Help with water report- totally lost.

[MicahB]

Hey all,
I'm trying to get everything ready for my first all grain brew day this weekend(BIAB) and I'm trying to get my local water report figured out, but frankly, it's all Greek to me! I have thought about saying screw it and just trying my luck with my water how it is(besides removing chlorine/chloramines) but I'd really like to have this beer turn out well since I've convinced SWMBO that the investment of extra equipment will be worth it. Long story short, I have begun to question the freshness of the extract at my LHBS and tired of making sub-par beers with extract and hope that moving to all grain will alleviate my "something just isn't quit right" woes.

If anyone can help me make sense of the attached report and what any of this means I'd be sincerely grateful.

Cheers!

 

[LovesIPA]

That's not the report you need. You are looking for the minerals that affect taste of the water.

You are principally concerned with: calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, sulfate, and bicarbonate.

Arsenic, for example, is highly toxic and you don't want it in your drinking water OR your beer.

 

[acidrain]

Water supply reports are rarely detailed enough to use. Unless they have a detailed analysis, you will probably have to send in a sample to Ward Labs. It's the only way to know for sure.

 

[morticaixavier]

I took the easy way out with water chemistry when I made the switch to all grain. I started buying all my water out of an RO machine at the store. Makes everything so simple.

Download Bru'n water, read the instructions and get some basic knowledge of the minimum your beer needs (Calcium, Chloride and/or sulfate, correct pH achieved either purely through the grist or adjusted with lactic acid or pickling lime) and you are good to go.

 

[MicahB]

Ok, thanks so much for the help. I'll just try it out "as is" for now and hope my attempts are enough to appease SWMBO.

 

[Gameface]

All grain won't necessarily make your beer better. The best way to make better beer is to pitch enough yeast and control fermentation temps. Are you doing that?

Oh, and I use campden tablets to eliminate chlorine/chloramines after running tap water through a charcoal filter. I'm in UT also (but we probably get our water from different sources) and I have found that adding acidulated malt for 3-4% of my grain bill has improved my beers and increased my mash efficiency.

EDIT: where were you buying your supplies? The Beer Nut?

 

[user 141939]

You could try contacting someone and try to get a more detailed report. They must have done the testing on everything but maybe just don't make it available online?.

Then just plug everything into bru'n water, google water profiles for whatever style you are brewing and play around with the brui'n water to figure out what you need to add for salts. For me I live in Portland Maine and the water here is very soft which I think is kind of nice because it's like starting with a blank slate.

The Mash acidification page will allow you to enter the malts you are using for the recipe and basically uses the color of the mash and the info from your water profile and tries to predict your mash pH.

Also I am quite the noob so that is the best I can do to explain...

 

[MicahB]

All grain won't necessarily make your beer better. The best way to make better beer is to pitch enough yeast and control fermentation temps. Are you doing that?

Oh, and I use campden tablets to eliminate chlorine/chloramines after running tap water through a charcoal filter. I'm in UT also (but we probably get our water from different sources) and I have found that adding acidulated malt for 3-4% of my grain bill has improved my beers and increased my mash efficiency.

EDIT: where were you buying your supplies? The Beer Nut?

Thanks for covering the bases, yes, I always start with a healthy dose of re hydrated yeast, and have a temp controlled ferm chamber(mid-upper 60's). I use campden tablets too for chloramines and a full volume, vigorous boil to drive off chlorine. I shop at River City Homebrew in Richmond(north of Logan). It's a nice shop and the owner has just about everything you could need, but I worry about the turnover of malt there since it's such a small shop and not a lot of brewers around here. I understand that all grain isn't inherently better, but the shelf life of grain far exceeds that of extract.

 

[LovesIPA]

Plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper.

 

[MicahB]

Plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper.

Double plus!