Free water at the old Schmidt brewery Saturday February 11

Northern Brewer General
1

I just drove by there and the sign said free water Saturday February 11th from 8am till 1pm. just thought i would pass that along to all the MN brewers!

2

Thanks for the heads up. Here is a copy of the wards lab report for the well from a little over a year ago. It is such a large area and super deep well that the numbers should stay pretty consistent.
It is relatively hard water so you will want brew beers of SRM’s starting around 14+ if all grain brewing without adjusting etc… So this water as is would be well suited for brown ale, porter, stout etc… It will tend to yield beers with maltier profiles so if looking for enhanced hop character/ bitterness you may want to add a little gypsum as this supply lacks sulfate.

PH 7.8
TDS 177
PPM:
Sodium, NA:17
Potassium, K: 6
Calcium,CA: 45
Magnesium, Mg: 19
Total Hardness CaCO3: 192
Nitrate, NO3-N: < 0.1(safe)
Sulfate SO4-S: 1
Chloride, CL: 40
Carbonate, CO3: < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3: 195
Total alkalinity CaCO3: 160
Fluoride, F: 0.24
Total iron, Fe: < 0.01
< “not detected-below detection limit”

3

Thanks for posting the numbers. I’m planning on making Northern Brewercs Sustainer 2 Rye Maibock with it. Looks like I may have to adjust it a little. Suggestions would be appreciated, still trying to figure this water thing out with my all grain still. Could I add some distilled water to soften it up a little?

4

Here is what I see with the recipe you have chosen.
A. AsIs the mash PH if hitting 1.25q/Lb will reside around 6.1 way too high as this beer does not have enough caramel/ roast grain to counter the high HCO3.
B. If it were me I use Phosphoric 10% available at NB and the most basic thing you could do is add 15ml to the mash to bring it down to 5.4PH (Note* Some use lactic acid or sauermalt I feel phosphoric is the easiest.)
C. If you cut the well water 60% with distilled and use that mixture for your strike water it will bring the mash to around 5.5PH which is still reasonable.

5

Free water! Free water?
I’m glad I live in Missouri - AB gives away hops. Not that free water isn’t awesome…okay, I’ll bite - what’s so great about this water?

6

It is one of the last deep wells in our area that was capped from most all uses back in the 80’s. It covers a vast underground area within our borders of approximately 150 miles north to south and 80 miles west to east and resides 1000ft deep at the well draw point. Just for reference our St Paul Minnesota public water utilities use a well positioned above this well but it is only 500 some feet deep. It is a truly clean water source as compared to some cities around us that were built on bogs and sloughs. I do enjoy our St Paul Muni water thoroughly and think it is the bees-knees, it is outlying suburbs and Minne that are way out of wack for numerous reasons. So this water is a rare treat for people in these select communities.

Now for brewing history reasons the water is piped up to the surface on the old Jacob Schmidt brewing property so it does hold a cool factor as well.

Here’s a link to the cool old property If I am thinking right it might have finally been sold to a developer to make condos or some d**m thing. This is local residents facebook page that will give some background on the property.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacob-Sch ... 2748871487

Cool photo of grounds: the red arrow indicates where the vending machine is at off of w 7th street.

7

Here is street view from Google earth of the vending machines and property from w 7th st.

8

Okay. I guess I’m fairly lucky there - our (Columbia Mo) tap water is pretty decent for brewing as is.

9

There’s a huge difference between “pretty decent” municipal tap water and pure well water. All tap water these days has clorine, flouride, and a number of other chemicals pumped into it to neutralize microbes and other contaminants. (tap water is often pretty dirty, even if it tastes good, and is otherwise safe).

One of the huge things about different beers is the different water profiles used in making them. Big breweries aren’t using extract kits (which are typically made with correct water profiles), but are all grain and require exacting water calibration to get the reciple the same every time.

I just like the fact that we can brew our beer with the same water that’s been used in millions of commerical beers over the last 100 years.

There are some cool lagering caves under the brewery as well, but they’re large sealed off.

10

Thank you for all your help ITsPossible! I might try to brew it next weekend.