Ermm. Ok. So now I know......What Next???

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Ianb

Ermm. Ok. So now I know......What Next???

Post by Ianb » Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:47 pm

In a fit of total boredom this afternoon I contacted Yorkshire Water to ask about the water quality for the Cheeky Dog Brewery Company head office (my garden shed).

Suprisingly they e-mailed me back pretty quickly with a pdf report. If anyone is interested, it's here

Well, I've worked on steam boilers and water treatment, know a reasonable amount about chlorine dioxide dosing potable water for food factories, and have even been known (on occasions when the beer has run out) to drink the stuff :shock: but it occurs to me that with regards to brewing I don't know the first thing about what I should be looking for, and what (if any) corrective measures I should take :?

Can anyone direct me to an information resource, or give any pointers

Cheers

Ian

RabMaxwell

Post by RabMaxwell » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:04 pm

I wish scottish water was as helpful as that i tried & failed several times to get a workable report from them. I actually think they go out there way to be unhelpful.

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Horden Hillbilly
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Post by Horden Hillbilly » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:32 pm

Brupaks have a useful page on water treatment Here

BigEd

Post by BigEd » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:53 pm

The link below will give you a good outline of what is important and what you need to know.

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/water3.html

Chiltern Brewer

Post by Chiltern Brewer » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:48 am

Looks like you have pretty soft water with low mineral content then? If you're going to treat your water in any way, then it'll just be to remove chlorine and add minerals - in DLS terms probably 1g/L would be a good starting point. By contrast on my last brew I went for ~0.5g/L for my water which is hard and has a calcium level of around 100ppm.

Graham

Post by Graham » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:33 am

RabMaxwell wrote:I wish scottish water was as helpful as that i tried & failed several times to get a workable report from them. I actually think they go out there way to be unhelpful.
They have a legal obligation to give you a water quality report on demand.

RabMaxwell

Post by RabMaxwell » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:34 pm

Graham wrote:
RabMaxwell wrote:I wish scottish water was as helpful as that i tried & failed several times to get a workable report from them. I actually think they go out there way to be unhelpful.
They have a legal obligation to give you a water quality report on demand.
They said they only need to test for certain things now so they sent me an old report from a few years ago. But sadly not everything i asked for was on the report after trying three times even speaking to there chemist they still got it wrong.

bandit

Post by bandit » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:47 pm

I tried three days ago to email for a report and I still ahvent got one for York. Which number did you ring

slurp the apprentice
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Post by slurp the apprentice » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:46 pm

I requested a report today i live in sheffield said they would post it to me in next couple of days i will post results on the forum might be interesting to see the difference between halifax and sheffield water profiles

slim34

Post by slim34 » Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:59 pm

i had a look at my local severn trent website for something about what sort of water i'm getting but gave up after 10 minutes. I'm a phonephobic so didn't take it any further.

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johnmac
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Post by johnmac » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:40 pm

United Utilities are pretty upfront:

United Utilities

United Utilities Web Site

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Drinking water quality report

Results for your search : CW2 5HY

Please refer to the key located beneath the table for an explanation of the units used to measure your water quality.

Date: 2007-07-27
Water supply zone

Gorsty South Z152
Click here to view the detailed report
Water source
The water supply to this area comes from the River Dee.
Water quality

The water supply to this area can vary in hardness from soft to moderately hard. The supply is low in naturally occuring fluoride and is artifically fluoridated.
Quality control

There are strict regulations to ensure that drinking water meets the standards required by European Union legislation. We monitor the quality of water as it leaves our treatment works and service reservoirs to make sure that standards are being met. We also measure the quality of water as it reaches our customers. The region we supply is divided into 261 Water Supply Zones. The water supplied to a zone is usually from one water treatment works or service reservoir. All the test results are summarised in the Drinking Water Register, which can be viewed by clicking the link above.


Analysis Typical value UK/EU limit Units
Hardness level soft
Hardness Clarkes 5.950 ° Clarke
Hardness 34 mg Ca/l
Aluminium < 18.5 200 µg Al/l
Calcium 28.2 mg Ca/l
Residual chlorine - total 0.40 mg/l
Residual chlorine - free 0.30 mg/l
Coliform bacteria 1 0 number/100ml
Colour 1.34 20 mg/l Pt/Co scale
Conductivity 230 2500 uS/cm at 20oC
Copper 0.0223 2 mg Cu/l
E.coli 0 0 number/100ml
Iron < 24.9 200 µg Fe/l
Lead < 0.918 25 µg Pb/l
Magnesium 3.70 mg Mg/l
Manganese < 1.90 50 µg Mn/l
Nitrate 9.04 50 mg NO3/l
Sodium 9.81 200 mg Na/l

What the test results mean

bandit

Post by bandit » Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:37 pm

I have received one for York today. My PH varies from 7.2 in winter to 7.5 in summer. They also sent an alkalinity tot pH4.5 mg/l CaCO3 which varies from 109.67 read in Feb 2007 to 161.07 read in April 2007

There seems to be a great deal of fluctuation in Alkalinity in the small region.

If I work on an avergae alkalinity of 130 at pH 4.5 does anyone have an idea what the alkalinity of pH 7.3 will be?

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Scooby

Post by Scooby » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:50 pm

bandit1200s wrote:I have received one for York today. My PH varies from 7.2 in winter to 7.5 in summer. They also sent an alkalinity tot pH4.5 mg/l CaCO3 which varies from 109.67 read in Feb 2007 to 161.07 read in April 2007

There seems to be a great deal of fluctuation in Alkalinity in the small region.

If I work on an avergae alkalinity of 130 at pH 4.5 does anyone have an idea what the alkalinity of pH 7.3 will be?

[/url]
My water report went straight in the bin, It told me I had hard water... I already knew that :roll: it didn't mention many of the things I wanted to know including alkalinity, talking to a local micro brewer he said it was so variable it wouldn't be accurate.

IMO if you are getting the mash Ph correct you don't need any treatment. My Ph was a bit high so tried gypsum first and had good results with phosphoric acid, but found 5.2 stabliser easiest to used and gave the most consistent results.

slurp the apprentice
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Post by slurp the apprentice » Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:55 pm

yorkshire water sent this yesterday reporting period covers 1st jan-31st dec 2006 watersupply zone loxley [just west from sheffield] In a nut shell it is moderately soft water no fluoride added there were infringements in respect of iron 'manganese but these were minor.calcium 10.6[min]26.1[max],magnesium2.91[min]3.56[max] Total hardness 15[min]31[max]and PH7[min]and8.5[max] :shock:

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