Making Yorkshire Water into Brewing Liquor

[Carpking]

I always add crushed campen to my HLT when heating my mash and sparge water. Maybe i forgot that time?

I used the cascades (and amarillo) for the bittering as well as cascades for flavour/aroma. I was expecting great things from that beer. But dont worry i didnt pour it down the bog.... my brother drank it! Yuk. At least it went to a good home.

[Mountain]

So what was wrong with it?

I get between average and good with unadulterated tapwater, but have never had anything really bad! I've had a couple of *great* beers with mineral water or half mineral water though, so have also been thinking of dabbling in the dark arts of water adjustment!
-
I'm just beginning to get my head around this alchemy.

I think in layman's terms, I mostly need to lose some carbon, then replace some Calcium. Perhaps gain a little MgS04 too.
I also need to get the alkalinity down too.

Next I'll have to do actual calculations

[Carpking]

I bought a salifert test kit today and after three tests i have the same result which works out as 63 CaCO3.
So based on this figure and assuming i aim for 30 CaCO3, i divide 33 by 180 and end up with 0.18ml/l of CRS required.
So i can reduce my alkalinity now (i will test it when i have treated a batch of brewing liquor).

Based on these figures from Yorkshire Water:

calcium - 44.8
magnesium - 6.2
sodium - 13.6

carbonate - 37.77
sulphate - 67.6
chloride - 22.8

Would you say that i'm in pretty good shape? Would you still add 5g of Gypsum to the mash and then to the boil?

Thanks for any advice.

[Carpking]

Great. I need some stuff from my LHBS but my next brew gets the new water treatment.

[Mountain]

So what was wrong with it?

Doh, 2 pages to this thread!
TCP? That would be phenol!

I'm getting this
calcium - 60.44
carbonate - 46.77

The rest of my figures are pretty much the same as carpking, so I'm thinking of erring on the lower side and going for 6mls CRS for my first attempt at water alchemy.
I'll also add the same amount of gypsum.

Cheers, very helpful thread....and I have the kitchen/house all to my self on Saturday

[RichParker]

PDTNC, Where did you get your figures from? Yorkshire water?

Yorkshire Water website will give you their last published analysis of your water if you enter your post code. There are a couple of results missing from the analysis but if you contact their customer service via the web site they will get back to you pretty quickly

I can't find the link for that, where is it? I phoned them and asked for a water analysis/report for Fulford, York and they flatly denied they could provide one, all they provided was 3 measures for hardness. Am I missing some magic phrase that they'll recognise?

[harry_mac]

I can't find the link for that, where is it?

This one? http://www.yorkshirewater.com/extra-ser ... =-1.074481 (there's a link to a PDF)

I phoned them and asked for a water analysis/report for Fulford, York and they flatly denied they could provide one, all they provided was 3 measures for hardness. Am I missing some magic phrase that they'll recognise?

I thought by law a water company had to provide a mineral analysis when requested.

[RichParker]

I can't find the link for that, where is it?

This one? http://www.yorkshirewater.com/extra-ser ... =-1.074481 (there's a link to a PDF)

Excellent, I must have had web site blindness!

I phoned them and asked for a water analysis/report for Fulford, York and they flatly denied they could provide one, all they provided was 3 measures for hardness. Am I missing some magic phrase that they'll recognise?

I thought by law a water company had to provide a mineral analysis when requested.

So did I, more than likely the drone I was speaking too couldn't find the correct response in her script.

[RichParker]

I emailed and asked, this is the response for York East 2004 WSZ

Dear Mr Parker

Thank you for your e-mail dated 12 February 2010 regarding the ''total alkalinity''.

The average Alkalinity is 105.7 mg/l CaCO3 (ranging from 64.6 to 163.0) This figure is based on a limited number of samples taken at our water treatment works as it is not a regulatory requirement for Yorkshire Water to monitor it.

Quite a range, time for a Salifert kit I think.

Rich