Tesco Bottled Water

[barneey]

Well tomorrow I am going to try brewing with the cheap Tesco Bottled water (17p 2ltr stuff)

Classic Pale Ale 25 ltr brew.

I have tested the water with a Salifert kit which gave the result of 0.33 meg/l or 16.50caco3

Just a few questions if someone could help out.
I have both DLS and Gypsum available to me, how much of either should I be adding to the mash?

Also has anyone ever had the tesco`s water analysed by say Murphy and sons to see exactly what is in it?

Thanks

[barneey]

In the abscence of any answers, I have have tried a teaspoon of DLS in with the grist, mash ph was 5.4.

[nobby]

Silly question, but if your going to treat Tesco Water why not use your own Tap Water and treat that??

[barneey]

Silly question, but if your going to treat Tesco Water why not use your own Tap Water and treat that??

Well the tap water here is very hard, Southern Water are quoting 311, whilst a salifert kit is reading 260+, so I wanted to try a different water supply.

In the end I did two identical brews / different water used, one with treated tap water and the other with the tesco stuff, just really wanted advice from other people if they did anything with the tesco tap water or used it straight from the bottle.

Give it a month or so and I will have an answer of sorts and choose the one that tastes the best.

[mooj]

Hi Barneey,

I think to answer the question, not that I'm qualified to, we'd need to know what the water analysis is and what you're trying to brew. I don't suppose the 17p /2L has the typical analysis printed on it. Asda smart price water used to be a favourite choice for brewing and the analysis was published on this forum somewhere but seems to have disappeared, although its possibly completely different now anyway.

If you used a suitable mineral water (tesco ashbeck is reasonable I think?) with the composition you could always use Graham Wheelers water treatment calculator for guideline treatments.

[barneey]

Hi Barneey,

I think to answer the question, not that I'm qualified to, we'd need to know what the water analysis is and what you're trying to brew. I don't suppose the 17p /2L has the typical analysis printed on it. Asda smart price water used to be a favourite choice for brewing and the analysis was published on this forum somewhere but seems to have disappeared, although its possibly completely different now anyway.

If you used a suitable mineral water (tesco ashbeck is reasonable I think?) with the composition you could always use Graham Wheelers water treatment calculator for guideline treatments.

Hi,

The 17p stuff definitely doesnt have any usefull info on it, I have yet to check any other brands, but didnt want to spend a fortune on a water product (the cost comparison is 8.5p per ltr to 20p per ltr for value to ashbeck), although one with a typical analysis would be of benefit to use with Grahams Calculator.

I was going to get my tap water analysied, but was unsure how seasonal (or day to day) variations might have an effect on the water quality and therfore didnt want to follow a report in blind faith.

Would Tescos water also have the same seasonal variations? (is it Peckham spring) If so it might even be worth buying a large batch of the stuff, getting a test analysis done and then using that for the next 5 brews (100 bottles of water at the checkout!!!! should raise a few eyebrows ).

My quest eventually is to brew a near perfect example of a recipe for future comparison. If it were to turn out that a very simple addition to a "water" acheived a very similar taste comparison I would settle for that.

In the meantime if anyone could recommend any treatement for a bottled water based on the below recipe, I would be thankfull.

The brew from the wekend was a pale ale
3750 pale,300 carapils,3oo wheat,100 light crystal, Target to 27 IBU at 60, Fuggles to 2.5 IBU at 15,Fuggles to 1 IBU at 5 minutes, safeale S-04

Cheers

[Aleman]

Silly question, but if your going to treat Tesco Water why not use your own Tap Water and treat that??

Well if you are using the Tesco Ashbeck water (which has been analysed, I can't speak for any other Tesco water) or the Asda Smartprice, then you are doing so (or should be doing so) because your tap water has high alkalinity (bicarbonate) which prevents the mash pH falling in the correct range. Unfortunately one consequence of using a low alkalinity water (which are 'required/ideal' for brewing pale beers) is that often the calcium content is lower than ideal (it needs to be > 60ppm ) and therefore you have to add treatment salts to increase it. For pale ales this simply means 1 tsp of gypsum in the mash and one in the boil, if you want a 'softer' bitter profile then using calcium chloride is preferable to gypsum

In the meantime if anyone could recommend any treatment for a bottled water based on the below recipe, I would be thankful.

3750 pale,300 carapils,3oo wheat,100 light crystal, Target to 27 IBU at 60, Fuggles to 2.5 IBU at 15,Fuggles to 1 IBU at 5 minutes, safeale S-04

Ok, quite a pale beer, and 30 ish IBU at around 1.040 (???) so a .75 BU:GU ratio, reasonably bitter so a sulphate liquor is better suited. For up to a 25L batch, using Tesco Ashbeck water (I can't comment on the other water) 1 tsp of gyspsum in the mash and 1 in the boil will sort it. If the pH of the mash falls widely outside the range 5.2 to 5.7, then adjust it next time (increasing the mash addition if its higher than 5.7, and decrease it if its lower than 5.2)

[barneey]

Hi Aleman, Thanks for the reply, as I had bought 6 brews worth of ingredients I will try the next one using the Teso Ashbeck with the 1 tsp in the mash and boiler. (& yes achieved 1.040)

I have tried a search for the analysed Tesco Ashbeck Water but for the time being was unable to find it, anyone have the link please?

I`m still wondering if its worth getting the Tesco Value stuff anaylised for the future (will post the results if I do), might also get the home tap water done at the same time.

Thanks

Cheers

Clive

[WallyBrew]

I have tried a search for the analysed Tesco Ashbeck Water but for the time being was unable to find it, anyone have the link please?

At some expense to the residents of Buckinghamshire the following survey was commissioned by the county council. The date of the report is March 2005, has probably not been proof read and is not 100% factually correct as they have used information from the outdated EC regulation 778/80. This was superseded in 1998.

If you download it go to appendix A on page 24. Ashbeck is on the next page. As a spring water it is likely to have a variable composition but will probably not stray to far from the figures given.

Note that on the second and third tables Cl has become Cal.

It also gives results for a tesco value water and this is a relatively hard water.

For some reason best known to themselves they do not appear to have determined the sulphate or the alkalinity, both of which are often quoted on spring/natural waters.

[barneey]

Thnak you very much for the link, will have a read through.

Cheers

[barneey]

In order to help others who might want to try Tesco Value Bottle Water "Captain Dave" and myself, ("Captain Dave" actually doing the water testing part!!! so all credit to him, I merely provided the water sample from Kent) carried out a test on Tesco Value Water from Broadstairs, Kent and another sample of Tesco Value Water from the Newcastle Area.

The reason behind the two different samples was to see if there was any regional difference, very little it would seem.

The tests were carried out on the 3rd November 2011.

Tesco Kent
Mg 1.2 Magnesium
Ca 8.2 Calcium
Mn 0.0 Manganese
K 0.0 Potassium
Na 9.0 Sodium
NH3 0.0 Ammonia
SO4 7.2 Sulphate
NO3 1.0 Nitrate
Cl 12.7 Chloride
F 0.0 Fluoride
PO4 2.8 Phosphate
Alkalinity (CaCO3) 20.0
Hardness (CaCO3) 25.41

Tesco Newcastle
Mg 1.3 Magnesium
Ca 8.2 Calcium
Mn 0.0 Manganese
K 1.3 Potassium
Na 9.5 Sodium
NH3 0.0 Ammonia
SO4 8.5 Sulphate
NO3 0.9 Nitrate
Cl 13.4 Chloride
F 0.0 Fluoride
PO4 4.1 Phosphate
Alkalinity (CaCO3) 16.0
Hardness (CaCO3) 25.83

Regards

Clive + Captain Dave

PS, if someone wants to edit this post or just take the Test Results and make them a "sticky" by all means do so.

[bob3000]

wowza

[timbobist]

What did the brew turn out like? As i too was thinking of using tesco value water.

[barneey]

The brew turned out very well so much so if I`m ever in doubt or want a banker brew I used Tesco`s water, just use a water calculator for any mineral additions you might like to make.