Help me make sense of my water report!

[AnthonyD]

I've been trying to read my water report to see if there is anything I should be concerned about, and to help improve the quality of my beer.

However, I'm coming up with a few blanks, in the areas of Calcium and Magnesium.

I think I've worked out the following so far:

Alkalinity (CaCO3 ppm); 46.618
Sulfate (SO4); 14.619
Chloride (Cl ppm); 11.279
Sodium (Na ppm); 7.8

The Water report is from Severn Trent Water here: http://www.stwater.co.uk/households/you ... de=B14+7QT

If someone wouldn't mind taking a look for me to confirm that these are the correct figures, and to point out any obvious defects I'd be very grateful!

Cheers

Anthony

[a-slayer]

Email Severn Trent and request the details you want and in the format you want and they will supply it, I have done so twice and they were very helpful and supplied it all. I even got a test results for different times of year as well as the year averages.

[Eric]

I've been trying to read my water report to see if there is anything I should be concerned about, and to help improve the quality of my beer.

However, I'm coming up with a few blanks, in the areas of Calcium and Magnesium.

I think I've worked out the following so far:

Alkalinity (CaCO3 ppm); 46.618
Sulfate (SO4); 14.619
Chloride (Cl ppm); 11.279
Sodium (Na ppm); 7.8

The Water report is from Severn Trent Water here: http://www.stwater.co.uk/households/you ... de=B14+7QT

If someone wouldn't mind taking a look for me to confirm that these are the correct figures, and to point out any obvious defects I'd be very grateful!

Cheers

Anthony

Not quite, the usual trap.
Your first figure is for total hardness and while it is measured in the same units, it isn't the same as alkalinity which, if those figures are correct I'll guess might be about 30ppm CaCO3. With a Salifert kit you'll be able to test this for yourself.
Using 16ppm for calcium and 1 for magnesium will fit with the other figures.
Cheers.

[AnthonyD]

Thanks Eric,

That's a good start. I've emailed Severn Trent, but getting a Salifert kit is the next option. Failing that I'd be tempted to pay for the Murphy's report for complete satisfaction. Although that might be a bit further down the line.

[Eric]

Knowing the amount of alkalinity in water you intend to turn into beer is the key to successful water treatment. Using something like this makes it hard to justify not testing every time you brew.
While all ions in your water can influence the outcome, at the levels they appear to be their influence could be small in comparison if you were to add salts to the levels found in traditional British beer styles such that a full analysis initially may not be highly beneficial. If you were to measure alkalinity to be significantly different to 30ppm CaCO3, then further information should be obtained or full testing should be considered.