Alkalinity help please - Fareham, Hampshire

[Underthethumb]

Hi,

I'm a novice AG brewer (5 AG brews complete) and would like some advice re. alkalinity readings in my area.

I have adopted a fairly simply water treatment regime, using DLS, CRS and Campden. My beer is much better now compared to my first brew which just used Campden and DLS.

Anyway, i'm using a Salifert test kit and a few months ago had a reading of 257 ppm CaCO3. Today that reading is 245, but the local water authority average for my area in 2010 was 290, with a minimum of 269.

My questions are:

- should I trust my reading over the local water authority (I did the test twice waiting 'til the sample turned pink)?
- Is it common to see a small change in alkalinity like this?
- Does anyone else live in this area and have similar readings?

Thanks in advance

[WallyBrew]

.....- should I trust my reading over the local water authority

Yes because you are testing the water you are going to use and if you test it after treatment, which is advisable, then you will know if you were correct.

The figures from your water supplier are most probably total hardness expressed as calcium carbonate and NOT total alkalinity

If you see the words total hardness and calcium carbonate or CaCO3 in the same sentence or line ignore them and any associated numbers.

[Kev888]

My total alkalinity is 'usually' consistent but can suddenly change a great deal from time to time and my retrospective water report doesn't cut it in those circumstances. I'm not in your area but if its like my report then the number of samples they quote for total alkalinity (which isn't one of the mandatory/controlled tests) could be very low and could easily miss a lot of day-to-day variation.

If you use the salifert test kit it comes with a test solution so you'll know that you're measuring correctly - give or take, anyway - and at that point i'd trust an actual reading far more than last year's average or range.

Cheers
Kev

[Bobba]

I did the test twice waiting 'til the sample turned pink

You can check this with the test solution that comes with the kit, but generally I think the value should be taken as soon as you get any permanent change in colour, rather than to keep adding until you get a real pink colour
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/home_brew_ ... lifert.htm

I certainly find that my water changes over time, sometime by quite shocking amounts +-20%. I test it every single brew day, as I just can't trust it to be consistent. The salifert test is really very accurate and certainly significantly better than an yearly average reading from the water board.

[Underthethumb]

Thanks for the advice everyone. The link from Bobba was really useful.

I keep coming back to 245 so I guess that's it.

cheers