Simple water treatment

[grayeagle]

I have been brewing all grain for some time now and I want to work on getting my water a little better for my beer without getting too technical with it.

I live in the mountains of NE Georgia and our water source is good. I use city water and I know that I need to get rid of the chlorine first of all. I know I can use campden tablets or potassium metabisulfite. Potassium metabisulfite would probably be better to use because it don’t affect the sodium level as much.
The PH is usually 7 I know that brewing water needs to be around 5.2 to 5.8 and I know that it depends on what style of beer you are brewing.

The alkalinity is less than 50ppm the chloride is 20 ppm I did not get the water tested for sodium. I only have limited means of testing water at home. Will a pool supplier give me a water report that will give me the information I need.

I have a source to get distilled water. I thought I might use a 50 50 mix of distilled water and treat the city water I use with the potassium metabisulfite to get rid of the chlorine and just use the water like that. Or should I collect 8 gallons of city water and get a recipe to treat the water?

I just want to get a good general recipe to treat all my normal 8 gallons of input water where it will be good for general brewing.

 

[LarryBrewer]

I use city water and I know that I need to get rid of the chlorine first of all. I know I can use campden tablets or potassium metabisulfite.

A full boil is how I do it, and I never taste any chlorine in my finished beer.

The PH is usually 7 I know that brewing water needs to be around 5.2 to 5.8 and I know that it depends on what style of beer you are brewing.

5.2-5.8 is for Mash pH, not the pH of the source water. This normally happens pretty much automatically, and you really want it closer to 5.4-5.5.

In terms of the mineral levels - the water supply utility company should be able to give you a complete report.

Our advanced water calculator can provide predictions of the mash pH based on the grain bill, source water, salt additions and even diluting with distilled water:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemi ... alculator/

Be prepared to lose an hour exploring it all! It is a powerful tool.

 

[Guidry]

An hour? I must be really slow...Pretty sure I've lost days in those numbers!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Edit: be prepared to loose a lifetime in those numbers.


Give a man a beer, he wastes the rest of the day. Teach a man to brew, he wastes the rest of his life.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Give a man a beer, he wastes the rest of the day. Teach a man to brew, he wastes the rest of his life.

you got that right bud

 

[brewmer]

Ive been looking at my water supply to try make a dry stout (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... dark-irish), playing with the water chemistry, my water starts like this..
gatehouse dawlish 19 3 8 22 7 49 (HCO3) if i add 14 g of chalk will give me enough hardness to nearly match that of dublin but my ph will then need 5g of tartaric acid to correct for correct mash ph
Delta 4.0 -1.0 4.0 3.0 -13.6 -31.8 this is as close to dublin as i can manage but it takes 14 g of chalk which inturn puts ph up ,5 g of tartraric acid will drop it back to 5.4..then the delta line will be green apart from sulfate being -13 and hco being - 31.8 close as i can get
..would it be better to just put 6 /8g of chalk to get me to the correct ph and leave the hco at minus 173 with no acid addition
3.8 tsp of chalk seems alot but having never looked at it before i dont know... I too have lost a day playing with these figures on the calculator with my own water and bottled spring and i think maybe bottled spring comes out closer to start and easier to change any help with this would be much appreciated..all the gear no idea :?
Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2 HCO3-
110 4 12 19 53 280 dublin water
55 16 15 11 28 240 (CaCO3) ph7.4 sansburys bottled spring water
19 3 8 22 7 49 (HCO3) ph8+ at home, gatehouse water


Am i looking at this the right way? how would you guys change it from 49hco3 to 280 for dublin, i know ill probably not be exact but id like it as near as i can without adding too much of anything
wish i listened more in chemistry when i was at school :?
i have a digital ph meter, samples must be cooled first, what stages of the process do i take readings and how do you guys go about cooling samples fast enough, i suppose i dont need alot of wort for ph reading just wondered how to go about testing it and adjusting if needed i have phosphoric acid 88% bit strong imo but ok with pipette, tartaric, citric i have acid malt but was avoiding going over 3 % , im off for a beer before my brain melts down

cheers
lee

 

[LarryBrewer]

I don't pay as much attention to hardness as I do to the other ions. Adding chalk then adding acid, just seems like a lot of work to get extra Calcium into the mix.

You can use a water bath to cool the samples down faster.

 

[Nosybear]

Also, if you are on a municipal water supplier, the supplier is required by law to provide you an analysis of your water. Just contact them - they likely have the information posted on line! But one thing to keep in mind: Water is one of the last places to look to improve your beers! The water you're describing should be fine to brew with. You might throw in an ounce or two of acidulated malt to lower the pH but, given the carbonate, you should have more than adequate calcium, the most important ion to worry about.