I would love some advice from Martin, AJ, or other water gurus out there. I have been brewing (allgrain) with arrowhead spring water for a decade because my house had a water softener. The one time I tried to brew with distilled and build my water turned out flat and boring. Anyway, the water softener died so I got a Halo 5 water filtration system ( with multi-reversing polarity…not sure if that matters ), and sent a sample to ward with hopes to be able to brew with my house water now ( which tastes great now ). Below is the report and I would be appreciative for any advice as to if it is appropriate to brew with. I typically brew lagers, IPAs, porters/stouts. Thanks in advance.
ppm
Na. 48
K. 2
Ca. 49
Mg. 8
Total Hardness, CaCO3 156
Nitrate. 0.2 SAFE
Sulfate. 21
Cl. 30
CO3. 1.8
Bicarbonate, HCO3. 163
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3. 136
Total P. 0.02
Total Fe. <0.01
That looks almost identical to my tap water here (treated from Lake Michigan). “They” will say your water is a little hard and alkaline, so it will be ideal for brewing brown beers and darker. However personally, I use it for everything. I think I generally make pretty O.K. beer. If you are a water nerd, stick with browns and darks with the water as-is, and for pale styles you might want to blend like 50/50 with distilled. Also might want to add a little gypsum for hoppy styles and CaCl2 for malty styles, but of course that’s all up to you. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.
I agree with Dave and your water report is similar to mine that comes from a municipal water wells in Western KY near the Ohio River. When I brew light colored pale beers like lagers, blond ales etc I dilute it with 50% distilled water. I quit using RO water from the grocery store machines because they seamed to have to much dissolved solids when testing with a TDS meter.
My Water Report East Daviess County, KY June 2021
From Ward Labs:
Total Dissolved Solids 225
pH 8.4
ppm:
Sodium Na 22
Potassium K 2
Calcium Ca 26.8
Magnesium Mg 19
Total Hardness CaCO3 118
Sulfate SO4-S 19
Chloride Cl 32
Carbonate CaCO3 <1.0
Bicarbonate CaCO3 95
Total Alkalinity 80
I’ll third that comment. My well is a little bit softer than what you have here, but fairly close. This is a nice, fairly blank slate for building water as you see fit. I use Brunwater or the Brewer’s Friend water calculator to determine my acid addition to hit my target mash pH, and can brew pretty much every style without issue.
I don’t see iron, manganese, or any other ions listed here. I know they aren’t really ions targeted by brewers per se, but if you have any significant amount of metal ions you will notice a big improvement by using a chelating agent like Brewtan B.
I used BeerSmith and Easy Water calculators to get a pH between 5.2-5.6. I think Brunwater Excel spread sheet is great but it doesn’t work well with Mac Numbers spread sheet.Numbers was recently updated and i’ll have to try it again.
Thanks everyone, sounds like the consensus is looks like a pretty good water if I can get the pH right? Going to have to buy a pH meter and finally deal with some water worksheets/programs to figure out how much acid malt for phosphoric acid to add.
Lazy Ant is correct in stating that Bru’n Water spreadsheet is good. I think it is the best one to use. I can now use it on my Mac with a Microsoft Mac App.
Our city water supply is very similar to what is posted here. We do one of two things -
Filter the water with a high quality countertop cartridge filter, one that even removes ammonia.
Filter the water with our built in RO system.
As our city tap water has a good base composition for most beer styles, we have never done anything with modifying it.
If making a North German style Pils, we go with plain filtered tap. If making a Bavarian style (Munich), or a Czech style beer, we will go with a blend of straight filtered tap / RO water. Sometimes a 50 / 50 ratio.
Here is a funny story…my neighbor and brewing friend (Dave) has always modified his water with various chemical additions. Dave is what I call a water “nerd”. So he was asked for advice on adding Sulfate. His response…“After drinking your beers, I would not change a thing. In fact, I am wasting my time with all this water chemistry, and will follow your example.”
edit: Dave is a very honest person when it comes to beer. He is the one who told me a recent beer (Festbier) that I made was flawed.
And no, I am not the same Dave. But I’ve experienced similar. I tried to chase water for a few years. But the best brewers I know don’t care about water at all. So then I stopped caring much.
The best water treatment is the least water treatment. But that doesn’tnecessarily mean none. Try adding some sulfate to a glass to see if you like the results. Just because yiur beer is good doesn’t necessarily mean it couldn’t be better.
That is a good idea. I do know this…drinking straight (unfiltered) tap water, then filtered tap water, then RO filtered water, the hands down winner is the water filtered with a countertop filter.
Unfiltered has a definite chlorine taste. The RO water is very dry.
RO water is good for cleansing the palate in between samples of different beers.
I’m lucky to not have to deal with that stuff. The water from my well is fantastic for brewing and drinking. I do minimal adjustment for s0me beers, little to nothing for others. It depends on the beer style and desired results. But for German pils there’s always a sulfate addition to supplement the 57 ppm already in the water.
Here is the response from the Hofbrau Brewery, in Munich, when asked about water treatment:
The well water runs through the so-called double-deck filter , means it runs through gravel + active carbon filters, ion exchangers (strongly acidic) and remove Na +, Ca2 + and Mg +. The degree of hardness is further adjusted with lime saturators, softening the water. Then an activated carbon filter is used again for the perfect brewing water.
So it looks like they mainly taketh away, adding nothing to the water.
