Water testing?

Reading the how to brew book, I see there is quite a bit of information on water qualities and testing.

Do you guys worry about that? It has me curious enough to test my tap water ( municipal supply) to see what I have here. Any suggestions where I could take it/ send it for analysis? Do the kits offer enough information for me to do it myself?

Thank you

Tom

Wards Laboratories can give you a water report with detailed results for brewing. When using municipal water you will need to know the source. Some municipal water will often come from multiple sources at different times of the year. If the source is unknown you may be better off to start with purchased RO water and build the profile you will need for the beer being brewed.

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I whole heartedly agree with Flarsā€¦ Sneezles61

Thank you, yes I looked and our water can come from a few local springs/ reservoirs. They are all located within a few miles of each other but no telling what the differences could be. What is RO water and does that need to be tested and treated towards what I am brewing? I am guessing RO is reverse osmosis ? Just a guessā€¦

Tom

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Yes, reverse osmosisā€¦ There is a meter for testing it too. I do not have one. I brewed so many batches using RO and with good results, BUT, we have good water here, from our own well, and have a report that gives me the break down of the aquifer that serves this area. That is how Iā€™m brewing nowā€¦ Gets to be a PITA getting enough RO water for a 10 gallon brew day! You could get an RO system too. Sneezles61

How to Brew, 4e in on my list of books to buy later this spring.

I brew with RO/distilled water. Iā€™m currently viewing adding minerals to water as ā€œseason to tasteā€ - it will make a good recipe better. One still has to execute the other things (sanitation, temperature control, ingredient selection) well before water minerals matter.

What I do know from experience with some of my standard extract/partial-mash recipes is that a little bit of gypsum will enhance hop flavors / aromas in pale ales / IPAs:

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We use RO in our home.

Interesting how fast the forum chatter has moved forum in the last couple of months - a number of people digging in deep on the science behind the use of minerals in water.

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In every hobby Iā€™ve been involved in, there always seems to be a second approach that contrasts the ā€œprimaryā€ meme in some ways. Usually itā€™s a simplicity/complexity contrast.

With minerals in water, Iā€™m finding that some of the articles that Chris Colby writes make minerals in water very approachable. If you have already figured out water, these articles may not be for you. But for getting started, it may be a quicker easier apporach:

So far, this approach is working well for me.

I ignored my water chemistry for a long time figuring that my beer tasted good so why bother. Finally decided that maybe it could taste better so why not look into it. What I discovered was our water supply was really good and needed very little adjustment. It was fun figuring it out though.

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I agree, I think it is the natural progression to keep investigating the details. I think if I were not interested in the ā€œhowsā€ and ā€œwhysā€ of beer brewing then I would just drive to the store and buy my beer. I am still very challenged by the water topic, (thank you for those links Chertel) . Its not something I am going to understand in a hurry, but little by little I will get it.
Someday I may find a good all day or multi day class on all grain brewing where I can maybe pick it up a bit quicker.

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I getting ready to brew the Speckled Heifer partial mash. Brewed this one a few times before I started using Bruā€™n Water. So far there was no water adjustment for the mash liquor. Bruā€™n Water suggests 10 ml of 10% phosphoric acid addition to the mash liquor with 3.8 ml added to the sparge water.

I suppose the acid addition to the mash liquor is because of the lack of acid malts in a light yellow beer. Iā€™m going to go with Bruā€™n Water to see how it compares to previous Speckled Heifers.

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I think if your using tap water from a well, it has alot of carbonates to buffer the acid addition, so more acid is needed. If you are using distilled/RO you are still adding acid, not as much because the carbonates are virtually non existent and not much buffering happens. Also the very light malts donā€™t have much acidity to offer in the mash. Sneezles61

My HCO3 is at 156. I was thinking about boiling the water to reduce the carbonate. According to Martin Brungardā€™s formula this would put my calcium into the negative numbers. I would need to add calcium chloride or calcium sulfate depending on existing levels. More reading to do!

I agree & itā€™s likely Iā€™ll ā€œdive into the deep endā€ on the science of brewing water this winter. And Bruā€™n Water will be one of my starting points.

Itā€™s also fun to add a ā€˜pinchā€™ of gypsum (to accent the hops) in a short boil all DME APA/IPA. Yes, extract brewing with small amounts of minerals (seasoned to taste) runs against the standard internet forum meme on using minerals with DME. Is it safe to say that I first heard about this while stewarding at a regional homebrew contest? :slight_smile: .

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Thereā€™s no doubt you can add minerals to accentuate extract brewing. You just have to be very careful as you donā€™t know the mineral level in the extract.

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Meh. Itā€™s a hobby and it 's beer. Gotta have fun with it or itā€™s not worth doing. :slight_smile:

Have you ever had to dump 5gal beer? When yo do let me know how fun it is. :wink:

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Yup thats how I feel, and prob why I ask a lot of questions and opinions, as by the time my beer goes into the fermentor and then through the primaryā€¦ well I have a lot of time and effort into that brew and I hate even the thought of having to dump it. Someday if I get super experimental I will either have the confidence and experience to know pretty strongly that whatever happens it will still be drinkable, or I will do my crazy experiments on 1 gallon batches. Maybe then it would be less painful.

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Iā€™m taking smaller steps and keeping the notes detailedā€¦ I have dumped a few 5 gallons batches many years agoā€¦ I will blame one on bad sanitation, another, I saw a fruit fly dive bomb into a bottling bucket! I am working on using lactic acid for pH mashing, finding on my pale brews I have the pre-mash (BIAB) water at 5.8ā€¦ with 3 - 10 gallon brews successfully done, I feel good with my resultsā€¦Next, Iā€™ve reading on chloride/sulfateā€¦ This W/E is IPA time. I will use gypsum to the boil kettleā€¦ Start small, 1 tablespoon for 10ā€¦ Sneezles61