Basic water treatment Midlothian

[Mther]

Hello everyone,

I never used any water treatment before, people say Scottish water is alright, however I would like to ask you which are the basic stuff people add in water so a batch wont get wasted? I only brewed using kits so far but next one will be AG. should I add any tablets just in case? And where do you buy these things do you have any links? The local homebrew shop does not sell anything for water treatment.

Thank you very much in advance

[Jim]

As you have gathered, water varies a lot from one region to another, so you can't just use a standard method to treat it for brewing.

Have a read of this section on water treatment - however unless you're water is very hard (lots of limescale in your kettle), you should be able to make perfectly good beer with it as it is (as long as you do something to get rid of excess chlorine if you need to).

[edonald774]

Hi,
I'm in east Lothian so probably using the same water source as you.
Our water is very soft and I've brewed plenty of very good beers doing nothing other than a spoonful of gypsum in the mash.

I'd say that unless you are doing dark beers they you could probably get away with not mucking about with your water yet.

Take the time to get the hang of all grain brewing for now then worry about your water later when you have more confidence.
Eli

[Mther]

Thank you both for your replies. Jim the link you have sent me is very informative thank you.

Eli, first of all, very interesting blog well done!

Would this gypsum do the job? http://www.brewstore.co.uk/gypsum-calci ... -692-p.asp
and since I will be brewing 40 L batches would 2 soupspoons be enough? It says 1 oz per gallon but that is way too much unless it meant for sherry fermentation.

Thanks again

[Hanglow]

Depending where you are, edinburgh water can be quite hard compared to a lot of scotland - it is after all quite famous for brewing IPAs and so on back in the day, so I suggest you get one of those alkalinity kits and/or send off a sample to a lab

the water is very different to glasgow water for example, which tends to have barely any minerals in it at all

the 1oz per gallon is utterly mental for beer making, don't do it


There's a couple of microbrewers in Edinburgh now, you could try emailing them, like Pilot or Stewart or Barney's Beer.

[Mther]

Lol Hanglow I wud need to buy a 20kg of gypsum to last me for the month if I was following brewstores advice.

I will ask Stewart he is on next village anyway.

Thanks mate.

[edonald774]

Had a good giggle about the 20kgs
Yeah that gypsym is exactly the stuff I use.

I have a water report for Edinburgh water I got from a friend if you want to PM me and I'll send you the details but I really would recommend starting off by concentrating on brewing and move to the water treatments later, after all you could get the perfect water treatments and still brew a bad beer if you don't know what you are doing