible ions by reverse osmosis.
What concerns you will actually have depend, of course, on your water and can be quite variable. The first thing to do is get a sample off to a laboratory who will assess your water from the brewer's POV (Ward Labs).
There are, of course, some concerns relevant to use both as a source of brewing water and water for other purposes. The first and foremost would be contamination of your well by something harmful such agricultural or industrial runoff or high level of dissolved radon i.e. microbiological, chemical or radiological threats. Before you will be given an occupancy permit you will have the well tested for these so if you can use the well legally it will be safe.
Second would be the presence of something that tastes bad such as high levels of iron or manganese. If your well has those you will need to install equipment to remove them as not only do they taste bad but they stain porcelain, clothes etc. Organic substances such as geosmine can lend an earthy or musty taste. They can be removed with an active carbon filter.
Third might be low pH. In mesic regions the soil contains bacteria which respire. This results in the presence of carbon dioxide which is at partial pressure well above the 0.0003 atm found in the air. As a consequence well water in these regions is often at a pH of around or even below 6 and can be quite corrosive. This problem is dealt with by trickling the water over a bed of dolomitic limestone (another tank in your basement).
Fourth is hard water i.e. water in which a lot of calcium and/or magnesium are dissolved. This can be a problem for brewing and for the household as it leaves encrustations on faucets and shower heads, results in increased soap consumption, plugs up your water heater and is bad in some types of beer. Hardness is solved by ion exchange softening in which the water is trickled over a bed of resin beads (yet another tank in your basement) charged with sodium ions. The beads release the sodium ions in preference for magnesium and calcium ions with the result that you wind up with high concentration of sodium and low concentration of calcium and magnesium. This is a problem for the brewer who prefers calcium and magnesium, up to a point, to sodium in his beer.
Two through four are problems in brewing but also in the use of the water for other purposes. Therefore you house will have as many of the treatment devices mentioned above as are needed. This leaves the fifth potential problem: alkalinity. Alkalinity is the main concern of brewers as it pulls the pH of mash high. Home owners don't care about it so there is no device that eliminates it and that is usually left to the brewer. Elimination methods consist of boiling, treatment with lime, neutralization with acid and removal of the responsible ions by reverse osmosis.
What concerns you will actually have depend, of course, on your water and can be quite variable. The first thing to do is get a sample off to a laboratory who will assess your water from the brewer's POV (Ward Labs).
Great answer and is right on point as I am on well water. Get a water report done and see how good/bad the water is. Mine ended up being not ideal for brewing without some house water modifications(filtering/softener) due to the high iron content as mentioned.
I do the Primo 5 gallon water container swaps at the store for my 10 gallon brews. Sucks to have to do that, but makes great beer so I don't mind too much.
I do the Primo 5 gallon water container swaps at the store for my 10 gallon brews. Sucks to have to do that, but makes great beer so I don't mind too much.
I'm on well water and haven't had any issues brewing with it. I recently got my water report from Ward labs and my Ph is low, but some experimentation with salts and acids should solve any issues as along as the water tastes good to drink.
douglasbarbin
Well-Known Member
Water pH doesn't really matter. Mash pH (and by extension, pH going into the kettle) is the only pH you should really care about.
PlexVector
Mellow Goose Brewing
@ajdelange said it "well". I'm on well and I know it is just a tad acidic and hard, based on the original report years ago, but I've yet to get a new report, which I plan to do eventually. In the mean time my water tastes great and the beer seems to be coming out pretty good. I've only brewed IPAs and APAs however. I checked the mash PH with a paper strip and it comes out to around 5.2, but plan to get eventually get a ph meter.
av8er79
Well-Known Member
ajdelange,
Thanks for the expanded explanation and concerns. So basically I gather that I may need some additional filters and softeners (which would be desirable even if I were not brewing) to make my water 100% brewing friendly?
Thanks for the expanded explanation and concerns. So basically I gather that I may need some additional filters and softeners (which would be desirable even if I were not brewing) to make my water 100% brewing friendly?
azazel1024
Well-Known Member
You have four options.
Brew with it and forget it.
Get a water report and possibly adjust minerals
Get a reverse osmossis filter and add minerals
Buy bottled water and possibly add minerals.
I can't speak to Alabama. In my experience, the water (city and well) of most of Florida is just not good. Granted, I think I've only had well water in Florida twice, but both times the well water tasted off, almost a sulphur taste. The public water every has incredible levels of chloramines to the point of making it disgusting to try to drink.
I am in central maryland and have a well. Pretty awesome water for brewing. Its relatively neutral and just slightly acidic and slightly hard (very low acid level, but just a hint, which ends up for decent mashing without having to adjust PH). Only time I really NEED to adjust it is for Pilsners, but I feel like everyone needs to adjust their water for pilsners.
Brew with it and forget it.
Get a water report and possibly adjust minerals
Get a reverse osmossis filter and add minerals
Buy bottled water and possibly add minerals.
I can't speak to Alabama. In my experience, the water (city and well) of most of Florida is just not good. Granted, I think I've only had well water in Florida twice, but both times the well water tasted off, almost a sulphur taste. The public water every has incredible levels of chloramines to the point of making it disgusting to try to drink.
I am in central maryland and have a well. Pretty awesome water for brewing. Its relatively neutral and just slightly acidic and slightly hard (very low acid level, but just a hint, which ends up for decent mashing without having to adjust PH). Only time I really NEED to adjust it is for Pilsners, but I feel like everyone needs to adjust their water for pilsners.
ArkotRamathorn
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If, and only, IF you get your water tested and some of the numbers are way out of whack. Just as likely you could have good water that comes right out of the ground and you don't need to play with it at all. Are you building near-ish to anyone else that has well water? 46 acres is a pretty nice chunk of property but if anyone else in the area has a well, you could potentially ask them if you could have a sample of their water and send it off for testing.
Thats only if they're fairly close to your property, you could at the very least get a general idea of what your water will be like.
Yes, you may well need some equipment in addition to a bladder (pressure) tank depending on where you live. Some parts of Alabama have quite soft water while in other parts the water can be fairly hard. If it is hard it will also be alkaline most likely unless it is loaded with sulfate. Given that the water comes from a well it is very likely you will need (or at least they will try to sell you) a neutralizer. If you are building and using PEX plumbing you won't. If the water is hard you will probably want a softener. Iron filters, GAC filters, particulate filters... depend on how the well tests.
Whatever you wind up with for you house it is very probable that you will want to do additional treatment in order to be '100% brewing friendly'. If the water parameters are reasonable there will be some beers you can brew without treatment but for others treatment will be necessary. Reduction of alkalinity is the most likely think you will need to do with supplementation of chloride and/or sulfate to taste second most likely.
I've lived in Alabama and Florida and yeah, Florida water can be pretty bad with a lot of sulphur. In contrast the water in north and central Alabama tends to be much better, although it is pretty hard. Not sure about LA. The thing with wells though is the water can vary a lot. You just need to get it tested.
azazel1024
Well-Known Member
Very true. My well water is generally great. With that said, I know some brew club members who live only 15-20 miles from me on well and their water is very hard and they have to have a water softner, so their well water can't really be used for brewing (at least without RO). Of course I have a "surface well" at only about 70ft deep and their's is a few hundred feet down.
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