Just an idea. If you’ve gotten a mineral analysis report, please post the results as well as the location and date the sample was taken. This could be useful for other people in your area, so that not everyone will have to spend the $20 to get an analysis done. I think a lot of us live in an area where the water isn’t served up by a municipality, or that municipality just doesn’t do a good job of making available this information.
Me, I’m in Santa Clara CA, and will be sending a bottle off to get analyzed unless someone else has done it, as getting the water department to give me a detailed mineral analysis is proving a futile effort. Apparently people are more concerned with fecal coliform bacteria and arsenic than calcium, sodium or magnesium.
I’ve been thinking about this very subject. And it’s a good idea.
Denny-
How about a water sticky that explains water, and which also allows people to post by region or state and locale? I’ve already done much of the legwork for myself for my situation. The info was already out there, as well as how to interpret it via John Palmer; however for the new brewer quick and ready info on this forum would help a great deal.
I suspect for many homebrewer’s knowing how to deal with their water will be the missing piece of their brewing puzzle.
It doesn’t cover anything that hasn’t already been said elsewhere, but I was trying to be as concise as possible. I don’t know how well a sticky could “explain water”, though. It’s a complex topic, and there are many multi-page threads that still don’t answer everyone’s questions.