Should I treat my water?

[Wabby]

Brewing an AG IPA tomorrow for the keg and want to know if I should be treating my water in anyway?

The info I get from Anglian Water is:

The water in your area is very hard.

To help set your domestic appliances, the water hardness in different units is:
425 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium Carbonate
170 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium
29.58 °C egrees Clark
42.5 °F egrees French
24.14 °dH egrees German
4.25 mmol/l :Millimoles

The average chlorine concentration for this Public Water Supply Zone from January 2016 to March 2016 was 0.32 milligrammes per litre free chlorine and 0.430 milligrammes per litre total chlorine. This drinking water supply is not chlorinated.

There is an agreement with the local Health Authority to add fluoride to this drinking water supply. The average fluoride concentration for this Public Water Supply Zone from January 2016 to March 2016 was 0.904 milligrammes per litre (legal limit is 1.5 milligrammes per litre).

 

[dan125]

425 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium Carbonate
170 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium

Wow - that is a lot of carbonate!
For a pale beer like an IPA you want <50mg/l so I think you'll get better results if you did treat your water, but you'd need so much CRS it might have an impact on the flavour. You might be better boiling to remove the carbonate, but I have no experience of doing this so can't really give you any pointers.
Might be better to use bottled water for your pale beers???

 

[dad_of_jon]

Wow - that is a lot of carbonate!
For a pale beer like an IPA you want <50mg/l so I think you'll get better results if you did treat your water, but you'd need so much CRS it might have an impact on the flavour. You might be better boiling to remove the carbonate, but I have no experience of doing this so can't really give you any pointers.
Might be better to use bottled water for your pale beers???

+1 for bottled water - lidl or tesco's 17p for 2 litres will do the trick for you.

 

[Wabby]

Which brand from Tesco or Lidls?

Thought I would need bottled tbh. Lol

 

[Personal91]

Brewing an AG IPA tomorrow for the keg and want to know if I should be treating my water in anyway?

The info I get from Anglian Water is:

The water in your area is very hard.

To help set your domestic appliances, the water hardness in different units is:
425 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium Carbonate
170 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium
29.58 °C egrees Clark
42.5 °F egrees French
24.14 °dH egrees German
4.25 mmol/l :Millimoles

The average chlorine concentration for this Public Water Supply Zone from January 2016 to March 2016 was 0.32 milligrammes per litre free chlorine and 0.430 milligrammes per litre total chlorine. This drinking water supply is not chlorinated.

There is an agreement with the local Health Authority to add fluoride to this drinking water supply. The average fluoride concentration for this Public Water Supply Zone from January 2016 to March 2016 was 0.904 milligrammes per litre (legal limit is 1.5 milligrammes per litre).

try going to your aquatic centre or large pet store such as a big pets at home and if they have a fish section they will be most likely be keeing theyre tropical fish section alive using a RO water supply/filter system , ask nicely and at a quiet time and they should let you get what you need :)

 

[dad_of_jon]

Which brand from Tesco or Lidls?

Thought I would need bottled tbh. Lol

The value one as they only do one at 17p per bottle. It will say from chase spring on the bottle.

 

[strange-steve]

Wow - that is a lot of carbonate!
For a pale beer like an IPA you want <50mg/l so I think you'll get better results if you did treat your water, but you'd need so much CRS it might have an impact on the flavour. You might be better boiling to remove the carbonate, but I have no experience of doing this so can't really give you any pointers.
Might be better to use bottled water for your pale beers???

This is a common area of confusion, hardness as calcium carbonate is not the same as alkalinity. The problem is that hardness and alkalinity are sometimes both given as ppm CaCO3 but they are two separate things. The alkalinity for a pale ale should be around 20ppm or less, the hardness values you have aren't really of much use. You can either ask your water company what the alkalinity is or test it yourself with a Salifert KH kit.

My advice to the OP would be to just use some campden until you know what is in your water, or use bottled water of known content such as Tesco Ashbeck with a little treatment.

Have a look at this guide to water treatment which might explain it a little better.

 

[MyQul]

@wabby for the moment if you want to use bottled water, I've found Asda Eden Falls great for pale ales. As steve mentions about needing low alkalinity for pale ales EF's has an alkalinity of 30ppm so is good for these styles

 

[strange-steve]

If using untreated bottled water just make sure it has a minimum of 50ppm calcium :thumb:

 

[foxbat]

My advice to the OP would be to just use some campden until you know what is in your water, or use bottled water of known content such as Tesco Ashbeck with a little treatment.

Anglian provide a full and comprehensive water quality report including alkalinity (as calcium carbonate). @Wabby: click on the "Drinking Water Quality Report" link on the web page that you used to get those summary figures.

 

[MarkBowie]

I'm in Nottinghamshire and having trouble finding out about my water through the Severn Trent website. Anyone have any figures already?

 

[Wabby]

The attached any better??

 

[foxbat]

That's weird. Yours is missing the line for alkalinity. I'm also in the Anglian area and for my postcode alkalinity is shown in the report as CaCO3 (highlighted) below. Is yours hiding somewhere else on that page? (I've cropped the lower part of the report off this image)

 

[Wabby]

Nope. Searched the page and only shows in the descriptors at the bottom. Strange.

 

[dad_of_jon]

If using untreated bottled water just make sure it has a minimum of 50ppm calcium :thumb:

tesco ashbeck has 10ppm calcium whereas the cheaper tesco value or lidl (both are from chase spring) has 38ppm ashbeck is 6.2ph and chase spring is 7.8. which is why I use ashbeck for star san but chase spring for my beers.

I'd respectfully recommend that the 17p bottled water will give a better result than what's coming out of the tap in anglia which is ugh, I've holidayed there and the film on a cup of tea when used with unfiltered tap water is quite yuck.

so you'll find the 17p water gives you a better result that tap and if so, no need to do further treatments or use the dearer bottled water unless of course you still feel the other options are more in line with your way of thinking. :grin: as is often said YMMV

 

[dan125]

This is a common area of confusion, hardness as calcium carbonate is not the same as alkalinity. The problem is that hardness and alkalinity are sometimes both given as ppm CaCO3 but they are two separate things. The alkalinity for a pale ale should be around 20ppm or less, the hardness values you have aren't really of much use. You can either ask your water company what the alkalinity is or test it yourself with a Salifert KH kit.

My advice to the OP would be to just use some campden until you know what is in your water, or use bottled water of known content such as Tesco Ashbeck with a little treatment.

Have a look at this guide to water treatment which might explain it a little better.

I see what you mean - my mistake
+1 for the alkalinity test kit