68.5mg/L Alkalinity from Salifert Kit. Is this too low???

[Jolum]

Hi all,

Well, finally got round to using the Salifert Alkalinity Test Kit I bought a while back (as recommended by Chris in his vid). I've tried it 3 times and always get the same result 1.37 meq/L just before it all goes pink and 1.49 meq/L when it turns all pink (with one more drop). That equates to 68.5 - 74.5 mg/L Alkalinity.
All sounds pretty straight forward but when I read on here that people have got readings in the hundreds e.g. 205, 217 etc I start to worry that I've balls'd it up. Does anyone have a reading for Severn Trent Water? Before you all flame me, I know that everyone's water is different etc I'm only after a ball park figure for the area so I can lay my mind to rest. And no, don't even ask me to go to Severn Trent Water again...emails, a letter and several phone calls and that's about me played out in that particular game, as a matter of interest I'm still waiting for the latest request I sent.

As always, any help\info would be appreciated.
J

[delboy]

I'd say you are pretty good to go, if i produced the same numbers three times in a row i'd be pretty confident i'd nailed down the correct figure.
Thats perfectly acceptable brewing water you seem to have, you might want to bump the mineral content up a tad with some gypsum though for hoppy beers/CaCl for maltier beers and to help with the general mash acidification and protein/yeast flocculation etc.

[Jolum]

Nice one Delboy, thanks m8

[PureGuiness]

The test kit comes with a small sample of a control water that you can use to check that you are reading accurately. I did this to double check I was using the kit correctly and reading the correct "end point". As it turns out I was spot on.

[Jolum]

Hi PG,

Yeah, since posting I too have had a go with the test solution they ship in the box and found I got the end point spot on. As a matter of interest, I must be doing something right as I had a go at my tap water again and bingo, exactly what I got before (68.5 - 74.5 mg/L Alkalinity), 4 times in a row can't be bad.
The whole point of the post was that (for no good reason) I assumed (incorrectly) that being near Derby my water would be hard. Don't ask me why, it's just something I had in my head but now can't explain why...oh well, best have a brew and forget about it

As always, thanks for all the help.

[Aleman]

The whole point of the post was that (for no good reason) I assumed (incorrectly) that being near Derby my water would be hard. Don't ask me why, it's just something I had in my head but now can't explain why...

Alkalinity has nothing at all ( . . . . well almost nothing at all . . . ) to do with Hardness.

Hardness is the amount of calcium (and magnesium) ions in the water, and while these are, usually, associated with carbonate they are not always, they could be associated with sulphate (ala Burton) . . . so you can have hard water (high calcium) with low alkalinity (low Carbonate/bicarbonate) . . . . Its rare to get it the other way round though

[mysterio]

Your water should be fine for almost anything but I would reduce carbonates a little for pale/blonde beers.