Delving into the world of water treatment

[onelegout]

I popped to my local homebrew shop today, and saw that they had Gypsum and CRS for sale at a decent price, so bought some with the idea of treating my water on the next brew day.
My water report is as follows:
All in mg/l / PPM
Alkalinity CaCO3: 278
Calcium Ca:110
Magnesium Mg:3
Sodium Na:10.2
Carbonate Co3:166.68
Sulphate So4:13.8
Chloride Cl:23.4

Using the Brewing Water Treatment Calculator, I can choose from different beer styles, and it outputs the correct amount of additions needed.

My question is, do I need to add all of these ingredients, or can I just add the correct amount of CRS, Gypsum, and sodium chloride? Which addition is most important?

I'm a bit lost! All I want to do is make my beer taste better, and trying water treatment seems like a good place to improve the process!

Thanks,
H

[Aleman]

There are three steps to water treatment

1) Neutralise chlorine - Filter or add metabisulphite
2) Adjust alkalinity to a suitable level for beer style - Using CRS if need to lower, or Sodium Bicarbonate to raise
3) Adjust calcium to optimum for brewing say around 150 - Using Gypsum for hoppier ales and /or calcium chloride for malty ones.

There is no other reason to carry out further adjustments unless you believe that it is required to match a water profile exactly to make a particular style of beer.

2) requires that you have the ability of measuring alkalinity of the liquor you are brewing with
3) you can probably live with the water companies report for calcium as it is only required to be somewhere in the ball park

[lancsSteve]

WHAT ALEMAN SAID +

Does your tap water taste nice? Do your beers taste nasty?

Getting rid of any chlorine using half a campden tablet can make a bigger difference in the opinion of many I've talked to.

If you want to do it properly get an alkalinity testing kit from eBay for about a fiver and don't go on the water reports.

[onelegout]

Huge thanks to everyone who's offered advice on this!

There are three steps to water treatment

1) Neutralise chlorine - Filter or add metabisulphite
2) Adjust alkalinity to a suitable level for beer style - Using CRS if need to lower, or Sodium Bicarbonate to raise
3) Adjust calcium to optimum for brewing say around 150 - Using Gypsum for hoppier ales and /or calcium chloride for malty ones.

There is no other reason to carry out further adjustments unless you believe that it is required to match a water profile exactly to make a particular style of beer.

2) requires that you have the ability of measuring alkalinity of the liquor you are brewing with
3) you can probably live with the water companies report for calcium as it is only required to be somewhere in the ball park

Ok cool, I used one crushed campden tablet per 10 galons of water on the last brew I did (first one on my new herms brewery) - that's in the fermenter at the moment and it's going well, so that will be a good acid test of how much difference the dechlorination (is that a word?!) has affected the beer's taste. I had noticed a chemical/medicine like taste in my beer, which I assumed was something to do with the forced carbonation or not rinsing the keg of its steriliser well enough; perhaps it was more to do with not removing the chlorine from my water.

WHAT ALEMAN SAID +

Does your tap water taste nice? Do your beers taste nasty?

Getting rid of any chlorine using half a campden tablet can make a bigger difference in the opinion of many I've talked to.

If you want to do it properly get an alkalinity testing kit from eBay for about a fiver and don't go on the water reports.

Tap water tastes fine, but I'm used to it as I've only ever lived within this water zone. My beer is ok, but doesn't seem to age well; I find I have to use a LOT of hops to make the hop aroma/bitterness last.

Most important perameter: Alkalinity

278 - 30 = 248

(neutralising power of CRS = 180mg/ml)

248/180 = 1.37

in other words to reduce your residual alkalinity to 30 mg/l (CaCo3) ideal for pale ales and bitters add 1.37 mg per litre (of brewing liquor) of CRS

Your next important perameter is calcium and this is fine, it needs to be 50+ but 1 tsp of gypsum (calcium sulphate) in the mash and 1 tsp in the boil wont hurt and will bring it closer to 150 which is better. The sulpate will bring out the hop flavour too.

Ok so Is reducing alkalinity important because it stops the carbonates from stopping the pH changing during the mash? If so, how do I go about testing whether it's worked? pH test strips? I'm a bit confused about that bit!

As said, you would be better testing your own water rather than relying on water company figures which can often be in accurate. You may find that the figure 278 is a little high.

Not all kits are equal. Buy a Salifert Total Alkalinity Test Kit as shown in my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCpcQ7uh-fA (testing is relatively quick and painless).

Ok thanks I'll get that kit and test the alkalinity before making any changes!

[lancsSteve]

Test mash pH with strips - I used to, don't bother now water here is so soft it might as well be bottled hence only additions as there's nowet to take out (I haven't descaled kettle in over 5 years, no need to!) I chuck in some gypsum and calcium carbonate (1/2 tsp and 1/2 tbsp respectively) to mash and half that to boiler if I'm doing a hoppy brew. But as I'm more into brewing continental styles and learning as I go I'm leaving water treatment for 'sometime in the future' if I want to refine a brew. Else I bring a big polypin of hard-as water back from seeing family norfolk and mix it with mine for pale ales, seems to work!

Hop bitterness will mellow with age...

Aleman knows his stuff - I'm just an experimenter!

[leigh1919]

Cheers - some good stuff here. I'm also looking to treat my water from now on but dont know where to start. There's nothing particulary wrong with my beers, but it's a total grey area to me and if something can be improved, then i'm all for it. Dont really know where to start but I'll be browsing on here, as always....!!

[Eadweard]

This article from Murphy and Son on water treatment is good: http://www.murphyandson.co.uk/BrewingAr ... ywhere.htm