can i get a hardness reading from this kit?

[alfie09]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALIFERT-CARB ... 2eb3eeff52

i need a hardness reading to put in grahams water treatment calculator. i thought that this kit would do alkalinity and hardness readings??. am i right or wrong. i see the sheet gives a reading for degress clarke can i change this into a reading of hardness mg/l as CaC03??

[gnutz2]

Im far from an expert but you dont need to know the hardness of the water, all you need to put in the calculator is the Alkalinity which this kit will give you.

From your previous post you said your alkalinity was 39.5 cac03 (worked out with this kit?), this is what you need to put in the top left box on the calculator

From memory you will have to use virtually no crs with a reading that low.

Do you have a water report to fill in the rest of the calculator?

HTH

[alfie09]

yes worked that out with the kit. the reading the kit gives you in alkalinity in meq/l do you * that by 50????

[gnutz2]

yes worked that out with the kit. the reading the kit gives you in alkalinity in meq/l do you * that by 50????

Looks that way

http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/AlkConv.php

[alfie09]

cheers mate. that gives exactly what i have. right of to play with the calculator i have a hardness reading from the water board not sure if its right. 122mg/l expressed as CaC03 does that seem right compared to the alkalinity levels of 39.5.

sorry to go on but with that salty caculator is the ppm reading of 39.5 expressed as CaC03? so i know which box to tick on the calculator?

[gnutz2]

Yes it is

Also if you dont allready know, treat the total liquor with crs but only treat the final volume with salts (mix it in with the grain before mashing).

[alfie09]

umm not sure what you mean sorry to sound thick. say i need 30 litres of liqour to make 23 litres of beer, so i just add crs to the 30 litres and add all the calcium, gypsum, epsom, common salt to the grain?? or do i not add epsom, common salt to the grain?

[gnutz2]

Thats pretty much it,

you're making 23l of beer and using 30l of water, add the crs to the 30l then work out what salts you need ONLY for 23l, then mix it in with the grist.

[alfie09]

cheers been messing it up totally for 1 year lol. i have been treating everything mash liqour, sparge liqour, and adding some to the boiling beer !. fack me suprised i aint had the shits

[gnutz2]

I did the same for a few months too.

Just shows how water treatment isnt everything, it makes a difference but you can f@ck it up and still make good beer.

I sent my water off to murphy and son to work out the salts side of things and they send you this.

[orlando]

I did the same for a few months too.

Just shows how water treatment isnt everything, it makes a difference but you can f@ck it up and still make good beer.

I sent my water off to murphy and son to work out the salts side of things and they send you this.

How much do they charge for that?

[gnutz2]

18 quid, twas a no brainer for me

http://www.murphyhomebrew.com/laborator ... at_27.html