San Diego Water questions

[Beercules1]

I'm new to brewing and live in San Diego...
For now, I use a Camco filter to run my water through, but wondering if anyone has done any sort of other adjustments. Ballast point says they use their local water and just run it through a carbon filter to remove chlorine.

When playing around in BS2 is shows how you can adjust water for making Irish Reds for example using water identical to those in Ireland for authenticity. Is this worth the hassel?

Is the Camco filter good enough?

 

[outside92129]

I don't do anything but i know some folks who use filters or DI, no discernible differences in our beers tho. Note that different areas of San Diego are fed by different water sources and if you truly want to dial it in you need to get a water test done (Ward labs: http://www.wardlab.com)

If you're new to brewing please note that you will get a lot more bang for your buck doing other things for beer quality than messing with the water. Mash temp, ph, ingredients, etc. Our water is good enough for all the breweries we have!

btw, here's a report from the PQ area (up the 15 near the 56):

pH 8.0
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 296
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.49
Cations / Anions, me/L 4.5 / 4.2

ppm
Sodium, Na 49
Potassium, K 3
Calcium, Ca 26
Magnesium, Mg 12
Total Hardness, CaCO3 115
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.4 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 18
Chloride, Cl 58
Carbonate, CO3 3
Bicarbonate, HCO3 78
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 69
Total Phosphorus, P 0.54
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

 

[mabrungard]

+1 on knowing what the water source is. There are locations in the county that have decent water and others that don't. A water test and a call to your water provider to discuss the source and its variability, are wise moves.

 

[LovesIPA]

Part of the problem is that our water in California sometimes has different sources. My city water report has huge variations in brewing minerals listed on it. Unless you want to spend lots of money getting your water tested often you are rolling the dice on how your beer will come out.

What I do is buy purified water by the 5 gallon jug. It costs $1.25 per fill. I don't have to buy a filter, maintain it or fix it when it leaks or breaks.

 

[hello_josh]

I am in San Diego's Helix Water District. I use the tap water with a charcoal filter and campden tablet for chloramine for my Ales. I have yet to do a lager but plan on using 75% RO and 25% filtered tap water. My tap is a pretty good mid-range water for ales.

 

[daksin]

Here in Mira Mesa/Miramar, I've taken the City reported values (as ranges) and just used the average value. A sample is actually going off this month to get the real values though. Here's what I have right now:

Ca 2+ 60.5
Mg 2+ 22.9
SO4 &#8211; 192
Na+ 87.2
Cl &#8211; 94.9
HCO3 &#8211; 130
Total Alkalinity 107

While it looks pretty hard, I can testify that this water makes good beer. I'm not sure about lighter beers, although my cream ale comes out great. I'd be surprised to find out that Ballast point doesn't use some RO for their Kolsch, but I have heard the same thing from them that they don't adjust their water at all.

 

[signmastr]

I too use tap water an RV carbon filter and treat for chloramine.

 

[daksin]

Just wanted to update folks on this. Got my sample back from Ward and the values are EXTREMELY close to the 2011 water report "average" values. The 2012 report just came out but I haven't looked at it yet. In case you're wondering, here are my results (corrected) from the Miramar Source:

Ca- 62
Mg- 22
SO4- 171
Na- 74
Cl- 87
HCO3- 135
K- 4
TA: 121
TH CaCO3- 247
P- 0.34
Fe- <0.01ppm
pH- 8.1

 

[daksin]

Update, the 2012 water report is quite a bit different from 2011 and my measured values. May be worth sending off another bottle in a couple of months.

 

[hello_josh]

Just read this article on San Diego brewing water. Reminded me of this thread and thought you all might find it interesting.
http://www.westcoastersd.com/2012/04/24/into-the-brew-it-really-is-in-the-water