Water testing kit

Covrich · Dec 15, 2015

From my severn trent water report from t'nternet all I get is this

Analysis Typical value UK/EU Limit Units
Hardness Level Slightly Hard No Standard Applies
Hardness Clark 9.35 No Standard Applies Degrees Clark
Hardness French 13.36 No Standard Applies French Degrees
Hardness German 7.48 No Standard Applies German Degrees
Aluminium 7.08 200 ÃÂ¼gAl/l
Chlorine 0.25 No Standard Applies mg/l
Coliform bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Colour 0.74 20 mg/l Pt/Co
Conductivity 342.00 2500 ÃÂ¼S/cm at 20ÃÂ°C
E.coli bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Fluoride 0.86 1.5 mgF/l
Iron 21.39 200 ÃÂ¼gFe/l
Manganese 1.97 50 ÃÂ¼gMn/l
Nitrate 14.23 50 mgNO3/l
Odour 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Pesticides 0 0.5 ÃÂ¼g/l
pH 7.43 6.5 - 9.5 pH Value
Sodium 28.55 200 mgNa/l
Taste 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Plumbing Metals
Copper 0.01 2.0 mgCu/l
Lead 1.15 10 ÃÂ¼gPb/l
Nickel 1.24 20 ÃÂ¼gNi/l

There is a detaield one but nothing on there actually relates to these online water calculators so I gathered the only way to truley know is to get a kit and test my water

Will I be able to extract findings to be able to populate the water calculator

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php

Thanks in advanced

peebee · Dec 15, 2015

Went through such a report recently. See:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58757
Although your report isn't missing some of the formatting, so is a easier to read!
But of the few useful things here:
Hardness: 53.5ppm "as" Calcium, or 134ppm "as" CaCO3
And you could do with "alkalinity" from a test kit rather than estimate it from the information here.

Covrich · Dec 15, 2015

Thanks

How did you work out 53.5ppm calcium from that?

I know that the severn trent report will be average and I need a proper kit to be sure as ph 7.43 is only a guess..

the so called detaled reports gives some sulphate and some chloride but these are all averages too..

I don't even use a camden tablet now.. maybe I should start with that..

My other half has a fish tank water testing kit I wonder if that does alkalinity, I will ask.

TartanSpecial · Dec 15, 2015

Covrich said:
Thanks

How did you work out 53.5ppm calcium from that?

I know that the severn trent report will be average and I need a proper kit to be sure as ph 7.43 is only a guess..

the so called detaled reports gives some sulphate and some chloride but these are all averages too..

I don't even use a camden tablet now.. maybe I should start with that..

My other half has a fish tank water testing kit I wonder if that does alkalinity, I will ask.

You can convert the hardness expressed as German degrees hardness to hardness 'as CaCO3' your 7.48 German Hardness is equivalent to 133ppm as CaCO3 which is equivalent to 53.5ppm as Ca.
These are total hardness , so better to test the alkalinity with an aquarium test kit and work from that.Alkalinity will probably some out slightly less.

Having said that most of the hardness will be coming from Calcium ... so you could plug in total harness figure into the water calculator, along with calculated Cacium, and the sodium (Na) and average chloride and sulphate numbers you have (make up a dummy number for Magnesium...eg10ppm).
You seem to have only slightly hard water so calculators will probably point to stripping back excess carbonate with some CRS (but not massive quantities) and adding 5-10 grams Gypsum for 5 gal batches of pale ales and less CRS plus calcium clhloride for porters/stouts.

Covrich · Dec 15, 2015

Good info, thanks ,.. I will see if her test kit has that test in.. (I would have thought it does)

Getting a rough idea like adding this and this for pale and this for stouts ect is kind of where I want to get too

TartanSpecial · Dec 15, 2015

If I take your values, assuming alkalinity will be fairly close to alkalinity (the salifert test kits are quite cheap) and put some 'normal' dummy values in for chloride, sulphate and magnesium, the the forum old water calculator would recommend:
This assumes 35ltrs total mash plus sparge liquor, 20ltrs in the mash, 15 sparge (my normal set up for 1.60 OG brews)
Pale Ales:
CRS (total 35ltrs liquor to be treated) :21ml,
For the mash: (mix in with dry grain) Gypsum (CaSO4) 6.6grams
For the Boiler: 5gramms Gypsum, 1.8 grams Epsom salts (MgSO4)

Stouts:
CRS (total liquor to be treated) :0ml
For the Mash: Gypsum 2.9grams
For the Boil: Gypsum 2.15gram, table salt (NaCl) 4,4grams, Calcium Chloride 12grams

but do test the alkalinty if you can.

Covrich · Dec 15, 2015

That is good stuff thanks. I will get a test kit done anyway !! Thanks very much

peebee · Dec 16, 2015

Covrich said:
Thanks

How did you work out 53.5ppm calcium from that?

...

As "TartanSpecial" pointed out, I converted from one of the "hardness" figures. They'll all convert, German, French, Clark (or English), to the same figure "as" Calcium or CaCO3 (watch out, "as" not "is", a concept for curdling unsuspecting minds. But "as something" is a bit easier to work with than "clark" or "german", etc). I used "Bru'n Water" to convert, a very involved tool but not beyond anyone if you don't want it to be (I should know having mastered it, I think, with a severe TBI - a PC term for ... well look it up if you must!).

Anyway, you've got "TartanSpecial" on your case now so in good hands.

Covrich · Mar 18, 2016

Got to say in my last few I treated as per the figures given or that algorithm and I worked on that basis according to style and brew length..

I have to say I think there is a certain noticeable improvement , especially in the.. clarity.. the beers are coming crystal clear and the flavours feel a bit more crisp...

I was hoping/ expecting a slight buff in the flavour department but not the clarity.. or is that not something attributed to treatment and pure coincidence??

chuffer · Apr 1, 2016

I've read that Murphy's analyse your water for a fee (say ÃÂ£20ish) but the links on their website don't work now for home brew - have they stopped offering the service? If so, are there any other potential suppliers of that service?

Covrich · Apr 1, 2016

chuffer said:
I've read that Murphy's analyse your water for a fee (say Ã¯Â¿Â½ÃÂ£20ish) but the links on their website don't work now for home brew - have they stopped offering the service? If so, are there any other potential suppliers of that service?

Don't know mate

I will say this though, I have worked on the basis of teh help provided in this thread and there has been a very noticable improvment in both clarity and hop character.. just cleaned tweaked it a bit. SO even if you get rough idea like I did and work on that basis you should hopefully be able to make similar improvments

MyQul · Apr 1, 2016

chuffer said:
I've read that Murphy's analyse your water for a fee (say Ã¯Â¿Â½Ã¯Â¿Â½ÃÂ£20ish) but the links on their website don't work now for home brew - have they stopped offering the service? If so, are there any other potential suppliers of that service?

You can test your water yourself with salifert kits. They do different ones for different minerals/ions. I've just got the alkalinity kit but you can get calcium kits and I think sodium and magnesium too (which aren't quite as important to know if I'm understading things correctly)

Water testing kit

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