Boiling water to remove hardness

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Eric
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by Eric » Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:32 pm

What you will have lost is calcium equivalent to 40% of the weight of calcium carbonate lost, i.e. 43mg/l making it 49mg/l.

It would be wise to repeat the Salifert kit test after an hour in case there is some calcium carbonate in suspension which wasn't in the test sample that has gone back into solution as calcium bicarbonate after absorbing some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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mbrew
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by mbrew » Sat Feb 18, 2017 12:16 pm

Opps, been reading something else about sulphate & chloride. Mistakenly put that instead of calcium but did think it would effect the others a bit too, obviously not.

When you say test again an hour later what did you mean? This was already 24hrs after boiling.

I did this just to learn a bit more & see if my PH reading from the mash could have been possible, it seems with my water at least boiling is an option although extra calcium would need adding.

I've now have some AMS so will be using this for the next brew.

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Eric
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by Eric » Sat Feb 18, 2017 1:19 pm

mbrew wrote:Opps, been reading something else about sulphate & chloride. Mistakenly put that instead of calcium but did think it would effect the others a bit too, obviously not.

When you say test again an hour later what did you mean? This was already 24hrs after boiling.

I did this just to learn a bit more & see if my PH reading from the mash could have been possible, it seems with my water at least boiling is an option although extra calcium would need adding.

I've now have some AMS so will be using this for the next brew.
Why not try it? If it's the same nothing happened in that hour. If it isn't, something did. You will need to experiment otherwise you will pick up other peoples bad habits, including mine.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

mbrew
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by mbrew » Sat Feb 18, 2017 10:54 pm

Haven't got the water anymore but might try it another day, be interesting to know what happens to it if kept in a sealed container for a few days.

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Eric
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by Eric » Sat Feb 18, 2017 11:54 pm

If you don't rack the water off the deposited calcium carbonate, as the water re-absorbs carbon dioxide it can be dissolved as calcium bicarbonate causing alkalinity to once more rise. This won't happen in a sealed container. It might be worth measuring alkalinity at various depths and times to confirm you can repeat that reduction. As you have seen, it will also drastically reduce the level of calcium.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

mbrew
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Re: Boiling water to remove hardness

Post by mbrew » Sun Feb 19, 2017 12:45 am

The water was racked off, black non stick saucepan was almost white all over the inside.

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