Boiling water to reduce alkalinity

[Dave S]

Calcium content about 90.

Incidentally, I reboiled after reading the above, but shoved in a teaspoon of Gypsum and Calcium Chloride this time. Boiled it again but this time gave it 20 mins.

The next morning, there was noticeably more precipitate and I measured the alkalinity again and this time it was below 100 - forgotten exactly as I'm not at home but I think it was 85-90.

So it did work (to an extent), but I ended up with 10L of water from my original 20 (having lost water in the deadspace run off, evap etc, and more worryingly, the water left over was coloured noticeably when you put it in the fermenting bucket. Not uber brown but not crystal clear like the Tesco Ashbeck spring is either...

I used it in a brew yesterday to reduce the amount of Ashbeck Spring I needed, so used 10L of boiled water and 30L of Tesco's. pH was good in the mash and other than a terrible protein break, all seemed well. Hit my targets exactly which hasn't happened for ages.

Have to say though, for the sake of £2 of water, it ain't worth it. I think I'm going to stick to using Tesco water which costs £8 for a full length brew, and I've found the 4L bottles make great mini fermenters for experimental batches!

Try RO Water from your local aquarium shop - about £2.20-£3.00 for a full brew length.

[norstar]

That's a lot cheaper, but there's a certain convenience to the Tesco guy ringing my doorbell and handing over 40L of water without my leaving the house!

Extension being built next year - might install an RO filter!

[Dave S]

That's a lot cheaper, but there's a certain convenience to the Tesco guy ringing my doorbell and handing over 40L of water without my leaving the house!

Extension being built next year - might install an RO filter!

Sounds like a good idea.

[chris.laws.54943]

I live in SE England and the water is hard but not as bad as London. I'm only 18 months in to AG brewing but I have started to get drawn into the whole water pH issue. Personally, if you want a drinkable beer it's not too much of an issue. But if you want an EXCELENT beer or similar to a commercial brew it's absolutely critical. Personally I brew for fun and my own pleasure so I've found 50/50 tap and supermarket own brand filtered/spring meets a good halfway point (and gets my mash pH somewhere in the 5.0-5.5 area)