Helpful, thank you. That United Utilities link was great, my kind of level so I see where CAC03 is coming from.PeeBee wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:39 pmYou wont see any "calcium carbonate" reported, because there isn't any! What Northern Brewer was quoting from the water company website was "as CaCO3" but the "as" is often left off. It's a convenient way of describing such things. All "carbonate" will actually be "bicarbonate" at the reported pH7.4 (carbonate chemistry and "alkalinity" scrambles most peoples heads, mine for sure).
The water analysis is typical of acid moorland surface runoff, but a bit high in bicarbonate because in Derbyshire you are never far from the chalk.
Not so long ago I got involved in a mammoth thread that attracted some water "heavyweights" like Wally and Eric (plus "Silver is Money" from the States, author of "Mash made easy"). Find it here: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=82202. It's a bit of a long read but I bet you can learn more than from it than Mr Palmer's book. And it wont be distorted (much) by some weird "American" ideas about water.
As already mentioned, you will probably find your own tap water isn't much different from the one you've quoted in the OP. Get Wally to test it. I don't think any Derbyshire tap water is bore (ground) water, which would be heavily influenced by the chalk (very, very, alkaline). I used to live in Derbyshire BTW.
The linked thread is good reading but will probably take me a while to work through and take it and as you say at least it isn't Americanised.