Chlorine is allowed, but is not used. It tastes bad. If the water you sell tastes bad you won’t be in business very long. Much effort is made by bottlers to dechlorinate water before bottling, when the source water is chlorinated.
Most bottlers disinfect with ultraviolet light. Some also use ozone to carry a bit of disinfectant residual into the bottle as a safeguard. Ozone, O3 quickly degrades to O2 in the bottle.
There are a lot of myths about bottled water out there. In this “government controls every aspect of your life” era that we are living in, do you really think the bureaucrats would miss an opportunity as massive as bottled water?
I imagine, because I’ve never done it and know nothing about it, that the whole idea of “building water” would be to start with a known blank slate and add the chemicals as needed.
In my case I don’t know for sure what’s in my well water. But I know it makes less that stellar light colored malt forward beers. I believe Tom’s advice will get me where I want to be.
Read the label on the water container. Many bottled waters, particularly ones in larger containers, are demineralized by distillation or reverse osmosis. These will be labeled as “purified water.”
And hey, you got something against watching paint dry? ;D
(lots of money to be made in VOC air pollution control)
Jim, get your well water tested to ease your curiosity and post the results . But Denny and Tom will get you there, obviously, as PNW water is pretty suitable for brewing. From the viewpoint of Indiana, you are exactly right - the water is bad enough for brewing most beers here that it is preferable to start from a known blank slate (in this case RO water) and build up from there. But I’ve learned one thing about water - do as little to it as you possibly can to make good beer, take good notes, and remember that every time. The nuances will come.
And in all honesty, this may be all that you need. If you aren’t having issues with any other beer styles, then it’s reasonably safe to assume that your water is fine for them. You don’t necessarily have to throw it all out and start from scratch.
If the calculators aren’t your thing, you can just start trying to dial in your recipe that you’re having issues with. This is a good ballpark to start in with what you’re looking for.
Jim, your original plan was fine. Those very minor additions of epsom and table salt can add pleasant nuances to the finished beer. As many have said, you don’t NEED to add those particular salts to your water. However you may find that you WANT to add them. I find that too many brewers think of epsom salt in its laxative state and table salt in its potato chip saltiness state. While I agree that I don’t want those flavors in my beers, I recognize that the difference between medicine and poison is DOSE. With proper dosing, those salts are quite beneficial to beer flavor and complexity. Those that have made the mistake of brewing with straight RO or distilled water have found the blandness that comes with that purity.
Assuming that those original salt doses produce low ion concentrations, there is no reason not to add them. This is especially true if the alternative is adding only calcium chloride to distilled water. That addition will solve the calcium deficiency and add a bit of chloride, but the resulting water and beer flavor can still be one-dimensional. Including low levels of sodium and sulfate will definitely expand and deepen the flavor perceptions in the finished beer. The need for magnesium is more dubious. That one can easily be left out, but it will be welcome as you pursue a more bitter perception in particular beers.
Since many of those salts are highly soluble, you can check their effect on flavor…in the glass. As Palmer and millions of cheap lager drinkers have found, a dose of table salt can be welcome in beer. Other salts can also be welcome and you can test them too. Do scale their additions appropriately since it does no good to overdose the glass and get a poor impression. In some cases with the minor ion concentrations I’ve recommended in the color-based Bru’n Water profiles, you many not really note much difference in flavor. But you should notice that some additions are notable and pleasant. Give it a try.
For what its worth Jim, below is my water report from Ward Labs. Doubtless it will be different from yours but closer than say, the Puget Sound area.
I wish I had a well. I use 100% RO water because they draw from different sources at different times, making water chemistry a moving target behind a curtain.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 179
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.30
Cations / Anions, me/L 2.9 / 3.2
ppm
Sodium, Na 40
Potassium, K 5
Calcium, Ca 12
Magnesium, Mg 5
Total Hardness, CaCO3 51
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 6
Carbonate, CO3 9
Bicarbonate, HCO3 154
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 141
Fluoride, F 0.53
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
Here is my well water report from Ward Labs. I’m about 20 miles SE of Steve and I’d guess 60 miles NE of Jim. As you can see it’s hard and alkaline.
PH 7.9
TDS 251
EC 0.42
Cat/An 4.8/4.4
Na 17
K 1
Ca 46
Mg 20
Hard CaCO3 198
Nit 1.3 (safe)
Sulfate 2
Cl 4
CO3 <1
HCO3 249
T Alk CaCO3 204
This put my water in the “ok for stouts and porters” category. I use about 50% RO for pale beers and 100% RO for pilsners and lighter beers.
Jim, like Steve said your water is more than likely going to be closer to the west side’s water, which is good for brewing. Kind of ironic that where 80% of the US hops are grown, we need to manipulate the water to properly utilize them.
I suspect that my water is going to be different than the valley. I’m no geologist but it seems I’d have spring water from the Columbia ans Klickitat rivers forced through basalt to where my well is at 1800’ above sea level. Time will tell though.
Bit the bullet and ordered my Ward Labs test. It won’t be done by my next brew day obviously, but it won’t be long till I get to retire from this guessing game. Woo hoo!
Me too! I sent in samples of pre-softened and post-softened water to the lab and they’re on the way. Just wanted to see the delta. I live in Beavercreek, OH so I suspect pretty crappy results (as Gordon Strong has suggested) and I expect that I’ll start using RO water as well.
Brewed my last few batches (IPAs and a Pumpkin) with post-softened water. They weren’t bad, but not great either.
