Salifert Kit, no change in colour

[will_raymo2000]

As per the title, bought a Salifert KH test and gave it a go on my water (very, very hard) but absolutely no change after a full syringe of 1ml. Tried on full and low resolution mode (2 and 4 drops) and also tried the check solution which is bang on what it was supposed to be.

Is it possible my water is too hard for the kit to test? Anglian water report alkalinity as an average of 301 CaCO3.

Any thoughts?

On my most recent brewday I input the values into the calculator on this site and it came up as 75ml CRS but not sure if this was right completely as I have no way of knowing the precise alkalinity.

[Mr. Dripping]

Try refilling the syringe and adding more reagent to see if you can get the indicator to change colour. Although you probably can't extrapolate a result, at least you will know there is a point at which the alkalinity can be neutralised.
I'd probably suggest sending a sample to Murphys. For less than £20 they will test the alkalinity for you and also the ions most relevant for brewing.....this and an understanding of Bru 'n Water, along with guidance from this forum has helped me tremendously.

[inthedark]

I had a similar problem on my last brew day. I don't have the figures in front of me but I got around this by first adding CRS to get rid of about half of my measured alkalinity from the Murphy's report then retesting.

[Jeltz]

The kit goes up to 285ppm by the looks of it so I would get some distilled water and mix it 50:50 with your tap water, re-test and double your result.

[Aleman]

Add 1ml of CRS to 1 Litre of your water which reduces your alkalinity by 183mg/l . . . then test that and add 183 to the result.

[WallyBrew]

Try treating your water with a campden tablet first to ensure that chlorine is not interfering with the indicator.

[will_raymo2000]

Add 1ml of CRS to 1 Litre of your water which reduces your alkalinity by 183mg/l . . . then test that and add 183 to the result.

Now that sounds like an easy way of doing it, I assume I just take the 4ml sample from the CRS treated 1L of water?

Will give this a go later. Is alkalinity likely to fluctuate that much between brewdays or can I take the measured figure as gospel from then on?

[Dave S]

Add 1ml of CRS to 1 Litre of your water which reduces your alkalinity by 183mg/l . . . then test that and add 183 to the result.

Now that sounds like an easy way of doing it, I assume I just take the 4ml sample from the CRS treated 1L of water?

Will give this a go later. Is alkalinity likely to fluctuate that much between brewdays or can I take the measured figure as gospel from then on?

Yes, take a 4ml sample from the CRS-treated water, and no you can't take that as gospel for future brews. You should measure before each and every brew as local water supplies do fluctuate.

[will_raymo2000]

And onto my next question... Does CRS go "off"? Mine is around 3-4 years old and I didn't know if it loses effectiveness over time or whether its stable for that length of time?

[Dave S]

And onto my next question... Does CRS go "off"? Mine is around 3-4 years old and I didn't know if it loses effectiveness over time or whether its stable for that length of time?

Doesn't go off as far as I know, it's a straight mix of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids.

[will_raymo2000]

Did the test as per Aleman's suggestions yesterday and got a result of 275ppm so not too far off Anglian Water's report but enough of a difference to make a change in water treatment calculators.

[MashTim]

Just by way of example:

Murphys tested 398ppm in May
Southern Water report 250ppm (I suspect this could be an average)
Then I started testing on each brewday when I noticed my mash pH was way too low when treated based on Murphys report and had a 220ppm in Jan and a 250ppm in March.

So I'm guessing that alkilinity dips to it's lowest in the Winter and rises to it's highest in Summer and a swing of 180ppm is massive

I wonder if it has anything to do with the dilution of chalk in the ground water as the water table changes throughout the seasons.

[Dave S]

Just by way of example:

Murphys tested 398ppm in May
Southern Water report 250ppm (I suspect this could be an average)
Then I started testing on each brewday when I noticed my mash pH was way too low when treated based on Murphys report and had a 220ppm in Jan and a 250ppm in March.

So I'm guessing that alkilinity dips to it's lowest in the Winter and rises to it's highest in Summer and a swing of 180ppm is massive

I wonder if it has anything to do with the dilution of chalk in the ground water as the water table changes throughout the seasons.

I'm sure that will contribute.

[Eric]

Just by way of example:

Murphys tested 398ppm in May
Southern Water report 250ppm (I suspect this could be an average)
Then I started testing on each brewday when I noticed my mash pH was way too low when treated based on Murphys report and had a 220ppm in Jan and a 250ppm in March.

So I'm guessing that alkilinity dips to it's lowest in the Winter and rises to it's highest in Summer and a swing of 180ppm is massive

I wonder if it has anything to do with the dilution of chalk in the ground water as the water table changes throughout the seasons.

This confirms the importance of measuring alkalinity after treatment, after all, it is the object.
It's likley that even in high summer your water will not be as alkaline as in that report. Several on here have reported having been supplied with improbably high figures for alkalinity from that source, including myself.

[Dave S]

Just by way of example:

Murphys tested 398ppm in May
Southern Water report 250ppm (I suspect this could be an average)
Then I started testing on each brewday when I noticed my mash pH was way too low when treated based on Murphys report and had a 220ppm in Jan and a 250ppm in March.

So I'm guessing that alkilinity dips to it's lowest in the Winter and rises to it's highest in Summer and a swing of 180ppm is massive

I wonder if it has anything to do with the dilution of chalk in the ground water as the water table changes throughout the seasons.

This confirms the importance of measuring alkalinity after treatment, after all, it is the object.
It's likley that even in high summer your water will not be as alkaline as in that report. Several on here have reported having been supplied with improbably high figures for alkalinity from that source, including myself.

I on the other hand had a lower reading from 'that source' than my water authority's figure. Now I measure every time and up until now it has always been with 1 or 2 ppm of the water authority's figure. But that's no reason to take one's eye off the ball.