Will using tap water be "ok"
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Andrew Booth
Regular.
Yeah different reservoirs etc between us mate only 27 miles apart and most of ours come from the reservoirs around the tops of the Calder Valley. Interestingly the local water is only a little dissimilar to the water that came out of the well at Websters Fountain Head Brewery.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
Duplicate post. Please ignore.
peebee
Out of Control
There's a lovely bit in that report that I'm surprised no-one has picked up. It's one of those irritations I have with water reports! I'm always banging on about measurements being "as" something because it's a convenient means of measurement. In this report we have "hardness" with a value of 13.6 mg/L calcium, and Calcium measured to 10.4 mg/L.
How can calcium have two differing measurements?
Answer: 'Because they haven't been bothered to put the word "as" for hardness. But they do display the calcium value in "mg Ca/L" which will be some other hokum to get your head around.
They put this info out to the public written in code that they don't explain,
Grr ... it winds me up!
Hop_it
Regular.
There's a lot of sound advice in the preceding posts, but if you are still a bit unsure then keep it simple, and deal with the important things first:
1/ If you do nothing else then at least put 1/2 a Camden tablet into the whole volume of your brewing water. This will neutralise the chlorine and chloramines. I leave mine overnight, but as long as it has fully dissolved you can use the water immediately.
2/ Download a water analysis report. They are not easy to interpret, but if its anything like the United Utilities reports in the NW, they will tell you if the water is hard or soft. If it's soft, i.e. low Ca and low Mg then it's relatively easy (using one of the many available calculators) to work out what salts you may need to add to achieve the water profile for a particular style of beer. If its hard, then it can get a bit more complicated. You can preboil the water to precipitate out the salts contributing to the hardness, but this is energy intensive, and more expensive now. So, I would suggest that you just leave it alone.
The correct salt/ion balance does affect the flavour profile of the beer, but not by so much that a failure to do it right, or even anything at all, will ruin the beer. You will still be able to make a very drinkable brew. Probably the only exception to this is a pilsner style lager because the flavour profile is so subtle that every fault shows up.
Good luck
1/ If you do nothing else then at least put 1/2 a Camden tablet into the whole volume of your brewing water. This will neutralise the chlorine and chloramines. I leave mine overnight, but as long as it has fully dissolved you can use the water immediately.
2/ Download a water analysis report. They are not easy to interpret, but if its anything like the United Utilities reports in the NW, they will tell you if the water is hard or soft. If it's soft, i.e. low Ca and low Mg then it's relatively easy (using one of the many available calculators) to work out what salts you may need to add to achieve the water profile for a particular style of beer. If its hard, then it can get a bit more complicated. You can preboil the water to precipitate out the salts contributing to the hardness, but this is energy intensive, and more expensive now. So, I would suggest that you just leave it alone.
The correct salt/ion balance does affect the flavour profile of the beer, but not by so much that a failure to do it right, or even anything at all, will ruin the beer. You will still be able to make a very drinkable brew. Probably the only exception to this is a pilsner style lager because the flavour profile is so subtle that every fault shows up.
Good luck
Some sound advice guys
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Sadfield
Landlord.
This is well presented and worth a look.
http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2018/04/brewing-water-and-liquor-treatments.html
http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2018/04/brewing-water-and-liquor-treatments.html
Hop_it
Regular.
Thanks. I've not seen that before. I've just had a quick glance at it for now, but it looks worthy of a closer look when I have more time
moto748
Landlord.
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Heh! I am in the " If you do nothing else then at least put 1/2 a Campden tablet into the whole volume of your brewing water. This will neutralise the chlorine and chlorinates." camp.
I never even used to do that, on the basis that "my water doesn't smell or taste of chlorine", but have been persuaded by posters here that it's not just about that, it's about the chloramines that may be produced during brewing. My tap-water is pleasantly soft, though.
I never even used to do that, on the basis that "my water doesn't smell or taste of chlorine", but have been persuaded by posters here that it's not just about that, it's about the chloramines that may be produced during brewing. My tap-water is pleasantly soft, though.
