A little help with water chemistry

[Brewboi]

Hi. I've been trying to up my game and look at water composition in my brewing, but when I enter the details from my suppliers water report into a couple of tools I've tried to use (Bru n Water & Brewfather) I'm told that the ions don't balance.

I would really appreciate if some people more experienced could take a look as I'm not sure if the issue lies with the report or me entering the values.

I've attached the local water report and any insight would be appreciated.

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @Brewboi

Water company water reports will give min, ave and max values ... which gives a good idea as to what your water will generally be like but, since those vales are derived from different samples, not actually what it's ever been like ... and they will often describe a "virtual" water that can't actually exist ... to get a representative make-up of a water that could exist, that is something like your water might be, you will probably need to "je-je-jiggle" them a bit (as Arkwright would say )

To quote from over there (link) ...

Ion Balance Check. The figures given in water reports rarely represent a balanced water composition; that is, a feasible water that can actually exist. For a balanced water, ideally the two figures in this row, the cations and the anions, should be the same. If they are not the same the water, technically, can not exist. The two figures should be within 10 per cent at worst, but the closer the better. Quite small differences in the ion balance can produce seemingly disproportionately large errors in the final liquor. If the two figures are wildly different you may wish to jiggle the figures in line 2 until the two numbers are as close as you can get them, perhaps by transcribing the figures to the target water line, and letting the automatic function balance your water before transcribing them back to line 2. Even with balanced water the figures may not always be identical, there are rounding errors and small inaccuracies in the system, which may give small differences. These particular figures are in milliequivalents, sometimes known as millivals.

Cheers, PhilB