My Water Story

[packerduf]

A long time ago I had my tap-water tested by my local water treatment facility. They did some testing at my house, and the rest back at their lab. The results were as follows:

pH - 7.65
Chlorine (Total) - 1.9 mg/L
Alkalinity - 140 mg/L
Dissolved Solids - 346 mg/L
Dissolved Oxygen - 11.14 mg/L
Hardness (Calcium) - 110 mg/L
Hardness (Total) - 226 mg/l
Fluoride - .266 mg/L
Manganese - .027 mg/L
Total Organic Carbon - 4.07

Since these values didn't do me much good, I pretty much forgot about it. I thought I might send a sample to Ward Labs, but never followed through. Well, with all this Borg-talk about water (and mash-pH), my interest was rekindled. So, I recently gave the chief chemist a call and explained what info I actually needed for the brewing software I was using. She did some calculations and provided the following information:

Calcium (Ca) - 110 mg/L
Magnesium (Mg) - 76 mg/L
Sodium (Na) - 50 mg/L
Sulfate (SO4) - 108 mg/L
Chloride (Cl) - 33 mg/L
Alkalinity - 140 mg/L

So now I'm all pumped up because I have a good starting point to modify my water using the ez water calculator. But, then she dropped the bomb on me. She said my water source might change from time to time (unannounced), and when that happens the numbers would change. Well crap! So, I have decided to just use RO water and build my own water profiles for future brews.

For the past few brews, I have diluted my tap water with RO water, and I have added lactic acid to bring my mash pH down into the proper range for my BIABs. Since doing so, I have been achieving 78% mash efficiency with no sparge. Before, I would generally achieve 70% - 73% with a sparge. I picked up some Calcium Chloride and Gypsum at my LHBS yesterday, so I'll be using 100% RO water for all future brews.

Thanks for listening.

[FrozenInTime]

I use spring water for all my brews. While I do have an artisian well (spring water), it is not the best, heavy in iron and other thangs. So I just get mine at the commissary, $4 for 5 gallons.

[MadBrewer]

Thats awesome to hear it just goes to show how a few little adjustments can make you better beer. Have you been hitting the estimated ph in EZ water for your beers? Some gypsum for hoppy beers or Calcium chloride for malty beers to plain RO water is all it takes along with a little acid when needed. Have you tasted an improvement or noticed cleaner clearer bers as well from the calcium?

[packerduf]

...Have you been hitting the estimated ph in EZ water for your beers? .....Have you tasted an improvement or noticed cleaner clearer bers as well from the calcium?

I don't have a pH meter yet, so I am currently putting my trust in the ez water calculator - for now. Just picked up my calcium and gypsum yesterday, so I'll put that to use on my next brew. My Munich Helles is amazingly clear, but all I did for that one was to dilute the tap water with RO water (didn't have the lactic acid yet). The two brews in which I used the lactic acid are not far enough along to report any improvements, other than mash efficiency. I'll be sure to post my results once I put everything to work.

MadBrewer, I really appreciate all the advice, information, and encouragement you have provided to the Borg in regards to water chemistry. I really couldn't wrap my head around much of it until you provided some simplified explanations. Thank you.

[Inkleg]

MadBrewer, I really appreciate all the advice, information, and encouragement you have provided to the Borg in regards to water chemistry. I really couldn't wrap my head around much of it until you provided some simplified explanations. Thank you.

+1000

Though I may never get too far into water chemistry alteration, all the information you have provided has been soaked up and dually noted. I run my county water through a particle / carbon filter and seem (per friend and judges scores) to make pretty good beer. But by reading all you have posted I'm going to add 1/2 tsp of gypsum to my next IPA and see what it does and go from there.

[MadBrewer]

MadBrewer, I really appreciate all the advice, information, and encouragement you have provided to the Borg in regards to water chemistry. I really couldn't wrap my head around much of it until you provided some simplified explanations. Thank you.

+1000

Though I may never get too far into water chemistry alteration, all the information you have provided has been soaked up and dually noted. I run my county water through a particle / carbon filter and seem (per friend and judges scores) to make pretty good beer. But by reading all you have posted I'm going to add 1/2 tsp of gypsum to my next IPA and see what it does and go from there.

I appreciate that guys. I like being able to help in this area because it's such a forgotten about or mis- understood part of brewing. I learned a lot from reading books, articles and papers on the subject but a lot of what I've come to learn about it has just been through doing things for myself. By no means I know it all, but I have come to understand it enough for my own brewing. I been brewing over 5 years so I've played around with every area of my water and doing different things to it and I just like to share that when I can, the same as anyone else would with something they have become familiar with.

You are on the right track packerduf. Get that ph meter and double check your actual mash ph against what EZ water is estimating. Play around with Gypsum and Cal Chloride additions with RO water for different beers and see what YOU like best, that's what it's all about. The truth is, many think making any adjustments or playing with their water is too complicated or too much work when really it's not and it's so worth it in the end. The last beer I made was an IPA and it was honestly one of if not the best all around beers I ever brewed. I took some simple steps to ensure the beer was what I wanted it to be and here's all I did:

I used EZ water calculator to estimate my mash ph of 5.3. (Add your water profile and let the calculator do the math).
I used my filtered tap water and added half a Campden tablet for the mash and half for the sparge water. (De-chlorinating brewing water is very important).
I added some lactic acid to the mash, doughed in and checked my ph...it was 5.25 very close to EZ water's estimate.
I added some lactic acid to the sparge water to decrease the alkalinity and keep the sparge from rising over 6 ph. (This keeps any risk of tannis and harsher off flavors from ruining the beer).
I checked kettle ph before the boil and it was around 5.3 (A boil ph should be around the same as your mash ph. This keeps from producing a harsher bitterness from the hops).
I added 1/4 tsp Gypsum to the boil to add some Calcium which helps clarify things at the end of the boil and helps bring out the hop character in the beer for this IPA).
I checked ph of the beer going into the fermenter and that ph drops .1-.2 points after the boil. (Mine was 5.2).
I checked finished beer ph to be in range of 4.2-4.5. Any higher and the beer tastes duller, not as bright. Any lower and the beer tastes sour. (My finished beer ph was 4.4).

Doing these things lets me know things are doing what they should be doing, and I'm on my way to a good beer. Does this really sound like that much to do for better beer? I don't play around with water profiles, I don't add a bunch of different salts. I use my tap water just like a lot of brewers do, the thing is you need to know what that water is made up of and what that water is or will do for your beer. We gotta know where that mash ph is at and how to get it where we want it...thats' really the key. Without that we are going at this blind. The mash ph drives everything downstream from the mash. To me that's worth looking into.

I only posted all this because these steps are simple, they take no extra time or hassle on brew day but a few minutes and they have helped produce the best beers I ever have. These are the steps I am taking on ever beer from this point forward. I hope everyone that is diving into the water side of their brewing has great results brewing the best beers they can and they are all that they want them to be.

[zorak1066]

I use spring water for all my brews. While I do have an artisian well (spring water), it is not the best, heavy in iron and other thangs. So I just get mine at the commissary, $4 for 5 gallons.

I was considering going into all grain one day and continuing using zephryhills spring water... til I discovered that it is not single source water. they get their water from multiple springs , each with their own chemistry. their water quality report has ranges like .1 to 680 ppm. wtf good is that statistic to a brewer????

will consider primo if they will let me know their specs. it is ro water that they back treat with minerals to a set recipe. I would use our tap water but despite their claims of it being best in florida, it totally sux.

anyway...will be awhile before I can start mucking around with ag kits so....

[MadBrewer]

^This is the same for a lot of spring or bottled water. Maybe not all of the brands but the range of mineral content can be very different from brand to brand or from area to area. Something like the big name water cooler type brands like Hinkley are basically RO water with minerals added back in for taste. The level of minerals are low and too low to support brewing, so that alone is not a good option. This is why I always say knowing what you are working with is the important thing.

For those that are just using bottled water for all grain brewing. A better option is to buy RO or Distilled water and add your own minerals back to it, this way you at least know what you are getting. 1 tsp of Cal Chloride for a 5 gal batch is the most neutral source. Some of that tsp could be Gypsum, for hoppy beers. It's really that easy. And then check mash ph and adjust if necessary with Lactic acid, more than likely it will need to be lowered some, except when using darker grains to make darker beers like Stout or Porter.