Water for types of beer...

[jamesmsabin1989]

Hi all

I have my water report for my local area : Sheffield/Rotherham and am just wondering what it all means...any ideas on interpreting it all? I basically want to know what types of beer i could brew (all grain) without my own treatment. Plus others i could make with treatment and how i'd go about this.

Water Hardness Type: Slightly hard
Average Water Hardness: 50.6


Calcium (mg/L) Min: 12.7 Mean: 43.42 Max: 93.9
Chloride(mg/L) Min: 14.2 Mean :21.29 Max: 29.1
Copper (mg/L) Min: 0.003< Mean: 0.0443 Max: 0.238
Iron (ug/L) Min: 5.1< Mean: 27.53 Max 451
Magnesium(mg/L) Min: 2.24 Mean: 4.462 Max:7.9
Nitrate (mg/L) Min: 2.77 Mean: 9.88 Max: 16.63
Nitrite Consumer (mg/l) Min: 0.0093< Mean: 0.0093< Max 0.0093
Sodium (mg/L): Min: 10.8 Mean: 14.5 Max: 18.1
Sulphate (mg/L): Min: Min: 30.5 Mean: 69.31 max:135

ph: Min:7.1 Mean: 7.45 Max: 8.5
Total Hardness Min: 16 Mean :50.6 Max: 107

I think thats all the ions/meaurements needed.

Any help appreciated!!

Thanks,
James




Thanks!

[Jim]

We have the technology! Take a look at Graham's water treatment calculator.

[ashbyp]

But you will ideally also need your waters total alkalinity - which doesn't look to be there. Read This from the late DaaB.

[Russ]

Think refering to DaaB as late is a bit much

AFAIK he's ok just not on the forum anymore

[ashbyp]

it was a mark of respect, no offence intended.

[jamesmsabin1989]

Apologies for my late reply - I've been on holiday for 2 weeks.

Thanks for the help!

I came back to an email in my inbox saying the average water alkalinity for my area is 13mg/l. However, my report doesn't measure carbonate


I've plugged my readings into the calculator but the ion check is no where near accurate enough. I'm using the recipe for Monkey paw brown ale from the papazian book and it mentions using 1tsp of gymsm. If i boil my water to gt rid of chlorine and add gypsum as my only water treatment will this be sufficient? :S

Thanks

[Aleman]

I came back to an email in my inbox saying the average water alkalinity for my area is 13mg/l. However, my report doesn't measure carbonate

Ok firstly its safe to assume that your alkalinity figure is expressed as Calcium Carbonate as pretty much all water companies do that. Also in your case, looking at the Calcium and Sulphate levels, it is also safe to assume that you carbonate level is the same as your alkalinity.

Ideally you need to boost Calcium levels so adding a tsp of Gypsum will certainly do no harm, and probably do a measure of good. Is it going to be enough? Sorry my crystal ball is out of commission at the moment, but If you were to fire up Brewater or the water profiler in Promash you would ideally be aiming for a final calcium level around 100ppm, with perhaps 150-180ppm Sulphate

[johnh]

You have very low alkalinity which, I believe is great for pale ales/bitters. Since I have a very similar water profile to you my follow up question is whether it would be beneficial for us to add sodium bicarb to increase alkalinity for dark beer styles?

[jamesmsabin1989]

Thanks aleman i'll look into it

[jamesmsabin1989]

in that case would it be worth changing styles to a bitter for example? (without water treatment other than chlorine removal via boiling) Sorry for sounding a bit thick!

[johnh]

FWIW, campden tablet treatment clears the chlorine without the need for boiling, and I think that you don't need to boil to precipitate carbonates since they're low anyway.

The way I understand it is that dark malts counteract high alkalinity but if the alkalinity is already low can it potentially become too low? And if it does what are the consequences?

[jamesmsabin1989]

thanks john. Any idea how much campden tablet to add for this method?

[noby]

You have very low alkalinity which, I believe is great for pale ales/bitters. Since I have a very similar water profile to you my follow up question is whether it would be beneficial for us to add sodium bicarb to increase alkalinity for dark beer styles?

Yes it would. That or Calcium carbonate. Measure your mash pH, then add some, stir and measure again until you get to a level you're happy with.

[Grahame]

thanks john. Any idea how much campden tablet to add for this method?

Half a campden tablet per 25L of water is plenty enough

G.