Blending ro with tap water

Secla · Post by **Secla** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 11:45 am

The tap water in my area is very hard, I don't really want to get to into water treatment as I've only just started ag brewing but I was wondering if mixing my tap water with some reverse osmosis water would be beneficial ?
I can get RO water pretty cheap locally

vacant · Post by **vacant** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 12:03 pm

My carbonate is around 260. I use 10% tap water/90% RO for most brews these days

Secla · Post by **Secla** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 5:29 pm

Just tasted my first ag aipa. It's so astringent. Mouth is so dry and metallic tasting it's not drinkable
A little annoyed but I believe it may be down to mash ph as I live in a hard water area. I didn't measure the mash ph

It's obviously something I need to address. I'm guessing the simplest way is bottled water or dive into water chemistry

BenB · Post by **BenB** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 8:55 pm

I would at least measure alkalinity via salifert kit and monitor mash pH. Astrigency can be due to high sparge temps or an incorrect mash pH amongst other things. Without monitoring these things you're embarking on a whole load of trial and error. Its a bit like trying to brew without weighing scales ora thermometer- possible but darned hard work.

Basic water chemistry isn't that tricky.....

Secla · Post by **Secla** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:57 pm

So a salifert kit top of the list, assume il need some bits to adjust ph as necessary aswell

BenB · Post by **BenB** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:42 pm

Not if you're happy mixing ro and tap to get your target alkalinity. Though you might need some extra calium. DLS type stuff. Chloride sulfate ratios are fine tuning and you can experiment with them in the glass so once you've got mash pH right you just have to decide the chloride :sulfate ratio for the next time.

Secla · Post by **Secla** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:49 pm

Ca get ro water from my local marine fish shop, they also do salifert kits but the ph range is between the 7-8 range not 5-6 that i would need

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 11:08 pm

Secla wrote:Ca get ro water from my local marine fish shop, they also do salifert kits but the ph range is between the 7-8 range not 5-6 that i would need

The Salifert Kit you need is this type. You will need to measure and adjust alkalinity to get the mash pH in the right region. The pH of your water has no relevance and if your water has alkalinity in the right region and sufficient calcium present, the pH of your mash will automatically fall into the correct region.

Might I say I've not found many AIPAs that are not astringent. It might be worth making a simple pale ale with British hops if you want to come to terms with and conquer astringency.

Secla · Post by **Secla** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 9:13 am

Yup I think I'm going to do a simple single malt single hop next
This wasn't a slight astringency though, really dry taste in mouth and a metallic after taste that lasted for hours, think I managed about half a pint

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