Natural Spring Water

[7593steve]

Living in an area with mega hard tap water, I decided to collect some natural spring water from a well known spring head in the Faversham area.
This water reputedly comes from the same source as Shepherd Neame's famous artesian well.

I tested the water with my salifert kits and it comes out at Calcium: 100ppm, compared wit my tap water at 160ppm, and Alkalinity at 260ppm, to 281ppm for tap water.

I treated the spring water (29.6l total) with 39ml of AMS, also with 2.5g of table salt, 2.99g of epsom salt and 6.34g of gypsum in the boil.
I have a couple of question though:

Given the high Calcium and Alkalinity, is it worth driving 5 miles to collect it? (Even though it tastes good and I save half a campden).

Do Shepherd Neame treat the water or brew with it as is? (Not sure who would know this, unless we have someone who works there on the forum. Surely in 1665 water would have just been water to them).

I have a few Shep's recipes in various books and would love to brew them knowing that the water profile is identical.

[Eric]

It is not uncommon for breweries to have had several wells to various depths supplying differing waters for individual purposes. Soft water for boilers, hard water for brewing liquor and colder water for cooling other water for cleaning.

I know of no brewery with a water supply that will not make better beer after suitable treatment.

It likey isn't worth the extra effort of travelling, but can't be known until you have had tests done on both and examined how each might respond to the range of treatments available.

What makes you believe your water needs to be treated with Campden Tablets? Have you brewed without campden or left a glass of water overnight to test the next morning.

[7593steve]

You can smell the chlorine in our tap water before you even taste it.

[Eric]

You can smell the chlorine in our tap water before you even taste it.

You'd likely find the same with my water, the cause being the result of three chlorine atoms replacing the hydrogen atom in ammonia to create trichloramine which has the very strong smell we think of as chlorine. This is well demonstrated in swimming pools as humans add ammonia to the water.

Chlorine has little smell and in that most UK domestic supplies has no adverse influence. A major exception is when chloramine is added rather than chlorine, when a campden becomes necessary for the homebrewer.

[7593steve]

You can smell the chlorine in our tap water before you even taste it.

You'd likely find the same with my water, the cause being the result of three chlorine atoms replacing the hydrogen atom in ammonia to create trichloramine which has the very strong smell we think of as chlorine. This is well demonstrated in swimming pools as humans add ammonia to the water.

Chlorine has little smell and in that most UK domestic supplies has no adverse influence. A major exception is when chloramine is added rather than chlorine, when a campden becomes necessary for the homebrewer.

You are probably correct. After a day of googling etc. I have discovered that chloramine is not always added to our water supply.

I decided to boil some of my tap water and test it again using the salifert calcium and alkalinity kits.
Calcium came out at 70ppm and alkalinity at 80.55ppm. So my tapwater's hardness is mainly temporary then? (Why wasn't I listening in chemistry lessons?)

So, as I boil as part of the process anyway, would it be best to assume those figures and treat accordingly?
Or, boil the night before then treat?
Or, treat the whole amount of water as per my un-boiled tap water results?

[Eric]

Without knowing your water's profile it is not possible to determine whether there could be advantage to boiling your water before treatment. In my case, any advantage from boiling can be achieved in other ways at less cost and effort, but from what you wrote our waters are quite different and you may wish to brew different beers using different liquor profiles to mine. Having your water analysed will resolve this dilemma.

[Carnot]

On the subject of chloramines these are used by some water co's as a disinfectant as a they are longer lived than chlorine (actually hypochlorite) in aqueous solutions. Chloramines are pH sensitive and behave a little like carbon dioxide in water. Above pH 7 monochloramine dominates; pH 4-7 dichloramine and monochloramine co-exist in pH dependent distributions; below pH both dichloramaine and trichloramine co-exist. Monochloramine cannot be isolated from solution and is generated in situ by adding ammonia to chlorinated water.
Other forms of disinfection include ozone, chlorine dioxide and UV light, all of which are very effective and are used in the UK. Depending on the source of the water, and the distribution network, chloramine treatment can exhibit benefits over simple chlorine treatment due to its longer persistantcy. In addition hydrogen peroxide is also a very effective(if costly) disinfectant c.f sodium percarbonate.

pHchloramine.gif (9.79 KiB) Viewed 3183 times

Useful link on Chloramine treatment of drinking water. http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/assets/d ... hloram.pdf
https://www.water.org.uk/publications/r ... ly-hygiene
https://www.lenntech.com/processes/disi ... amines.htm

I hope that is informative to the forum.

[Carnot]

On the subject of chloramines these are used by some water co's as a disinfectant as a they are longer lived than chlorine (actually hypochlorite) in aqueous solutions. Chloramines are pH sensitive and behave a little like carbon dioxide in water. Above pH 7 monochloramine dominates; pH 4-7 dichloramine and monochloramine co-exist in pH dependent distributions; below pH both dichloramaine and trichloramine co-exist. Monochloramine cannot be isolated from solution and is generated in situ by adding ammonia to chlorinated water.
Other forms of disinfection include ozone, chlorine dioxide and UV light, all of which are very effective and are used in the UK. Depending on the source of the water, and the distribution network, chloramine treatment can exhibit benefits over simple chlorine treatment due to its longer persistantcy. In addition hydrogen peroxide is also a very effective(if costly) disinfectant c.f sodium percarbonate.

pHchloramine.gif

Useful link on Chloramine treatment of drinking water. http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/assets/d ... hloram.pdf
https://www.water.org.uk/publications/r ... ly-hygiene
https://www.lenntech.com/processes/disi ... amines.htm

I hope that is informative to the forum.