Good grief, 1200 ppm, that has to taste like drinking plaster. Is it mostly Colorado River water?
I think some is Colorado River water, but I think that is mostly for south of LA. The water here is bought from other water districts from what I can tell. I’ll research more.
Depending where you are at in FL, your water may be equal to that bottled spring water. All you would need is campden tablets and tap water to avoid the trouble and expense of ‘spring water’. I brewed quite successfully in Tallahassee for years with the tap water, carbon filter, and lactic acid additions.
The variation in the Zephyrhills water quality is insignificant, so don’t worry about that aspect. Given the reported quality, it should be a fine alternative to RO water, as long as its cheaper. However, I’ll continue to state that ‘spring water’ is a red herring and not a sign of desirable brewing water. The most important thing is that the water quality IS suited for the brew that you are contemplating.
28% of the water here is coming from ground water. Being on the ocean obviously causes these wells to contain more minerals and high sodium. The city treats some of the water from these wells with a 7.5 million gpd RO system. The wells are also topped off with water from reservoirs that is lower in minerals. The balance of the water comes from the aquaduct from Northern California.
Peep that hardness range.
So thats the other concept to be aware of when choosing a water source…consistency. That spring water may or may not be as consistently bland as the ro water, depending on water tables, rainfall, etc (im guessing).
Im in a suburb of phoenix and happen to have the most consistent water in the valley, as it comes from the same source year round and is all treated at the same plant…that being said, even my values can have a 10-30% range during the year. Steve’s water is a good example…the hardness range is 870! With a range like that, water’s like a box of chocolates… Using straight RO, all the time, brings consistency to your brews and an element of simplicity to your brewday, as you can always build from a single water profile. Short of testing ones water le motte style before each brew day, RO is (imo) the way to go!
Page 148 of Water by Palmer and Kaminski:
“Magnesium is recognized as a necessary yeast nutrient at 5 ppm, but barley wort typically contains much more than the yeast would require (c. 100 ppm @12oP).”
There’s additional relevant info, but I don’t have time to type the entire paragraph right now.
i use epsom to drive sulfate while containing calcium <50ppm-lagers.
Same here, and for hoppy beers, to keep excess Ca in check. I posted last year that I wondered if epsom additions were giving some of my beers a minerally bite I didn’t care for. It wasn’t the epsom. Biggest culprit was not subtracting my boil off from the sparge volume in Brunwater. All good now.
I see many references to RO (Revers Osmosis?). What about distilled water?
Distilled is fine, just more expensive for marginally better water (IMO). I can get distilled with 1ppm TDS for $0.50/gal or RO with 8ppm (10 guaranteed) for $0.25/gal
Distilled would work perfectly fine if you build your water up with water salts like a lot of brewers here do. But it’s usually more than 2 or 3 times the price of RO water. I can get RO from store machines for $0.39/gallon. RO isn’t completely free of calcium and salts like distilled but it’s very close and is a good base to build up from.
Exactly my take on it.