Garth wrote:hope it's going well mate, what a nice day when you're supposed to be a work but off brewing, ah what a life
btw I was under the impression that Dublin water was semi soft, but not hard?
Almost done now. Just waiting for the trub to settle out before running off to FV.
As for the Dublin water, you're probably right. (Googles...) In fact you ARE right 'cos I've just found a Dublin water report (post pinched from an Irish site):
Dublin Water treatment for all grain homebrew
There was some talk about water treatment on another thread and people were wondering if the Dublin Water listed as a reference in Palmers How to Brew, is accurate for the tap water supplied in Dublin.
I can tell you that it is not. The reference water in How to Brew is Dublin water as it was, when Guinness were taking their brewing water straight from the Liffey, outside St. James's Gate.
The water coming out of your tap is different and using the Dublin water information from How to Brew will lead to errors if you try to make water adjustments. My water, in Dublin 7, for example, comes from the Liffey Works, Ballymore Eustace.
I got a water report from Dublin city council's central lab last year and it shows a much softer water profile, than the Dublin water shown in How to Brew, with a Total Hardness (mg CaCO3/l) of 55, almost perfect for pale ales.
The report is about a year and a half old, but I doubt the water hardness has changed much in that time. I would try to get a new one, to see if it has changed, but it took me about two weeks of emailing and phone calls to get this one and I really don't want to go through that again.
Please note that this is the water in my area. I have no idea if the water in the rest of the city is the same, but I am under the impression that it probably is.
Also note that the water report is only relevant if you are mashing grain. If you are brewing an extract beer, you don't need to worry about it.
Here it is, for anyone who is interested:
Liffey Works
Ballymore Eustace
08.03.2005
Water Quality - Guide Values
Volume Produced (m3/day)............................. 250 000
Colour (Hazen)................................................ < 10
Turbidity (NTU).............................................. < 1
pH................................................................... 7.5 - 8.5
Conductivity (µS/cm)....................................... 140 - 150
Chloride (mg/l)................................................ < 25
Sulphate (mg/l)................................................ < 35
Total Dissolved Solids (mg/l)........................... 95
Total Residual Chlorine (mg/l)......................... 0.05 - 0.10
Nitrate (mg N/l)............................................... < 1.0
Nitrite (mg N/l)................................................ < 0.01
Ammonia (mg N/l)........................................... < 0.02
Phosphate (mg P/l)........................................... < 0.02
Aluminium (mg/l)............................................. < 0.1
Iron (mg/l)....................................................... < 0.05
Fluoride (mg/l)................................................. 0.8 - 1.0
Total Coliforms (MPN/100ml).......................... <1
E.coli (MPN/100ml)........................ <1
Heterotrophic Plate Count 22°C (CFU/ml)....... < 20
Heterotrophic Plate Count 37°C (CFU/ml)....... < 20
Odour.............................................................. None
Taste................................................................ None
Magnesium (mg/L)........................................ 1.5
Calcium (mg/L)............................................. 18 - 20
Total Alkalinity (mg CaCO3/l)......................... 28
Calcium Hardness (mg CaCO3/l)..................... 45 - 50
Total Hardness (mg CaCO3/l).......................... 55
Saturation pH.................................................. 8.7 to 9.2
Langelier.......................................................... -2.0 to -1.5
Ryznar............................................................. 10.2 to 11.2
. Il use northdown and goldings at 15 mins as it seemed to work well for my Gail Porter.
