Changes to Tesco Still Water

[Dave S]

I've been using Asdas as my sole source of water since moving to AG as my local water is VERY hard and I haven't really looked into treatment yet..

Should this be ok?

You would still benefit from knowing what's in that Asda water and whether it is consistent. You might be better off, if you Water Authority provides regular figures, having your tap water analysed, (contact Neil Williams-Wallybrew) then keeping an eye on WA variations. Also a Salifert Alkalinity test kit is invaluable, as adjusting the alkalinity to suit the beer style will make the biggest improvement to the finished beer.

[DerbyshireNick]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salifert-KH-Alk ... inity+test

Get yourself one of these, test every batch and you have the option to use CRS/AMS to reduce your alkalinity to style. I am not sure if there is a ceiling where it is considered that the alkalinity is too high and the CRS will have a negative impact on the final product. Maybe someone with more experience / knowledge can advise.

In my admittedly limited testing I have come to the personal conclusion that Alkalinity is the big one that really... Really matters. After that calcium, then everything else is really about profile and as long as you are very big ball park accurate with it there wont be any "issues". It might not be scientifically "right" but the result will be subjective not objective. i.e. I read a dual batch thing recently where a good chunk of the tasters preferred the sulphate heavy stout where convention dictates a stout should be chloride biased.

The thing to consider is that you have quite a bit of room to play with calcium. There is a minimum recommended level but the actual recommended amount varies significantly between say a standard pale ale profile and a burton pale ale one. What you can take from this is for ensuring you have a "correct" chemical reaction knowing how much calcium you have, be it 30 or 40 or 50% of alkalinity doesn't really matter*

*Massive disclaimer - When you are first exploring correcting water sources.

If you were to take your alkalinity figure of say 120, assume your calcium is 40% so 48ppm you can then plug numbers from your water report or arbitrary numbers into the calculator on here, say 10 for sodium, and 30 each for sulphates and chlorides. Have a play with those untestable at home sodium, sulphate and chloride numbers and you will see that they actually, if kept within realistc ranges dont change the outcome all that much. It is especially not much when you consider our inability to accurately weigh out and then how much of that addition gets left at residually in your weighing pot as dust then how much of it actually gets into the water in the mash / boil.

What I am getting at is, experiment with a calculator, if you know your alkalinity and even rough calcium level you are good to go from a dumb brewing perspective. It may not be text-book right, but the beer will be good.

[bigtoe]

An observation and a question.

I usually use Ashbeck water for brewing, however i looked at the tesco still water in store as its cheaper. Here is the first observation, on the bottle it shows PH as 6.8, a little acidic, yet when you go to the supplier they quote 7.7.

So now the question....has anyone tested it with a meter?

I plan too, got the meter now so next shop I will pick up a bottle

http://www.aqua-direct.co.uk/our-source.aspx

[dad_of_jon]

The chase spring is about a mile and a half from aqua direct's elmhurst spring (& maple brook i assume) so the mineral values are quite close I can guestimate the bicarb value which isn't given on the tesco value mineral content list.

this is my goto water, but for star san i've normally used volvic as it's usually the lowest water available in tesco's (ph7), however I picked up tesco ashbeck today as it had a ph of 6.2

I did used clearview before but ashbeck almost has lower minerals across the board compared to clearview and i've not seen it for ages.

[MTW]

Just an aside, but I've noted that Wilkos' water (forget the name) is even lower mineral that ashbeck, and goes cloudy notably slower when made up with Star San. Only available in 1.5L bottles though and more expensive, so not ideal for brewing water. Good for small amounts of sanitiser.

[Aleman]

pH is not the issue, the 'carbonate species' level is. Starsan contains more than enough acid to take the pH of the working solution down to below 3.0 of any mineral water currently on sale . . . indeed even around Reading the pH of the working solution is below 3.0 even though the solution resembles milk!

I've abandoned using mineral waters for making up starsan as even with ashbeck and other low mineral content water the solution eventually goes cloudy. Deionised water is cheap enough to use and the starsan is always crystal clear even after months of storage. It's important to be aware of what Charley Talley said

As long as the pH of the solution is below 3.0 the solution is good to use, if the solution is cloudy, however, do not store it to use later, make a fresh batch up each time

[f00b4r]

pH is not the issue, the 'carbonate species' level is. Starsan contains more than enough acid to take the pH of the working solution down to below 3.0 of any mineral water currently on sale . . . indeed even around Reading the pH of the working solution is below 3.0 even though the solution resembles milk!

I've abandoned using mineral waters for making up starsan as even with ashbeck and other low mineral content water the solution eventually goes cloudy. Deionised water is cheap enough to use and the starsan is always crystal clear even after months of storage. It's important to be aware of what Charley Talley said

As long as the pH of the solution is below 3.0 the solution is good to use, if the solution is cloudy, however, do not store it to use later, make a fresh batch up each time

Seeing this advice and seeing Starsan made with Ashbeck stored for any length of time going cloudy sometimes but sometimes not I moved to deionised water for a stored solution (e.g. a useful ready made solution in the original deionised water bottle and also in a spray bottle for general usage and for rinsed bottles as I don't want a buildup of soap in the spray bottle or the glass bottles) and then Ashbeck 5L and 2L bottles for stuff that usually will be made up and used on the same day, when brewing or bottling. It seems a good balance of cost versus peace of mind that I am not putting soap into what should be cleaned, rinsed and sanitised items.