Alkalinity 7.5

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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jonnyt

Alkalinity 7.5

Post by jonnyt » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:44 pm

My water company tell me that the Alkalinity of my water is 7.5

What does this mean for brewing bitter, IPA etc?

What would I need to add an in what approx quantities?

jonnyt

Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by jonnyt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:44 am

Thats a PH of 7.5 as my water is deemed as hard.

Looking at CWs book he suggests just starting at 50mg of CRS for a 23L brew, would this be enough in my case?

The calculator doesn't seem to allow you to put in a PH value hence my question

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GrowlingDogBeer
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Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:03 am

The calculator doesn't allow you to put in a pH, as the pH of your water is irrelevant.
The hardness of your water is fairly irrelevant too.

The thing you need to know is the Alkalinity of your water either as mg/l CaCO3, or HCO3 or CO3. You can then use that value to determine how much CRS you need to add to get to the right level for the type of brew you are making.

You can test the Alkalinity yourself with a Salifert Test kit, the details are in the FAQ below.

Have a read through here to give you some guidance.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/home_brew_ ... atment.htm

jonnyt

Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by jonnyt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:46 am

Thanks for the link it's excellent.

However surely there is a direct calculation from PH to the terms used in the article?

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GrowlingDogBeer
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Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:52 am

jonnyt wrote:However surely there is a direct calculation from PH to the terms used in the article?
I don't believe there is a link, but I'm not a chemistry expert so don't really understand this stuff.

Someone who who does understand may be along to explain better than I can.

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Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by Aleman » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:57 am

jonnyt wrote:Surely there is a direct calculation from PH to the terms used in the article?
No there isn't, pH is related to the concentration of Hydrogen Ions in the sample (Log10 [H+]). The alkalinity is the concentration of the Carbonate and Bicarbonate ions in the sample. Two entirely (and completely unrelated) different things.

jonnyt

Re: Alkalinity 7.5

Post by jonnyt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:08 pm

Thanks for the help guys, I've ordered a testing kit from Ebay.

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