water

[RobinB]

Should I use filtered water from the tap or do I buy water from the supermarket . I live in a hard water area ..am thinking of buying a charcoal filter on the tap water ..up to now I've used water from shop , but I don't want to buy any more ..what do you use ?

 

[Oneflewover]

Hi. I live in a hard water area too. I have been mashing with treated tap water (Campden tab, CRS, Gypsum / Calcium chloride) and then sparging with low ph, low mineral content bottled water (Ashbeck). Mostly been brewing pale beers. I'm pleased with the results so far. Will happily just use treated tap water for a dark beer.

 

[MyQul]

Firstly what kind of brewing are you doing? Kit, Extract or AG?

 

[RobinB]

Grain, malt , hops etc ..have made 5 all grain brews with bottled water ..turned out better than I thought it would , after many brews with tinned kits . Just thought I could maybe filter it my self..I go for light beers and about to try hoegarden recipe

 

[MyQul]

I also live in a hard water area. I simply acidify my water to strip out alkalinity so I can make pale beer. I havent gone the whol hog and started using stuff like gypsum as I find that bit too confusing

 

[Fil]

YOu should at least try 1 test brew with your local water imho, treat it with a campden tab to neutralise chlorine and chloramines.. and brew a british bitter or another beer suited to hard waters and see..

As a rule of thumb the heavier/darker brews tend to be hard water friendly while the lighter blonder brews tend to be more suited to softer water..

IMHO Water treatment is an all in aspect of brewing, not something you can do half in or without a fair bit of homework.. start with your local water report, and get a salfert alkilinity calcium test kit https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ifert-alkalinity-and-calcium-test-kits.68369/

TBH i have looked at water treatment a few times but as i like bitters and the circa 220 ppm hard water here brews a decent one I have yet to bite that bullet and when i want to brew a lighter beer i will water back with a few 5l bottles of tesco ashbeck in the hlt upto 50%.

 

[stevey]

I've started boiling my water for 30 mins the day before I brew. I've found that it reduces the alkalinity by approximately 200ppm. It makes it a lot easier to treat and I use much less CRS obviously.
I don't know how cost effective boiling is versus buying ashbeck, but I had 2 full butane gas bottles which I've had no other use for since I bought the grainfather.

 

[MyQul]

I've started boiling my water for 30 mins the day before I brew. I've found that it reduces the alkalinity by approximately 200ppm. It makes it a lot easier to treat and I use much less CRS obviously.
I don't know how cost effective boiling is versus buying ashbeck, but I had 2 full butane gas bottles which I've had no other use for since I bought the grainfather.

You water must be harder than a viking with an uzi if you still have to treat your water with CRS after dropping it by 200ppm by boiling

 

[stz]

How hard? Go to your water suppliers website and get a report based on your postcode. Where I grew up it was 450+ ppm rA which is quite hard to work with. Here it ranges from 80-160ppm which is more straightforward. Treating brewing liquor is part of the game. Once you start doing it and relate the theoretical to the practical it gets quite straightforward.

Standard MO for me is a dash of metabisulphite to my hot liquor tank (area doesn't treat with chloramine) as I draw it fresh that day. Chlorine will gas off by allowing water to stand overnight, enhanced with agitation etc. Commercially it sits in a cold liquor tank, is used to chill wort and then sits in the hot liquor tank so gases off without treatment. 5-7ml of 80% lactic acid to reduce the rA depending on what I'm brewing and then another 3-4ml once topped up for the sparge depending on volumes gets me in a ball park. Salts are direct to the mash to give the desired sulphate and chloride concentration and to bring up calcium to 100-150ppm minimum with an eye to mash pH. For dark beers I don't acidify my water, tend to only bring sulphates up to 100ppm maximum for the extra calcium, rest has to come from chloride and I quite often use sodium carbonate direct to the mash at 1-1.5g per 10% of dark malts., also tend to split salts between mash and copper on dark beer depending on amount with an eye to mash pH. Don't even really need to test pH any more because it has gotten very routine over time. Use sulphuric and hydrochloric acid all the time at work, but not out of choice, just a legacy thing. Both contribute sulphate and chloride without calcium, so a bit of a bugger to build into something like a lager where you do not want significant sulphates, but still need a good chunk of calcium.

When you get really fussy you will want ideal mash pH (enzymatic efficiency, wort separation) ideal pre boil pH (prevent excessive phenol extraction) ideal post boil pH (fining, stability, calcium levels of the wort for yeast health going into fermentation) ideal post fermentation pH (flavour, clarity, stability, storage). You can start building sodium and magnesium salts in to recipes with a lot of extra pale/pislner malt to make up for the lower phosphates in these malts if you want a really sharp lager, but can't see why people need more than lactic acid, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate and sodium carbonate (bicarbonate in a pinch), weird when I see brewers messing with magnesium salts (junk, 1/4th of the mEq compared to calcium equivalent) when not working in these specific situations.

 

[stz]

Please don't be afraid of using gypsum/flake!

1g/L is approx ..
Calcium sulphate 557.7 SO4 232.8 Ca
Calcium chloride 482.3 Cl 232.8 Ca

How do you make use of this? Get your water report. Lets say you've got 80ppm sulphate and 60ppm chloride out of the tap. Lets say you want 200ppm sulphate and 100ppm chloride. You need to increase sulphate by 120ppm and chloride 40ppm. You are adding the salts to the mash? Treat for the entire volume of brewing liquor used. You are adding salts to the boil? Treat for the entire boil volume. Lets say you need to treat 50L.

120 * 50 = 6000
6000 / 557.7 = 10.75
You need to add 10.75g of calcium sulphate to 50L with an existing concentration of 80ppm to give a concentration of 200ppm.

40 * 50 = 2000
2000 / 482.3 = 4.14
You need to add 4.14g of calcium chloride to 50L with an existing concentration of 40ppm to give a concentration of 100ppm.

Next if you really care about it calculate the calcium addition.
10.75 * 232.8 / 50 = 50ppm (from the sulphate addition)
4.14 * 232.8 / 50 = 19.27ppm (from the chloride addition)

Look on your water report, lets say you've got 50ppm calcium out of the tap. Add them all together. Your liquor has a calcium concentration of 119.27ppm. Not bad hey? Getting it up over 100ppm will help out a lot.

 

[stevey]

You water must be harder than a viking with an uzi if you still have to treat your water with CRS after dropping it by 200ppm by boiling

It's around 281ppm, obviously mainly chalk, last brew (pale ale) I added 8ml of crs to 30.5l of boiled water (following the calculator on the home page). I was adding around 40ml to unboiled water, and I wasn't 100% happy with the finished product.
I was treating my raw tap water before, and my theory is that most of the hardness was boiled away during the boil, leaving my wort too acidic. A couple of pints would be enough to bring on heartburn.