Changing water profile

Hi everyone

I finally have more time to pick back up the hobby. I started brewing in 92 and brewed for about 10 years, then life got in the way ( work ) and was traveling too much to brew. I’ve now settled down and have been researching getting back into this. All I can say is WOW, technology in this hobby has changed.

So my question is what do the brewers use to test their water supply with water that’s well or spring because it’s always changing. I live in the mountains of Western NC and my water supply is tapped into a spring in the mountain. It’s great water but changes frequently. When I lived in a metro area it was easy to get a report and the profile never changed a lot. I also used test strips back in the day which really wasn’t that accurate but did an ok job. I thought about using ward labs to get a good base report but if my water supply profile changes often, I would think it would be a waste of money. So should I go ahead and order a report from ward labs to get a good base or just use testing strips every time I brew a batch? I’ll be using Bru n Water and I’m currently playing around with BeerSmith3.

I’m excited about getting back into this, buying new equipment and all. Sure is a lot more equipment out there than there used to be and will be fun shopping around. But anyway thanks for the help and I’m sure I’ll have more questions in the future.

A Wards Lab report is a great place to start. Personally, I think you have a few options to consider:

  1. A cheap TDS meter will help you know when your water has changed significantly. If it jumps from 25 PPM to something like 80 PPM, then you know something significant has happened, then you could use option 2.

  2. There are testing kits available, and they will get you into the ballpark. I have used several and they work ok. They are, however, expensive. Still the ability to know the day of the brew what changed is useful.

  3. Go RO. For the cost of a good testing kit, you can get a small RO system and prep your water ahead of time, or just buy it (again use the cheap TDS meter to get a judgement of the system’s quality). Of course, RO wastes water, which you can repurpose for cleaning or watering plants, etc.

  4. I highly recommend a good pH meter and there are several good choices now on the market at reasonable prices. I am sure someone can pipe in - I have had great luck with meters from Hach, Milwaukee, and Extech. Just make sure to measure at room temperature, decant your calibration buffers to keep them clean, and do the necessary maintenance (storage solution, etc, by manufacturer). All that said, Bru’n gets me very close nearly everytime and I only measure every 3rd or 4th batch these days.

  5. The new release of the Bru’n Water Subscriber spreadsheet is the bomb!

Best of Luck!

As Matt said, test kits can be expensive.  But if you only need to track seasonal changes in a couple of parameters (I think calcium and total alkalinity are the only critical ones) you can get excellent, less comprehensive (single parameter) test kits sold for aquarium use.  The ones from Salifert go for about $14 for 50 tests on Amazon.  Get a Ward Labs test as a basis and follow changes with these.

(Otherwise as also suggested, unlike back in the day when us geezers started, RO units are quite affordable now.  Build your water from the ground up, best option.)

Agree on pH and TDS meters.

Welcome back to the obsession hobby!  :slight_smile:

Thanks I’ll definitely get the Wards lab report then, PH and TDS meters and also look into an RO system. I remember them being very expensive back then as well. There’s so much out there now in the way of equipment, I’ll be researching for a while.

My family has a cabin in Blairsville, GA and my brother tells me that the water out of the well there has very low mineral content. I would be surprised if your water quality changes that much if you’re taking it from a well (unless your well is located somewhat close to a river or creek). Western NC has fairly hard rock and I don’t expect that your water is that mineralized. Its probably decent for brewing as long as there isn’t notable iron or manganese present (metallic).

That’s what I’m hoping. The water here tastes great and I can tell it’s very soft by the amount of soap we use. I’m going to get a Wards lab report. Blairsville is about an hour or so from me.