Starting out on water treatment

[Full Mental Jakey]

I'm just starting out understanding the process of testing my water and treating it.

For starters, when people refer to Salifert kits for testing, are these the kits?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALIFERT-Alka ... 3cd013e682
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALIFERT-CA-C ... 2c5b3d6480

Was a little unsure if they were suitable for testing fresh water, as they appear to be aimed at salt-water aquarium testing...

[barry44]

I use the first one to determine how much acid I need to add to my sparge water in bru n water. Very easy to use and understand

[Full Mental Jakey]

Great, that's the same purpose I had in mind. I have the water report for my area, but to my surprise there is no indication of alkalinity (I know it's low, but not how low). So if I can measure it myself easily with a £9 kit, it's a no-brainer.

[barry44]

Absolutely. You can get over 100 tests from that and as far as I can see it is not a test you have to carry out every time you brew. Mine has been the same the two times I have tested it.

[Aleman]

Absolutely. You can get over 100 tests from that and as far as I can see it is not a test you have to carry out every time you brew.

Yes it flippin is!!!!

I've had stable reading for several years then all of a sudden last year it shot up from 24 - 135 mg/l . . .it's been up and down like a whores drawers since then, although has now started to settle back around the 20mg/l mark.

Just to emphasise

Alkalinity is the one parameter that you should measure each and every time you brew!

[mabrungard]

Alkalinity is the one parameter that you should measure each and every time you brew!

Good advice unless you are positive that your water source and quality never changes! Alkalinity has the greatest impact on the resulting mash pH and it warrants high vigilance.

[barry44]

Fair enough gents, I stand corrected.

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

[Dave S]

Absolutely. You can get over 100 tests from that and as far as I can see it is not a test you have to carry out every time you brew.

Yes it flippin is!!!!

I've had stable reading for several years then all of a sudden last year it shot up from 24 - 135 mg/l . . .it's been up and down like a whores drawers since then, although has now started to settle back around the 20mg/l mark.

Just to emphasise

Alkalinity is the one parameter that you should measure each and every time you brew!

Definitely! I got caught out recently when I diluted with what I thought was low alkaline bottled water. Turned out it was nearly as high as my tap water. Won't make that mistake again.

[orlando]

Absolutely. You can get over 100 tests from that and as far as I can see it is not a test you have to carry out every time you brew.

Yes it flippin is!!!!

I've had stable reading for several years then all of a sudden last year it shot up from 24 - 135 mg/l . . .it's been up and down like a whores drawers since then, although has now started to settle back around the 20mg/l mark.

Just to emphasise

Alkalinity is the one parameter that you should measure each and every time you brew!

Definitely! I got caught out recently when I diluted with what I thought was low alkaline bottled water. Turned out it was nearly as high as my tap water. Won't make that mistake again.

What was the beer like?

[Dave S]

Definitely! I got caught out recently when I diluted with what I thought was low alkaline bottled water. Turned out it was nearly as high as my tap water. Won't make that mistake again.

What was the beer like?

The beer had a hard and strange taste which I find difficult to describe but I've had beers taste like it before. After several weeks in the keg it mellowed out considerably until by the last couple of pints it tasted quite good

[Full Mental Jakey]

It's pay-day, so time to order some test kits! I decided to look at the accuracy of the salifert kits...

kH/Alk : 0.1 meq/L, which I think is 6ppm bicarbonate
Ca : +/- 10ppm
Mg : measured in steps of 30ppm

These are 3 kits I think I need, as they are the 3 important ones that my local water report fails to measure.

However, I'm doubting if the Mg test is worth it - my water is soft (I think) so there is every chance the Mg is below 30ppm for starters, and hence the test won't tell me anything. Is it worth measuring anyway, in case it changes suddenly?

[orlando]

my water is soft (I think) so there is every chance the Mg is below 30ppm for starters, and hence the test won't tell me anything. Is it worth measuring anyway, in case it changes suddenly?

As you say under 30mg is fine, it's important for healthy yeast growth and of course helps bitterness perception but shouldn't vary much.

[Aleman]

Forge mg it is not really important, and if your water is soft it will be well under 30ppm . . . my water is soft and the mg is 4 . . . I treat it as if it is 0 . . .In fact all I normally do is just add another 5mg/l of Mg to my brewing water in addition to gypsum and / or calcium chloride

[Full Mental Jakey]

Thanks for that guys, saved me £10...

[Full Mental Jakey]

Ok, the water test kits for calcium and alkalinity arrived. So that lets me fill in a few more blanks...

pH : 7.9 (from water report, my pH meter hasn't arrived yet)
Calcium : 10ppm (from test kit, which has a margin of error of the same magnitude, so take with a pinch of salt)
Magnesium : unknown
Sulfate : 17ppm (from water report)
Chloride : 4.8ppm (from water report)
Sodium : 4ppm (from water report)
Nitrate : 0ppm (from water report)
Nitrate : 0ppm (from water report)
Potassium : unknown
Iron : 0ppm (from water report)
Fluride : 0.2ppm (from water report)
Bicarbonate : 20ppm (from test kit)

To test what affects adjusting my water will have I brewed the same recipe twice, one with treatment and one without. The recipe is a hoppy pale ale, and I targeted the "yellow bitter" profile in Bru' Water...

Calcium (ppm) Magnesium (ppm) Sodium (ppm) Sulfate (ppm) Chloride (ppm) Bicarbonate (ppm)
Existing Water Profile 10 0 4 17 5 20
Finished Water Profile 69 0 4 101 48 20

The adjustments to Calcium, Sulfate and Chloride were made by adding 0.15g/L of gypsum and 0.09 g/L of CaCl2. I treated both strike and sparge water this way. As I don't yet have acid or a pH meter, I didn't acidify the sparge water.

I won't know what difference this makes to the taste of the beer for a few more weeks, but the mash/kettle performance was identical. Both brews ended up with 23L in the FV at 1052, and the mash efficiency was 80% in both cases (which is about normal for my kit). The runnings may have been a little clearer with the brew using treated water, but it's hard to be sure.