Home Brew Forum

hi all i'v been trying to get a detailed water report from southern water as i live in lewes (near brighton) i have managed to get most of the information i need of there site to fill in the water calculator form but still need Magnesium (Mg),Carbonate (CO3),Alkalinity as HCO3 and Alkalinity as CaCO3 does any members have these i could have please,paul

Funny you should be missing these levels. I have just asked for exactly those same readings from my water board (Severn Trent). They rang me on Friday to say I would have the answer to my email on Monday.

Try emailing them.

Rob.

i have emailed rob,think i'll phone monday looks like my only choice

paulski wrote:hi all i'v been trying to get a detailed water report from southern water as i live in lewes (near brighton) i have managed to get most of the information i need of there site to fill in the water calculator form but still need Magnesium (Mg),Carbonate (CO3),Alkalinity as HCO3 and Alkalinity as CaCO3 does any members have these i could have please,paul

Buy a Salifert kit and test your own alkalinity linky - it is the most important figure and should not be relied upon from average figures from your water utility.

Your alkalinity is probably in the range of 200 to 250 as calcium carbonate. You do not need the CO3 figure and if you get a figure for HCO3 dividing this by 1.22 will give you calcium carbonate.

Your magnesium is probably in the range 2 to 5

paulski wrote:hi all i'v been trying to get a detailed water report from southern water as i live in lewes (near brighton) i have managed to get most of the information i need of there site to fill in the water calculator form but still need Magnesium (Mg),Carbonate (CO3),Alkalinity as HCO3 and Alkalinity as CaCO3 does any members have these i could have please,paul

It's funny that so many people seem to have problems getting reports from their water authority. Maybe I'm lucky, but I just go the United Utilities' website, type in my postcode and Bob's yer uncle. It doesn't give alkalinity but as WallyBrew says, the Salifert kit solves that problem. What I'm intending to do from now on is use the average figures from the report with an ,(hopefully) accurate alkalinity value and tweak cation and anion values 'til they match. It's not fool proof but I reckon it's going to be close enough.

I'm glad I got a Murphy's test done back in May, but again as WallyBrew said in another thread you've got no way of knowing how accurate that still is several months down the line. The alternative is to have one done every month - expensive

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but @paulski were you able to get the water values for Southern Water? I looked at their report and sent them an email about the missing values (which they said they couldn't supply). Here's my best guess:

Ca - 120 ppm
Mg - 5.5 ppm (guess from other parts of the south)
Na - 9.01 ppm
SO4 - 12.05 ppm
Cl - 21.18 ppm
HCO3 - 365.30 ppm (calculated from CaCO3 value on this page - https://www.southernwater.co.uk/how-hard-is-your-water)

Were you able to get any better values? Did you figure out what sort of additives should be added to get a balanced profile? I think the only additive I can see is 79.9 ml Carbonate Reducing Solution, calculated here: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php

Thoughts? Can anybody else brewing in the South (Hampshire or thereabouts) give me an idea about what additives, if any, they put into their water?

Thanks.

the water company figures are a guideline at best and shouldn't be relied upon for brewing as they will change throughout the year. as wallybrew said earlier test the alkalinity yourself as that is the important one. calcium too. i could dig out a water analysis report for south hampshire done by wallybrew himself last year but again that would only be one datapoint.
recommend reading the water treatment pages here and on the craftbrewing forum

Thanks, I'll check that out.

I brew in Hampshire. Had water tested in 2012 and I would say that the numbers are reasonably accurate apart from Alkalinity which you should try to test each brewday, currently is measuring at 240ppm CaCO3 following Campden treatment. My balanced profile for darker beers aims for 100ppm CaCO3 and so I treat with AMS/CRS at around 0.84ml/l and my mash pH turns out 5.3-5.4. I have used different additions, but now I just use AMS/CRS, although I'm thinking of moving to RO water and building on that.

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting to think the RO route may be the way to go as well, should allow for better fine tuning given the hardness of water in Hampshire and give a more consistent result (I hope!).

Magnesium isn't all that important. It adds to the overall hardness (you have that figure) but doesn't have an impact on the beer.

for interest, a sample done 13 months ago with southampton water (mg/L):

calcium 115
alkalinity 230
chloride 20,6
sulphate 14,2
pH 7,1

but the alkalinity has varied around 40ppm and the pH has varied too at various points of the year so to rely on one datapoint or "what works for someone else" would be foolish, just in my opinion..

Thanks, I'm Winchester based, so those numbers are probably from the same water source.

jaroporter wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:24 pm

for interest, a sample done 13 months ago with southampton water (mg/L):

calcium 115
alkalinity 230
chloride 20,6
sulphate 14,2
pH 7,1

but the alkalinity has varied around 40ppm and the pH has varied too at various points of the year so to rely on one datapoint or "what works for someone else" would be foolish, just in my opinion..

Andover water in 2012:

calcium 114
alkalinity 398 (currently 240)
chloride 23.6
sulphate 14.2
pH 7,1

So not much in it across the region