Water source in southeastern MA – Simpson Spring

[ShlouBrew]

I’ve recently switched to all grain and have been educating myself on water. While weighing my options I ran across a pretty good solution from a local company that really went out of their way to answer my questions so I figured I’d spread the word to some of my fellow brewers. I’m in no way associated with this company but it’s nice to see customer service like this and I like supporting local places.

Simpson Spring is an actual spring located in Easton, Massachusetts and they have a number of ‘filling stations’ scattered throughout southeastern MA that charge 25 cents a gallon. This was way cheaper than the 1 gallon jugs I had been buying at the market and I wasn’t quite sold on filtering and/or campden tablets yet so I figured I’d check it out. I emailed them requesting details on their water and a few days later Chris had mailed (actual paper!) some excerpts from their water report. The information didn’t contain Bicarbonate so Chris then called up his testing lab to get me the info, pretty cool. I’ve included all of this data at the end of this post.

Beyond the service, this also could be a pretty nice brewing water option if you’re near one of the filling stations. I was close to going with the filter on the end of the hose option and campden tablets for the chlorinates in my tap water, but then I thought ‘why bother?’ Yes it’s a bit cheaper but it’s also another piece of equipment to maintain, filters to check, and I’ll always wonder if I’m really getting all of the nasties out of the water. RO is another option but that means I’m adjusting the water for every single batch no matter what the style. If I make 10 5gal (8 gal needed) all grain batches a year the filling station option will cost me 20 bucks. I can live with this, I see it as paying them to maintain my water profile and quality for me.

The water profile also seems pretty good for brewing, at least as far as my novice eyes can tell. I got permission from Chris there to post all of this information here, review and critique as you see fit. To me it looks like a pretty good, fairly light brewing water ion profile. I’m also thinking the 5.9 pH should take me down to around 5.2 in the mash. But as I said, I’m a water rookie, if you see something here I don’t you’re only helping me:

From Simpson Spring:
pH 5.9
Calcium (Ca) 13.1
Magnesium (Mg) 2.0
Sodium (Na) 17.2
Potassium (K) 1.8
Iron (Fe) 0.0
Sulfate (SO4) 13.0
Chloride (Cl) 38.7
Nitrate (NO3) 1.9
Nitrite (NO2) 0.0
Fluoride (F) 0.0
Bicarbonate (HCO3) 18.3
Carbonate (CO3) ?

Calculated By Bru'n water spreadsheet:
Total Hardness, as CaCO3, (ppm) 41
Permanent Hardness, as CaCO3, (ppm) 26
Temporary Hardness, as CaCO3, (ppm) 15
Alkalinity (ppm as CaCO3) 15
Residual Alkalinity (RA), (ppm) 5
RA Chart Hardness, as CaCO3, (ppm) 37

 

[BigEd]

That water is pretty soft and fairly typical of the water in Southern New England. The Calcium Ca+ is low so I would bump it up to 50-75ppm for most beers using, in general, calcium sulphate for pale ales and calcium chloride for pale lagers. Calcium carbonate can be used for darker beers.

 

[ShlouBrew]

hmm... so you're saying even for pale beers i should bump up the calcium? I was thinking i would just need to do this for things like stouts and porters.

what do you think about the pH?

 

[BigEd]

hmm... so you're saying even for pale beers i should bump up the calcium? I was thinking i would just need to do this for things like stouts and porters.

what do you think about the pH?

All beers need calcium. The pH of the water is immaterial. The pH of the mash is important. If the brewing ions of the water are balanced for the style being made the mash pH will fall into place.

I suggest you read some of the sticky threads and various posts on similar topics in the Brew Science section here. Going over the water topic in a good homebrewing book is also a very good idea. Palmer's "How to Brew" is the best and most up-to-date general purpose book.