Boiling water to reduce alkalinity

[norstar]

Hi. I've just tried boiling to lower the alkalinity of our water. The salifert kit says 228 to start.
I boiled two 20 litre swan boilers for about ten minutes with stirring and got a slightly cloudy water. I then turned them off, covered and left overnight. There's some residue at the bottom if you wipe it with your finger. This morning the test days alkalinity is 205. Am I doing something wrong?

[Aleman]

Try adding a tsp of gypsum to the water before you boil . . . and boil hard for 15-20 minutes.

Theoretically you should be able to reduce the alkalinity down to 70ppm, but I've not seen anything like that in practice

[Dave S]

I find boiling to reduce alkalinity such a waste of time and energy when you can just add acid and get a better result.

[Aleman]

I find boiling to reduce alkalinity such a waste of time and energy when you can just add acid and get a better result.

[norstar]

I forgot to mention, I have used CRS several times, but there's just something with the water that even with CRS bringing alkalinity down, is affecting the beers. I've also tried Acid, Gypsum etc.

With any approach, I always seem to end up with a slight aftertaste and unpleasant mouthfeel, some more "harsh" than others. To test the issue, I've changed every facet of how I brew and the last thing to try was water, so instead of CRS, I used Tesco's Ashbeck spring water and voila, the resulting beer was smooth, clean tasting and with no astringency whatsoever.

This is my first attempt at boiling and I'd hoped I could get the Alkalinity right down to what Graham's water calculator says - but 28 ain't going to cut it!

Worth trying another boil tonight with Gypsum added? Maybe I need to boil it longer and stir more.

[AnthonyUK]

I'm in the same situation as you regarding alkalinity. CRS is not ideal as it adds both sulphate and chloride which for a large alkalinity reduction can be too high.
Some people might say it shouldn't be an issue have high amounts of both but it is noticeable.
You could try another type of acid but for the price I'll probably just go with some or all Ashbeck where required.

[Charles1968]

If you rely only on acid and salt additions, you can end up with salty beer. I find a combination of salt/acid additions and dilution with soft mineral water gets my water where I want it.

[Aleman]

Anthony is right, in some cases there is just too much alkalinity and calcium for acids to be 100% effective on their own. Then your only option is to dilute your water with something lower in alkalinity (Ashbeck / RO / Deionised / Distilled), before reducing it further with a smaller acid addition.

[Dave S]

Anthony is right, in some cases there is just too much alkalinity and calcium for acids to be 100% effective on their own. Then your only option is to dilute your water with something lower in alkalinity (Ashbeck / RO / Deionised / Distilled), before reducing it further with a smaller acid addition.

Yes, low alkaline water additions is a good option, and I've found the cheapest way to do this is RO water from a local aquarium shop who charges £2.50 for 25 litres - a whopping 10p/litre.

I stopped using CRS when I discovered that my chloride levels are already high at 100+ ppm. Having said that, I know some are happy with levels considerably above that, so I might revisit that at some point.

[AnthonyUK]

The thing I would like to find out is that given I live in a town that has a long brewing history which is still the case today, what did the breweries do to treat their water as I'm guessing the source hasn't ever changed. We are at one of the sources of the river Wey.

[Dave S]

Probably nowt other than boiling. Unfortunately there's no one around to tell us how it tasted.

[Ren]

You can try phosphoric acid it has little flavour effect.

[mabrungard]

Hi. I've just tried boiling to lower the alkalinity of our water. The salifert kit says 228 to start.
I boiled two 20 litre swan boilers for about ten minutes with stirring and got a slightly cloudy water. I then turned them off, covered and left overnight. There's some residue at the bottom if you wipe it with your finger. This morning the test days alkalinity is 205. Am I doing something wrong?

What is your starting calcium content? If the water doesn't have enough calcium, the precipitation reaction from the boiling can't occur.

[norstar]

Calcium content about 90.

Incidentally, I reboiled after reading the above, but shoved in a teaspoon of Gypsum and Calcium Chloride this time. Boiled it again but this time gave it 20 mins.

The next morning, there was noticeably more precipitate and I measured the alkalinity again and this time it was below 100 - forgotten exactly as I'm not at home but I think it was 85-90.

So it did work (to an extent), but I ended up with 10L of water from my original 20 (having lost water in the deadspace run off, evap etc, and more worryingly, the water left over was coloured noticeably when you put it in the fermenting bucket. Not uber brown but not crystal clear like the Tesco Ashbeck spring is either...

I used it in a brew yesterday to reduce the amount of Ashbeck Spring I needed, so used 10L of boiled water and 30L of Tesco's. pH was good in the mash and other than a terrible protein break, all seemed well. Hit my targets exactly which hasn't happened for ages.

Have to say though, for the sake of £2 of water, it ain't worth it. I think I'm going to stick to using Tesco water which costs £8 for a full length brew, and I've found the 4L bottles make great mini fermenters for experimental batches!

[AnthonyUK]

....I've found the 4L bottles make great mini fermenters for experimental batches!

They are usually 5l. I hope you haven't been using too much water