Brewing with well-water - which route to take?

[DaveP]

Hi all, got a brewzilla on order for the latter half of the year at some point. Doing some reading regarding the magic of all grain brewing. Looks like water quality is a subject which could grow arms and legs and be a massive PITA. We're on a well, and it passes through a UV cleaner and filter in the loft. Absolutely fine for cooking and drinking, and malt extract kits. I understand that with AG there a lot more chemistry going on with enzymes and the like. Not overly fussed about being able to create any beer on the planet authentically, as long as I can find a way of brewing consistently nice beers with what I've got.

Please use the poll to indicate what you think my best strategy to be, obviously comments welcomed as well.

Don't especially want to have to become a budding water chemist, but don't want to put beer down the drain. Ideal solution would be along the "less is more" school of thought

 

[cushyno]

Without some analysis it might take a lot of experimental brews and a lot of below par beer before you stumble across recipes that suit your water. Are you happy with that? As a new brewer you won't have a clue if it's your water or some process factor that's causing off flavours. If you're happy to experiment and don't care about making perfect beer, go ahead and use the water as is. It may be fine, you may get lucky.

If you're prepared to act on info about your water, get the water analysed. Pay for a test. It'll put your mind at rest and remove one of the variables (oh my, there are so many variables!)

I'm at the point 2 years into brewing that I like to do rudimentary adjustments to my hard tap water. I know I can't make good pale ales without that (I've tried), and I can't make any decent lagers with just light malts without buying bottled water. I can make drinkable lager from tap water, it's just not great. I'm not OCD about my water, so I'm happy to go off the general water report for my area. I take the average figures and accept that I may not be nailing the numbers bang on, though it'll be close enough for me. If you get a water report done you can then choose how much you want to dabble with adjustments and be in the right ballpark.

 

[strange-steve]

As above, it's difficult to give advice without knowing what you're dealing with. What do you know about the water, is it hard or soft, high or low alkalinity? Without that information any advice would just be guesswork. You can get your water professionally tested, or for a less accurate but cheaper method you can test yourself with Salifert test kits.

 

[DaveP]

thanks for the replies - so this would be the cheapest option:

https://www.itseurope.co.uk/product...MIptyNqKLo6QIVibHtCh2sAwLjEAQYASABEgJgMvD_BwE
followed by

https://www.brewuk.co.uk/water-analysis.html
are there any other options you would recommend?

 

[cushyno]

The Safe Tap kit doesn't look to test for Magnesium, Sulphates, Sodium, or chloride. You may need a higher precision method than the test strips shown there. For instance, their Sulphate check kit only has three strips: 0, 250, >500. You may only get readings on the '0' strip, but 10ppm sulphate may be significantly different from 100ppm in terms of brewing. My understanding is that the Safe Tap Kits are testing if your water is fit for drinking. Brewing water nuances need that higher precision.

You may get more mileage from Salifert kits. They're more expensive, but cheaper than a Murphys water report.

 

[Subtle Duck]

I'm sure you can send a sample to your local council. My old man sent one to his (from his bore hole) I'm thinking it cost him a little bit but got a proper water analysis back, including bacterial amounts, coliforms (or cauliflowers as he calls them).