water treatment report. york uk 2013/2014

[Dgrant81385]

Not able to find my areas report for this year so using the previous instead.

Still reading up on the water treatment side of things but from what I have read, I have enough of the basic to use my tap water for AG brewing.

And after a PH check my water has a PH level of 6.

[Dave S]

The pH of your tap water doesn't tell you an awful lot. Of primary importance is it's alakalinity. I would advise getting a Salifert Alk Test Kit or similar. Do the test and treat appropriately to get it in the right range, CaCO3 levels at 30-50 ppm for pale beers, 90-150 for browns, porters and stouts. It's difficult to believe your WA has only published one report in a year, but you really could do with a more up-to-date one. Principal levels to know are, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphate and Chloride.

[BenB]

I recently started AG so here's my penny worth........

As said don't worry too much about the flavour ions too much and just try and get the mash pH sorted and for that you need to know alkalinity. You probably won't get the pH spot on first time round and it may well take a bit of tweeking. Also concentrate on technique and the process of AG initially. The pH of the water itself really isn't that important because the main driver of mash pH is the acidity created by the grain and the ability of the water to resist pH changes due to acids (alkalinity).

Concentrate on the mash pH to begin with as it takes some doing.

Getting the flavour ions right is fine tuning and it's very easy to make things worse rather than better. And if your mash pH is off the chart whether your chloride:sulfate ratio is correct won't make a big difference!

I was planning on doing full water treatment from the getgo but am so glad I didn't. Now a few brews in and my pH is more predictable, I've got my evaporative and dead spaces dialled in, my AG process is pretty automatic (in as much as I know what I'm doing and when) and I can start making lots more mistakes

I personally wouldn't be that surprised if the WA doesn't publish often, in Thames Water areas ours are always a couple of years old and it seems to think my postcode doesn't exist. The time before last I had to e-mail customer services to get them to send me one and this time (from that e-mail) I knew which water supply code I was on so manually searched their report directory on the website and found it.....

[Dgrant81385]

I was thinking about really going for it to start with.

But will take it slowly and just get PH/Alk sorted and do a few beers before i start tweaking anything.

[Pinto]

Wouldn't hurt to contact WallyBrew and get an actual report for the water coming out of YOUR tap. For the money, it's going to be well worth it.

[Eric]

Wouldn't hurt to contact WallyBrew and get an actual report for the water coming out of YOUR tap. For the money, it's going to be well worth it.

Very true, it pays for itself not just by the results but confidence you couldn't have not knowing what you start with.

You don't need the mash pH spot on but must avoid it being in the wrong place altogether. Measure alkalinity using a Salifert kit to adjust it when necessary. From that point on you can be in control.