In a moment of absent-minded idiocy I have used tap water for my wort, rather than the usual bottled water. Some cursory research tells me I live in a hard water area (water hardness level of 285.68ppm) - will the batch be OK or am I going to have to ditch it? I am new to this game so any help & advice would be massively appreciated
Tap water – help!
- Thread starter AlexH
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I’d never ditch it.
Did you move to bottled as you had problems before or just never used tap?
You can make perfectly good drinkable beer with hard water, and I think you will with this one. If you’re new to homebrewing, the difference will be marginal and the experience of the whole process worth a lot. Let it ride.
Did you move to bottled as you had problems before or just never used tap?
You can make perfectly good drinkable beer with hard water, and I think you will with this one. If you’re new to homebrewing, the difference will be marginal and the experience of the whole process worth a lot. Let it ride.
ps There’s more to water than just hardness to think about, and the styles you’re making. Keep reading, lots of good posts here about water and chemistry but get some brews made first so you can tell the difference when you change things.
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I've brewed a few in a very hard water area and made perfectly fine beer.
What style of beer is it?
I wouldn't worry too much unless it's something that absolutely requires a specific water profile, and even then just cross your fingers and wait and see
What style of beer is it?
I wouldn't worry too much unless it's something that absolutely requires a specific water profile, and even then just cross your fingers and wait and see
Fireside Ales Homebrewery
Regular.
Panic not. Your beer will be perfectly fine. Or at least it probably won’t be the water that is at fault if it turns out to not be.
I live in Bath in Somerset and we have very hard water. I only ever use bottled water if I am making an IPA. Hard water is not great for hop forward and pale beers as the hardness can exaggerate the bitterness. It’s all down to the PH of your mash amongst other things. Honestly water chemistry in brewing is an art form and I found it to be the hardest part of brewing to get my head around. That being said, you can make a very tasty brew without giving it a second thought.
Panic not; I too live in a hard water area with little sulphate. I never bother. If I make a really pale ale - a summer-time refresher, I may add a little gypsum, but otherwise I just use common or garden variety of water: dump 'er in and boil 'er up! There's a lot of science in water treatment and you can screw it up quicker'n a rat up a drainpipe.
Fireside Ales Homebrewery
Regular.
Getting tips on water treatment from your local Brewer sounds like a great idea.
All the info you need on your local water is available online. Your local Water Supplier has to be pretty transparent about this info, so it should be on there website.
All the info you need on your local water is available online. Your local Water Supplier has to be pretty transparent about this info, so it should be on there website.
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Crappyfish
Landlord.
No .....i use Derby tap water all the time it's fine. I once contacted a local brewery (2 miles away ) all they said I needed to do was add a bit of gypsum to the water.
May be if you have a local brewer they might give you info about the local water.
May be if you have a local brewer they might give you info about the local water.
Tommo 2
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I live in Lincoln and the water is pretty hard judging by the scale in the kettle and shower head etc, so when you say add a little gypsum how much is a little ? To 23 litres let’s say , and were can I get some and also when is it added to the schedule..cheers guys 
Fireside Ales Homebrewery
Regular.
I live in Lincoln and the water is pretty hard judging by the scale in the kettle and shower head etc, so when you say add a little gypsum how much is a little ? To 23 litres let’s say , and were can I get some and also when is it added to the schedule..cheers guys
Adding one teaspoon of gypsum to five gallons of water will raise the calcium level by about 60 ppm. If your brewing water is very soft (low in total minerals), you can add gypsum to raise calcium levels. -
Gypsum is usually added to soft water not hard. I would check to see how much calcium is in your water. Usually quite a lot in hard water as that is one of the main components that makes it ‘hard water’
Too much Calcium in the brew will really accentuate the bitter flavours in the beer. Potentially giving you a harsh final product that is unbalanced.
Your water profile is available online from your water supplier. Check there first to get a better understanding of your water before you make any alterations to the profile.
Crappyfish
Landlord.
Yes I was advised 1 teaspoon in my 20l brews
peebee
Out of Control
Bad example!
You might think all that limestone in Derbyshire will mean the water in Derby is pretty "hard", but most water round there comes from the Ladybower/Derwent reservoir complex, all acid moorland runoff, and very "soft"! (Any scum in the kettle comes from what the water company adds to stop the water rotting the pipes).
I might have Welsh roots and live in Wales, but I was brought up near (6 miles from) Derby. All my early brewing had "a bit of gypsum" added to my brewing water.
And for the rest of the UK: The paranoia exampled in the OP is born of American brewing scribblings, and their seeming fear of anything that might be in the water. Most British tap water is fine for brewing (with perhaps some basic treatment here and there). We're only a little island, the water doesn't get chance to dissolve much into it (perhaps some exceptions where water is sourced from deep bore holes?).
peebee
Out of Control
Here go. (Map from another thread on this forum):
Note that tongue of soft water into Derbyshire? You can also see Birmingham picked out 'cos they pinch their water from Wales.
Crappyfish
Landlord.
Why the headline "bad example"
An Ankoù
Landlord.
What were you brewing at the time?
An Ankoù
Landlord.
Regardless of the water chemistry, the water companies like to "purify" it with chlorine or chloramine to kill off any nasties from the reservoir or from water treatment plants or to purge the pipes of stuff like legionnaires' disease and other joyful stuff. As brewers, we don't need this as all the water is boiled to within an inch of its life, but if you boil these additives with hops the chlorine combines with the phenolic content of the hops to give a distinct flavour of mouthwash. As said above, tap water is generally fine except for this little detail. A bit of sodium metabisulphite or half a campden tablet in you mash and sparge water knocks this on the head in about five seconds flat.
But don't worry, you'll know if you had chlorine in there as the beer will be irredeemably undrinkable.
But don't worry, you'll know if you had chlorine in there as the beer will be irredeemably undrinkable.
Fireside Ales Homebrewery
Regular.
I only think that’s because you have soft water and not hard. The Original Post is asking about hard water. Your breweries suggestion of an addition of Gypsum to your mash now makes perfect sense. You would want to do this with soft water. But not for hard. I think your example may have the potential to confuse the thread.
Brewing an IPA – which isn't ideal by the sound of it but thankfully not worth chucking either. I'll soldier on. Thank you team.
