Water Analysis

[Frisp]

A couple of years back I went through the pain of getting a water analysis from Wessex water Stupidly I have lost it... DOH

This grieves me as I saw a remarkable difference in my brews when I treated my water

I have seen that Murphy of Nottingham will do an analysis of your water supply for brewers for around £20. And as i cant be arsed to suffer the aggravation of dealing with Wessex water ever again im thinking of getting an analysis done

Has anyone used their service and how useful was the result?

 

[bones]

You get a full brewers report... and a gap analysis...

Its a promo so to use their product.... but the charge is free.... :thumb:

 

[Northern Brewer]

I have a "spring" and a bore hole (no main supply) and was going to get them tested professionally however as the spring is seasonal and the bore hole is treated to remove iron and mangenese I thought it may be better to do it myself as the main brewing criteria may vary considerably, Just getting my head around what I need to get to do it myself, the Salifert kits primarily for aquariums seem a good start however is there a good FAQ/How-to on water testing and where to get both the indicators and the treatments?

Cheers
NB

 

[Darcey]

Hmm :hmm: I was considering doing this. The next step for me is to start water treatment so. Has anyone else done any water analysis? I can get a summary from United Utilitys for the area.. is that good enough?

 

[johnnyboy1965]

A couple of years back I went through the pain of getting a water analysis from Wessex water Stupidly I have lost it... DOH

This grieves me as I saw a remarkable difference in my brews when I treated my water

I have seen that Murphy of Nottingham will do an analysis of your water supply for brewers for around £20. And as i cant be arsed to suffer the aggravation of dealing with Wessex water ever again im thinking of getting an analysis done

Has anyone used their service and how useful was the result?

I was under the impression that every water company has to, legally, supply you with a water analysis, within 48hrs if requested.
I read this somewhere and tested it with Severn Trent and within 24 hrs Id recieved one. I couldnt understand a word of it though.

 

[Northern Brewer]

The salifert Carbonate Hardness/Alkalinity test kit has arrived - I ordered it on ebay after a couple of HB stouts and completely forgot about it :drunk:

I'm not even sure how I arrived at the decision that this was the right kit, sounds about right I guess!

Can anybody confirm I'm on the right track :hmm: :wha:

Cheers
NB

 

[Good Ed]

The salifert Carbonate Hardness/Alkalinity test kit has arrived - Can anybody confirm I'm on the right trackNB

Yes

I was trying to find an old post by Aleman which is what I follow. Anyway your salifert kit will give you the alkalinity of your water measured as CaCo3 in ppm or mg/l. here is a post that I did find http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12749&p=130084#p130084

So when you know your CaCO3 you can then adjust it with CRS (carbonate reducing solution) which is an acid. I then multiply the original CaCO3 reading by 0.40 to give a rough measure of calcium in ppm; this is quite informative http://www.brupaks.com/brewing-aids.htm

And then what I wrote down from Aleman's post that I couldn't find "Water chemistry is extremely simple 1) add 1 campden tablet per 17 UK gallons, 2) reduce alkalinity to below 50ppm preferably 30ppm for pale ales and up to 100ppm for dark beers, 3) boost calcium to a minimum of 60ppm but 150ppm is safer, when boosting calcium for a dry hoppy beer use gypsum CaSO4 and for a rounded malty beer use calcium chloride CaCl."

So that's what I follow, I use 1/4 campden tab for my mash volume and 1/2 campden tab for the sparge water.

When adjusting for calcium, base this on the pre boil volume of wort and add 2/3 of the CaSO4/CaCl to the mash and 1/3 to the boil (sometimes I use a 50/50 mix of CaSO4 and CaCl)

Water reports can be unreliable, so by using the Salifert test you are actually measuring the water on that day of brewing.

If you have any questions, get back on here.

 

[Northern Brewer]

Many thanks Ed - here's my results from the tests, using the labels from their tables.

Bore hole water - from about 30m underground up t'Pennines
0.74 on the Salifert 1ml syringe when it turned pink = 3.8 KH value in dKH = 1.36 alkalinity measured in meq/L

Spring water - mainly surface springs filtered through peat and sheep dung
0.9 on the Salifert 1ml syringe when it turned pink = 1.2 KH value in dKH = 0.45 alkalinity measured in meq/L

So reading Aleman's calculation, so you time the meq/L figure by 50 to get the equivelant in mg/L of calcium carbonate.

So :-
bore hole water = 68 mg/L calcium carbonate
spring water = 22.5 mg/L calcium carbonate

so looks like using the spring water I need to add salts. I do sometimes using the bucket brewery and definitely will be when I get the new shiney one going,

I usually use the spring water for brewing and my last beer was a bit of a pale ale and my mates reckoned it was the best beer I have brewed so far. However the stout also got praises and didn't add anything to it.

I dont believe I need the campden tablets as I'm not on chlorinated mains?

The bore hole water is relatively high in iron and manganese when it comes out of the ground however it goes through an aeration unit where the iron drops out of solution and oxidises then its easy to filter out, manganese is harder to remove.

I think it may take a while to get my head around this however this is good start, thanks Ed :thumb:

any more nuggets of information gratefully received.

Cheers
NB

 

[Good Ed]

That's about it NB :thumb:

I forgot to add, when adjusting calcium; 100mg/l will be contributed by adding 430mg/l of CaSO4 or 370mg/l of CaCl

 

[Northern Brewer]

I think I've got it :hmm: I have feeling I'm being optimistic - willl have to read a bit more :geek:

 

[Nunfa1]

I'm going to try the Murphy's service after a guy at a micro recommended I do it.

 

[Stone Cold]

i know where you can get 1 free water test a year done.

LABORATORY
Murphy and Son Ltd
Alpine Street
Old Basford
Nottingham
NG6 0HQ

Please also take advantage of our free liquor analysis service.(1 free test per year) Please send in a 1 litre sample to our laboratory with a cover letter including which beer styles you intend to brew:

 

[prolix]

cheers Stone Cold :

do we just post it in a old lemonade bottle or do we need a special bottle/container?

 

[Stone Cold]

just a plastic pop bottle, she said on phone that 500ml is fine but no less.

http://www.murphyandson.co.uk/

 

[jimw86]

I think the 1 free analyses is just for commercial breweries

 

[Darcey]

Hmm! If this is true I'll be sending ASAP... I'll have to BUY a fecking bottle of water however. Put it to something useful such as a starter!