water is very hard, what next?

[Redimpz]

I'm living in the middle of Lincs, the water report from Anglian water states 364mg/1 calcium carbonate. the simpler report states "very hard".
Question is, do I need to add anything such as Gypsum etc, if so, how much and is it readily available from online stockists.
Thanks.

[trucker5774]

Gypsum will add hardness. Search in the water treatment section and have a look at CRS, which may be what you are looking for. I'm not an expert on water treatment as mine is usable as it is

[GrowlingDogBeer]

You only really need to worry about water treatment if you are doing All Grain brewing.

If you are I'd start by looking at the Water treatment section in the Brewniversity.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/home_brew_ ... atment.htm

The likelihood is your Alkalinity will be very high so you will need to treat with CRS to reduce it, but you will need to test your Alkalinity yourself with a Salifert test kit.

Have a read through the Brewniversity as it covers most of the basics you need to know.

[Redimpz]

Thanks for that, best not add gypsum then my waters hard enough already.
I'm usually doing BIAB which is sort of AG.

[Steve1262]

The likelihood is your Alkalinity will be very high so you will need to treat with CRS to reduce it, but you will need to test your Alkalinity yourself with a Salifert test kit.

There seems to be quite a few Salifert kits available, designed for different chemical tests. Is it the KH+Alkalinity kit that is the best for brewing needs and is it easy to corralate the results of the test to how much CRS to add to your liquor. Never used one before but they are fairly cheap and do a lot of tests.