Looking for feedback on my water report

[foos-n-brew]

I just received my Wards water report yesterday and would like to get some educated feedback. I've read the Brewing Water Chemistry Primer but I'm not sure if I need to dilute with R/O water or not. Hopefully the formatting comes OK.

Thanks in advance.


pH 8.0
TDS. 417
Electrical conductivity. 0.69
Cations/ Anions, me/L. 7.8/8.0

Sodium 20
Potassium 3
Calcium 82
Magnesium 32
Total hardness CaCO3 338
Nitrate 0.3
Sulfate, SO4-S 13
Chloride 49
CO3 12
Bicarbonate 331
Total alkalinity 292
Total phosphorus 0.76
Total Iron. 0.02

 

[grathan]

Will need treatment to get proper mash pH in all grain to avoid tannins. Even a 50/50 dilution will not be enough.

By treatment I mean acid additions or slaked lime. my bicarbonate level is 209 and if i recall it was 7ml lactic acid or something like that. I ended up just putting RO system under the sink instead of messing with acid.

The Bru'n Water spreadsheet is neat for figuring out water adjustments.

 

[ajdelange]

You have high levels of alkalinity and hardness. To get them down to the point where the Primer is applicable you would have to dilute 9:1 or more with RO/DI. To my way of thinking you might as well just use straight RO at that level of dilution.

 

[foos-n-brew]

I've downloaded the EZ Water spreadsheet and plugged my numbers and a couple of recipes into it, both light and dark beers. If I add sauermalz (and lactic acid when needed after I've already added 2% sauermalz) I can get the predicted mash pH down to acceptable levels.

Is this a viable alternative to R/O water and building it back up? I'm not sure how the profile would affect flavor, tannins, etc.

I don't have my pH meter yet but I will have before the next brewing session.

 

[ajdelange]

I've downloaded the EZ Water spreadsheet and plugged my numbers and a couple of recipes into it, both light and dark beers. If I add sauermalz (and lactic acid when needed after I've already added 2% sauermalz) I can get the predicted mash pH down to acceptable levels.

Is this a viable alternative to R/O water and building it back up? I'm not sure how the profile would affect flavor, tannins, etc.

It is an approach that is quite different from the RO approach. I said what I did because you asked about use of the Primer's guidelines and the Primer is based on RO.

You have about 6 mval of alkalinity. That's a lot. To dispose of it by adding acid you would have to add a lot of acid. Lactic would not be a good choice as it is quite strongly flavored. Phosphoric would be better. I really have no feel as to what the flavor threshold of phosphate is but it must be pretty high as malt itself contains quite a bit.

Another approach is to remove the bicarbonate (alkalinity) with heat or lime treatment. You have over 6 mval of hardness so you ought to be able to remove bicarbonate down to 1 or 2 mval (50 - 100 ppm as CaCO3) and could go the rest of the way with lactate or sauermalz.

IMO RO is much simpler than decarbonation because I have the brewery plumbed with RO from an automated system. If I want RO I open the RO valve. If I want well water I open the well water valve. If I had to drive half way around the beltway with jugs to get RO water I might think lime treatment simpler (not that my water is carbonaceous enough to require it). You should also understand that should you choose to install an RO system it would have to be preceded by a water softener.

I don't have my pH meter yet but I will have before the next brewing session.

A spreadsheet will tell you which direction to go. A pH meter will tell you when you get there. But remember that just setting mash pH, while critically important, is not the whole story. You must be mindful of how you got rid of the alkalinity (bicarbonate). Lime, boiling or RO actually remove it. Acid treatment replaces it with something else (the anion of the acid). It thus has flavor implications that lime/boiling/RO do not.