Beginners Guide to Water Treatment (plus links to more advanced water treatment in post #1)

[phildo79]

Cool. Cheers, bud.

 

[chillipickle]

Up untill now i have been using tesco ashbeck water for my part grain brews, they have all been pretty good.

Just starting on all grain and it would be alot easier if i could treat my tap water, if its not to bad.To be honest i only drink tap water in tea or coffe when filtered and boiled.Some days tthe water really does have the nasty chlorine smell, other days not so much.

I will invest in the salifert kits if its worth treating.

349 mg/l CaCO₃
calcium 134mg
chloride 41 mg
magnesium 3.6mg
nitrate 32 mg
sodium 22.3 mg
sulphate 50.6 mg

No ph or alk from my water report sorry.

I will be brewing hoppy ipa's to start with, if any one could have a look at the above please and give me a few pointers if its worth it.
cheers.

Oh i can get 40ltrs of RO water for about £4 if needed.

 

[strange-steve]

Up untill now i have been using tesco ashbeck water for my part grain brews, they have all been pretty good.

Just starting on all grain and it would be alot easier if i could treat my tap water, if its not to bad.To be honest i only drink tap water in tea or coffe when filtered and boiled.Some days tthe water really does have the nasty chlorine smell, other days not so much.

I will invest in the salifert kits if its worth treating.

349 mg/l CaCO₃
calcium 134mg
chloride 41 mg
magnesium 3.6mg
nitrate 32 mg
sodium 22.3 mg
sulphate 50.6 mg

No ph or alk from my water report sorry.

I will be brewing hoppy ipa's to start with, if any one could have a look at the above please and give me a few pointers if its worth it.
cheers.

Oh i can get 40ltrs of RO water for about £4 if needed.

You'll definitely benefit from some treatment, but you'll need to know the alkalinity before deciding exactly what's required.

 

[chillipickle]

I guess i need to get the salifert kits ordered before i can work out whats needed.Didnt want to spend on the test kits if the water was not worth using.

 

[phildo79]

This might be a daft question but does it matter when you add the gypsum? I have added gypsum towards the end of the boil before, as per the instructions from Charlie papazian, but I forgot all about it with my last brew. I ended up adding it just before I put it in the fermenter. The temp was about 25c.

 

[strange-steve]

I guess i need to get the salifert kits ordered before i can work out whats needed.Didnt want to spend on the test kits if the water was not worth using.

It'll definitely be usable, worst case scenario you might have to cut it with some RO water for certain styles.

This might be a daft question but does it matter when you add the gypsum? I have added gypsum towards the end of the boil before, as per the instructions from Charlie papazian, but I forgot all about it with my last brew. I ended up adding it just before I put it in the fermenter. The temp was about 25c.

The reason for adding it to the mash and sparge/boil is that the calcium does lots of good things during these stages. If you just want it for the flavour effect of the sulphate then it probably doesn't matter when you add it.

 

[chillipickle]

Ordered salifert kits today.Had a couple more reads through your guides Steve cheers for taking the time to post all that info.

Slowly getting my head around it, it will be alot easier to use treated tap water than keep buying tesco ashbeck.
Will post when kits arrive and have tested.

 

[Falco]

Hey @strange-steve, thanks for this and your other water treatment guides, great stuff

I'm relatively new to AG having not bothered before when I brewed all DME recipes so it's time I paid more attention to my brewing liquor.

I've checked my tap water a few times now using the Salifert test kits and it seems the Ca is pretty constant at around 22PPM with the alkalinity around the 10PPM mark.

So it looks like I've got a bit of a blank canvas water wise?

Also I see that Murphy and Sons can provide a full water analysis and advice on possible additions for a fee of £33. Not sure it's worth it though as we all know that the water supply can and does vary over time?

 

[strange-steve]

So it looks like I've got a bit of a blank canvas water wise?

Looks like it, which isn't a bad place to be, as it allows simpler treatment for a wide range of styles. With water that soft you should see an improvement with some treatment.

Not sure it's worth it though

Considering there's bugger all in your water it's probably not worth it to be honest.

 

[Falco]

Considering there's bugger all in your water it's probably not worth it to be honest.

Thanks @strange-steve

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @Falco

I've checked my tap water a few times now using the Salifert test kits and it seems the Ca is pretty constant at around 22PPM with the alkalinity around the 10PPM mark.

So it looks like I've got a bit of a blank canvas water wise?

... looks like we have similar tap water which shouldn't be a surprise considering we're just down the road from each other, but it's still a tick in the "consistency" box for United Utilities I suppose

I agree with Steve, not worth getting a full analysis ... but it will help your AG brewing to at least get some more calcium into your liquor, as its a sort of catalyst for some the reactions that happen in the mash ... and then it's also useful for a healthy ferment

You can put as much or as little effort as you are willing into calculating how much of what minerals to add, but with our water, the additions calculated by whatever calculator you choose will end up looking like a minor variation on the old brewers advice of "for hoppy beers, a tsp of gypsum in the mash, a tsp of gypsum in the boil; for malty beers, a tsp of calcium-chloride in the mash and another tsp in the boil; for balanced beers, half a tsp gypsum and half a tsp calcium-chloride in the mash, and the same again in the boil" ... so you might as well start there :hat:

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Falco]

Hi @Falco
... looks like we have similar tap water which shouldn't be a surprise considering we're just down the road from each other, but it's still a tick in the "consistency" box for United Utilities I suppose

I agree with Steve, not worth getting a full analysis ... but it will help your AG brewing to at least get some more calcium into your liquor, as its a sort of catalyst for some the reactions that happen in the mash ... and then it's also useful for a healthy ferment

You can put as much or as little effort as you are willing into calculating how much of what minerals to add, but with our water, the additions calculated by whatever calculator you choose will end up looking like a minor variation on the old brewers advice of "for hoppy beers, a tsp of gypsum in the mash, a tsp of gypsum in the boil; for malty beers, a tsp of calcium-chloride in the mash and another tsp in the boil; for balanced beers, half a tsp gypsum and half a tsp calcium-chloride in the mash, and the same again in the boil" ... so you might as well start there :hat:

Cheers, PhilB

Thanks Phil, as you say we're not a million miles away from each other geographically and your teaspoon additions amounts advice is a good a place as any to start (I so do like rules of thumb)

 

[strange-steve]

Thanks Phil, as you say we're not a million miles away from each other geographically and your teaspoon additions amounts advice is a good a place as any to start (I so do like rules of thumb)

If you want a simple calculator then hae a look at this little basic one I made for myself (and it has additions in teaspoons ) : Simple Water Calculator

 

[Falco]

If you want a simple calculator then hae a look at this little basic one I made for myself (and it has additions in teaspoons ) : Simple Water Calculator

Thanks Steve I’ll have a play around with that, does it work for you?

 

[strange-steve]

Thanks Steve I’ll have a play around with that, does it work for you?

It's all I use now. The pH prediction (it uses Braukaiser's formula) isn't always 100% accurate, but it doesn't have to be. I used to stress over the minute details, chasing every milligram, ppm, and tenth of a pH, but now I use measuring spoons for salt additions and if the pH is somewhere around 5.2 to 5.6 I'm happy. There are more important things to worry about than my pH being 5.39 instead of 5.4, or whether or not I should add an extra flake of calcium chloride

 

[Falco]

It's all I use now. The pH prediction (it uses Braukaiser's formula) isn't always 100% accurate, but it doesn't have to be. I used to stress over the minute details, chasing every milligram, ppm, and tenth of a pH, but now I use measuring spoons for salt additions and if the pH is somewhere around 5.2 to 5.6 I'm happy. There are more important things to worry about than my pH being 5.39 instead of 5.4, or whether or not I should add an extra flake of calcium chloride

Looks like I need to start measuring the pH, what do you recommend strips or a reasonably priced hand held meter?

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi Falco

Looks like I need to start measuring the pH

... not really, no ... I've never measured the pH of a mash :tinhat: ... most of the fuss about mash pH is aimed at brewers with water having a MUCH higher alkalinity than ours ... with such low alkalinity water it's unlikely you'll end up with a mash that has a pH that far off, even with 100% pilsner grists you'd still probably be within an acceptable range ... grists with high proportions of roasted and crystal malts could, in theory, end up with a bit low pH (Wheeler's water calculator suggested I should add a few grams of chalk to my liquor for my stout and mild mashes to correct for that) but I've not made any adjustments for that and have mashed and never seem to have suffered any consequences of a low PH mash (not seen any drops in efficiency or noticed any thinness in the beers produced)

Obviously, it's your decision ... but have a play with the calculator(s) and see what predictions they make for pH ... if all seems to suggest all will probably be OK, you could just do as I've done and decide that mash pH isn't something you need to worry about until you encounter problems that might be down to getting it wrong ... I've still not experienced any of those

Cheers, PhilB

 

[strange-steve]

Looks like I need to start measuring the pH, what do you recommend strips or a reasonably priced hand held meter?

I sort of agree with Phil, and I think there is too much emphasis put on chasing a specific pH. However I think the occasional check is a good idea just for peace of mind that you're on the right tracks, if nothing else. The cheap pen type meters seem to be fine as long as they're calibrated regularly.

 

[Falco]

Food for thought gents, thanks @strange-steve & @PhilBrew I’ll have a play with the calculators first and see where that leads to :tinhat:

 

[chillipickle]

My salifert KH/ALK kit arrived, still waiting for the Ca to get delivered.

Done the test 3 or 4 times and same result every time.
The kh reading on the syringe was 0.90 then on the chart in the right hand collum it read 1.2

Forgive my ignorance but im really lost as to what i should be working out from this.I did watch a video and the chart the guy was reading off had 3 collums of numbers?

Thanks for any much needed help.