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- Feb 11, 2010
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Hi all, quick back story -- I've been brewing all grain for ten years and about six years ago made the jump to controlling my water chemistry starting with RO water as a clean slate. I recently moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania and decided to look into using my own tap water to avoid the extra trip out to procure one more brewing ingredient.
I purchase the Lamott kit and am also a paid supporter of Bru'n Water and I'm having some difficulty using the two together (probably driven by the fact that my own grasp of water chemistry is deficient). The main concern I have is that I get a cation/anion balance that is off by 0.61 meq/L, which is noted as being a suspect value. I knew my numbers were suspect even before getting to this point however because I didn't come up with a result from Lamott that gave me a value for Carbonate and that is one of the key ions tracked in the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet.
I'm hoping someone can help me connect the dots. There's a lot to read but I'm sure other brewers have been in a similar scenario and can help me learn about this aspect of brewing. I'd be excited to hear your experiences to help me understand my situation. My results from the Lamott test are below:
Ca: 48.0ppm
Mg: 9.6ppm
Na: 4.6ppm
Bicarbonate: 324.0ppm
Sulfate: 0.0 ppm
Cl: 30.0ppm
Also from Lamott but not specifically called out on the spreadsheet:
Total Alkalinity (CaCO3): 270ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3): 260ppm
Calcium Hardness (CaCO3): 120ppm
Magnesium Hardness: 140ppm
I do not currently have the capability to do a quality pH measurement, that's next on my list.
Thanks in advance for any help!
I purchase the Lamott kit and am also a paid supporter of Bru'n Water and I'm having some difficulty using the two together (probably driven by the fact that my own grasp of water chemistry is deficient). The main concern I have is that I get a cation/anion balance that is off by 0.61 meq/L, which is noted as being a suspect value. I knew my numbers were suspect even before getting to this point however because I didn't come up with a result from Lamott that gave me a value for Carbonate and that is one of the key ions tracked in the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet.
I'm hoping someone can help me connect the dots. There's a lot to read but I'm sure other brewers have been in a similar scenario and can help me learn about this aspect of brewing. I'd be excited to hear your experiences to help me understand my situation. My results from the Lamott test are below:
Ca: 48.0ppm
Mg: 9.6ppm
Na: 4.6ppm
Bicarbonate: 324.0ppm
Sulfate: 0.0 ppm
Cl: 30.0ppm
Also from Lamott but not specifically called out on the spreadsheet:
Total Alkalinity (CaCO3): 270ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3): 260ppm
Calcium Hardness (CaCO3): 120ppm
Magnesium Hardness: 140ppm
I do not currently have the capability to do a quality pH measurement, that's next on my list.
Thanks in advance for any help!