Water report - For Torbay

[mosquat]

Hello all,

I'm new to brewing...so new that I don't even have any brewing kit yet but hope to get started soon.

In the meantime as I will be mostly taking information from this site I thought I would try to start by giving some info back...so here are the essential stats for the water in Torbay, Devon:

Note: these are mean values

Ph - approx. 8.5
Ca 1.4 ppm
Mg 1.4 ppm
Na 9.5 ppm
SO4 15.4 ppm
Cl 11.9 ppm
HCO3 24 ppm

Hope these help someone out there

Cheers

[mr_so]

Hi mosquat, what area of Torbay are you in, I'm not sure we all get our water from the same source here..

I had a report done last week by Murphy Homebrew,

pH 6.13
Nitrate 5.1
Calcium 8.00
Magnesium 2.00
Chloride 14.02
Sulphate 17.91
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 24.00

This is from TQ3 postcode BTW

[orlando]

Note: these are mean values

Then they don't mean diddly. Water treatment is towards, if not, the end of your tasks to get to grips with. Before you go anywhere near it try brewing with your water as is and you will have a benchmark to measure against and one less variable to concern you. Smell and taste your water, if it is heavily chlorinated then 1/2 a Campden tablet finely crushed in the full volume of your starting liquour is worth doing. You already probably have low alkalinity so you should be able to make pretty decent Bitters and Lagers, the one problem you may have is your calcium is too low, but the advice holds for now. There is so much to learn that can go wrong before water comes into it. Get to grips with more important things first then once you feel you are ready there will be plenty of good advice on here to get you through, starting with a proper analysis of your actual water.

[mosquat]

Mr So - I'm in the same Postcode So my first post is essentially useless info....on the other hand I probably owe you some of the fee for the water test - cheers for posting. Maybe I can share a bottle or two with you when I've made my first batch (if they're not awful of course)?

Orlando: Thanks for your advice, I will be sure to post back requesting guidance with all of the issues I will no doubt run in to.

[windrider]

Hey guys,

I’m located in Newton Abbot. Going to start looking at my water quality soon…not that I have had any issues with my beers, just like trying to refine my brewing process. Find the water is quite good around here compared to other areas.

[orlando]

The biggest improvement you can make to your brewing is to control fermentation temperature so look at creating a brew fridge for yourself. Search on here.

[mosquat]

Funny you should say that Orlando as it was the first thing I sorted out - I'm working backwards. Got the shed, then fridge, then temp controller and heater. Now getting parts for the stirrer for my yeast starters - then I will be buying the brew equipment.

It seems like we're in agreement anyway so its good to have that qualified by someone with your experience

[orlando]

Funny you should say that Orlando as it was the first thing I sorted out - I'm working backwards. Got the shed, then fridge, then temp controller and heater. Now getting parts for the stirrer for my yeast starters - then I will be buying the brew equipment.

It seems like we're in agreement anyway so its good to have that qualified by someone with your experience

You'll be making slants before your firs brew at this rate. Bet you leave your taps open at least once though.

[mr_so]

[quote="mosquat"]Mr So - I'm in the same Postcode So my first post is essentially useless info....on the other hand I probably owe you some of the fee for the water test - cheers for posting. Maybe I can share a bottle or two with you when I've made my first batch (if they're not awful of course)?
[/quote]

Not sure that it's useless, just different for some reason, how long ago was the analysis done? It is possible that we have very changeable water I guess, which would be a little annoying but not too much of an issue..

I'm sure your first batch won't be worse than some of my experiments turn out

[mosquat]

Its just from 2013-2014 - not a very accurate time frame either

[orlando]

Its just from 2013-2014 - not a very accurate time frame either

Local water reports tend to be averages and may be quite a bit out. Specific reports on your own water are likely to be very similar over time with one major excception and that is alkalinity. This can be tested at home with a fresh water alkaliniy test kit by Salifert, ebay is your best bet. Cheap but reasonably accurate and as you should check every time you brew, even if using something like CRS, you can do a lot of tests before having to repurchase. For the nerdy extremists who have to have the latest gadget there is of course the Hanna alkalinity checker.

[mosquat]

Cheers for that info Orlando - I used to get the old salifert test kits when I kept marine fish - not as interesting as brewing but there are so many similarities