Water Analysis

[steve denholm]

Morning All,

I recently sent a water sample over to Murphy and Sons, i have only just switched from extract to all grain and mostly brew IPAs Pales and wheat beers (Wit Weizen and a dunkle in the FV atm)

Below is my water analysis:

So if i add 30ml to my strike water and 12.98g of DWB to my mash tun theoretically I should be able to improve my ales?

Sorry if this is a noobie question I'm wrapping my head around quite a few new principals moving to all grain :)

Steve

 

[IainM]

Your calcium level is good, perfect for happy yeasts. The first thing to pay attention to though is that your water is hard and the alkalinity is high. This means that the pH won't drop as much in the mash as if you had a lower alkalinity, and you will want it to drop to get good efficiency. Acid additions can sort this out, especially for the styles you listed, because pale grains don't lower the pH as much as darker grains. If all you are looking for is a rule of thumb, the recommended AMS addition will do this. The sulphate and chloride quantities after adding the AMS are good for the styles you list too, with a ratio of ~1.3. This is well balanced, perhaps slightly favoring paler and hoppier beers, but not much. I wouldn't bother with the DWB addition. DWB is an unusual mineral mix that Murphey and Sons sell. For your particular water, I don't think it needs it, and if you are going to do mineral additions you would be better off adding gypsum and calcium chloride yourself because then you would be able to balance the sulphate to chloride ratio depending on whether you wanted to bring out more of the malty or hop character.

So, as a rule of thumb to get you started, the AMS addition on it's own is all you need and there is no need to go further down the water treatment rabbit hole unless you want to. Strange Steve's beginner's guide would be good reading for getting your head around why (link here). If you want to start playing around with mineral additions then I'd also recommend his more advanced guide (link here). Eventually, you might want to start being a bit more precise about tailoring the water treatment not just to your local supply, but to the exact grain bill and character you want from the beer, or try and recreate waters from different parts of the world, in which case I'd recommend putting the recipe into the Brewer's Friend recipe builder, then importing it into their water treatment calculation tool.

 

[Sadfield]

Or, to put it more concisely. Yes.

 

[steve denholm]

Thanks IainM that's pretty much answered my questions thanks :) :)

 

[Sadfield]

Note, the AMS is for all water, both strike and sparge water (assuming you sparge).

 

[uDicko]

Morning All,

I recently sent a water sample over to Murphy and Sons, i have only just switched from extract to all grain and mostly brew IPAs Pales and wheat beers (Wit Weizen and a dunkle in the FV atm)

Below is my water analysis:
View attachment 17349
So if i add 30ml to my strike water and 12.98g of DWB to my mash tun theoretically I should be able to improve my ales?

Sorry if this is a noobie question I'm wrapping my head around quite a few new principals moving to all grain :)

Steve

Quick one as I plan on getting water analysis sorted soon. Where did you go to get the analysis? Direct or somewhere else via murphyandson

 

[steve denholm]

Quick one as I plan on getting water analysis sorted soon. Where did you go to get the analysis? Direct or somewhere else via murphyandson

brewuk.co.uk they send you a sample bottle you send to Murphy and Sons turn around was less than a week

 

[uDicko]

Good stuff, that's where I saw it but wondering if you went elsewhere.

Appreciated

 

[MmmBeer]

Good stuff, that's where I saw it but wondering if you went elsewhere.

Appreciated

A quick (cheap) first solution is to go to your water supplier's website and search for water quality. That should tell you hardness, pH, calcium, chloride and sulphate concentrations. A Salifert KH test kit from your local pet / aquarium shop will tell you your alkalinity. Together that should get you in the right ball park.

 

[Horners]

A quick (cheap) first solution is to go to your water supplier's website and search for water quality. That should tell you hardness, pH, calcium, chloride and sulphate concentrations. A Salifert KH test kit from your local pet / aquarium shop will tell you your alkalinity. Together that should get you in the right ball park.

I recently got round to doing the alkalinity test on mine and it was bang on the numbers Thames Water gave me - but as Ive pointed out before I live un a v built up area so the water report covers an area of about 1 sq mile so I imagine there is less scope for variation than some other areas.

 

[Saisonator]

I would consider using phosphoric acid, the

I recently got round to doing the alkalinity test on mine and it was bang on the numbers Thames Water gave me - but as Ive pointed out before I live un a v built up area so the water report covers an area of about 1 sq mile so I imagine there is less scope for variation than some other areas.

My alkalinity changed recently, it was around the 200 - 210 mark before not it's gone down to 176.
I am near Staines.