Water analysis by Wallybrew/Pheonix analytical

[Mashman]

Buy a 500ml bottle of water. Drink water, refill bottle from tap. Post it off.

M

[guypettigrew]

It's easy. You send him 500ml of water in, for example, an empty Evian bottle. He runs the analysis and emails you the report and the invoice.

Makes water treatment really straightforward once the analysis has been done.

Guy

[Kingfisher4]

He replied promptly after the email stopped bouncing back, with the above details and said he will contact those who have expressed an interest with address for posting to him very soon.

[chrisbjones202]

That's good news, I emailed yesterday.

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[charliemartin]

I'm in too.

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[WalesAles]

£25 for a test?.....................
Half a Campden tablet will do it for 20Lts

WA

Here come the Naysayers!

[guypettigrew]

£25 for a test?.....................
Half a Campden tablet will do it for 20Lts

WA

Here come the Naysayers!

Hello WA.

First naysayer here! Ordinary water brews good beer. Better water brews better beer.

Since treating my water to get the correct alkalinity and sulphate:chloride ratio etc I've found my beers taste just that bit more special. More complex and definitely more enjoyable.

And it's not difficult to do.

Guy

[Kev888]

Half a Campden tablet will do it for 20Lts
WA
Here come the Naysayers!

Yes, I shall bite too - or nip gently anyway

It depends on the water you have, what you're trying to brew with it and how well you want to brew it. Some lucky people do have good water for certain types of beer, others have very poor water for almost any type of beer.

Most will be able to improve things to some degree by adjusting the alkalinity, calcium and possibly chloride and sulphate levels. In some cases to a large degree for most styles of beer, in other cases less so or just for certain styles. But you can't judge this unless you know what levels there are to begin with.

[Fastline]

I think I should dip my toe in the water so to speak and get an analysis done, sounds reasonable
I guess my next questions would be how do you deal with the report, where do you go for best info to treat it

[Rhodesy]

It is a part of brewing which for many is something to master. I am going to get another analysis and compare at least from the last. I suspect my profile will still be very soft but it will be interesting nonetheless to compare.

[IPA]

£25 for a test?.....................
Half a Campden tablet will do it for 20Lts

WA

Here come the Naysayers!

Not if you are brewing real beer

[IPA]

I think I should dip my toe in the water so to speak and get an analysis done, sounds reasonable
I guess my next questions would be how do you deal with the report, where do you go for best info to treat it

Right here on Jim's !!! Use Grahams water treatment programme

[LeeH]

Has wally gone underground?


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[Kev888]

I think I should dip my toe in the water so to speak and get an analysis done, sounds reasonable
I guess my next questions would be how do you deal with the report, where do you go for best info to treat it

Along the lines of IPA's answer, if you post the results on Jims, you'll likely get some useful and bespoke advice.

Most guides (or software) written on water treatment are far more involved than most people would ever need. IMO they tend to confuse and scare people trying to get into it (they did for me!), when in actual fact the treatment itself can be quite simple for many UK tap waters and British preferences. Aleman wrote a very good and much more accessible guide, which I can't now find for some reason. But just as an outline, a few steps will usually suffice unless your water is awkward:

Remove chlorine and chloramines. Boiling can help with the former but campden tablets or sodium metabisulphate will quickly and cheaply get either. In actual fact, many people don't have very high levels anyway, but these can vary so IMO better safe than sorry (its hardly difficult, after all). The purpose is less about tasting chlorine, and more about stopping it reacting in the mash to produce TCP-like flavours.

Adjust the water's alkalinity so that when combined with the grains, the mash pH will be suitable. There is an element of prediction involved here (for new recipes), as darker grains/beers generally need higher alkalinity than lighter ones to achieve this, but there are rules of thumb to help. You'll likely need to reduce your water's alkalinity (e.g. using CRS or AMS) but you may need to raise it (e.g. using bicarbonate of soda).

Ensure there is enough Calcium. There are various ways of doing this but adding calcium sulphate (gypsum) and/or calcium chloride are useful because these salts also add sulphate and chloride respectively, so you can tweak the sulphate/chloride levels and ratio at the same time.

(There can be instances where something a bit more complex is needed, but it depends on the results of the analysis).

[Jim]

I think I should dip my toe in the water so to speak and get an analysis done, sounds reasonable
I guess my next questions would be how do you deal with the report, where do you go for best info to treat it

.......... Aleman wrote a very good and much more accessible guide, which I can't now find for some reason...............

I'm not sure if this is the one you mean, but even if not, this is probably similar - https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water_treatment.htm .