Got my water analysis - what adjustments should I make?

[dean_wales]

Hi there,

Im looking to brew a Fullers ESB clone next week and wondered if my water needed adjustment. So I contacted Welsh Water for a report and got the following reply:


Dear Mr Holland,

Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding the quality of your incoming supply.

Please find attached a copy of the drinking water compliance summary report for the water quality zone that supplies your property. The report details all compliance samples taken over the last 12 months up until the 25th August 2010.

In addition to the information contained in the report I can confirm that the total water hardness for your area is in the region of 63 milligrammes/ litre as calcium carbonate and the alkalinity of the supply is 25 milligrammes/ litre, also as calcium carbonate.

If you have any further queries regarding the quality of your supply, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

David Webb
Water Quality Scientist
West Wales and Gower

The enclosed water analysis was in a pdf and very detailed. Can I attatch it to this thread somehow?

Dean.

[jubby]

25 mg/l of Calcium Carbonate (CaCo3) is ideal for most bitters/real ales (hardness figure is not required), you may want to lower it if you brew lagers or increase it for porters/stouts, but for ESB It's ideal.

The only other parameters that you are interested in are: Magnesium, Sulphate, Calcium, Sodium, Chloride. I don't know how to attach pdf's.

[lupulin]

I agree. That's pretty good water, you shouldn't need to make adjustments aside from the very lightest beers.

[Aleman]

I'll disagree with both the other posters. You have water very similar to mine, which in many ways people will say is ideal for brewing . . ..Wrong! Great no alkalinity adjustments . . . . unless you brew dark beers, it's much harder to put carbonate into a liquor than to remove it. Also the level of calcium you have is much less than ideal for the brewing processes . . . so you must add gypsum or calcium chloride (start with 1stp in the mash and one in the boil) regardless of beer style.

You will also find that the other elements (Magnesium, Sulphate, Sodium, Chloride) already mentioned are very low, which for magnesium and sodium is not a bad thing as sodium doesn't really affect beer flavour that much (nowhere near as much as calcium), and magnesium is only required as a trace element and you derive more than enough from the malt anyway.

Dark beers will need up to half a tsp of sodium bicarbonate to bring the alkalinity up[ to a sensible level to balance the acidity of the dark malts.

[lupulin]

That's true, calcium is important. Good catch.
I have not personally had much trouble with alkalinity that's too low where high alkalinity has cause me lots of trouble. You may want to add chalk for dark beers, Dean, but I haven't found it to be all that essential. Of course, YMMV