Yorkshire Water

[carpking]

Hi. Ive been reading through the topics on water treatment and trying to figure out what to do with my water. I have the following information from the water company (averages i know, the lazy option to doing my own testing, but i'm just looking at water treatment for the first time
Total Alkalinity 78.7mg/l CaCO3
Total Calcium 44.7 mg Ca/l
Average ph 7.48
So armed with this what would you want to add or take away? At the moment i just add half a campden tab to my HLT. I did notice a sort of really mild tcp flavour lurking in the background of an IPA i made recently and wondered if chlorides were to blame, i'm sure it wasnt infected - i've had infections so i know , but there was something lurking there. I mainly make bitters and darker ales so i think i get away without the water treatment.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this seems like a 'scratchy head' subject to me. :?
Cheers.

Those figures cover LS10 and LS12 if it helps anyone.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Those figures cover LS10 and LS12 if it helps anyone.

Ah memories, I grew up in LS12 and Did my apprenticeship in LS10

At the moment i just add half a campden tab to my HLT. I did notice a sort of really mild tcp flavour lurking in the background of an IPA i made recently and wondered if chlorides were to blame

That'll be the culprit, use the 1/2 campden tablet to avoid it in future :thumb:

I mainly make bitters and darker ales so i think i get away without the water treatment.

If those are the beers you prefer stick with what you are doing and don't mess with your water it's perfectly adequate :thumb:

 

[carpking]

Funny. I moved from LS12 to LS10 recently and worked in LS12 too. Small world! :hmm:

 

[markp]

I'm LS25.

Tubby....are you the fellow that gave me the Murphy's salts in Hudds??
If it was, then thank you......if it wasn't, just forget it :rofl:

As for the question:
My readings tell me that the alkalinity in your water is too high for pales and there is not enough calcium for the mash.

I would look in to getting a Salifert test kit to accurately test the alkalinty, and then use CRS to reduce the alkalinity to around 30ppm.
My experience is that the figures given by the water company often bear little resemblance to what is comming out of the tap. I got some pretty wild figures when I spoke to them.

I personally use the Salifert kit each time I brew (all two of them :lol: ).
I then treat my liquor with an appropriate amount of CRS.
I also use an online calculator to work out gypsum additions for the mash and boil. The water treatment calculator on this site is about the simplist I've seen.

I don't bother adjusting the rest.....just alkalinity and calcium.

For brewing bitters, I would say your alkalinity is okay.....but you will still need to adjust the calcium.
Just to add to that - some reading I have done also advocates reducing the alkalinity to less than 50ppm for bitters.

I must also add to the above that I am a mere beginner in all of this, but I have done masses of reading on it and the 'lecture' at the recent NCBA meet seems to back up what I have read in the main.

Good luck with your brews

 

[EskiBrew]

I also use an online calculator to work out gypsum additions for the mash and boil. The water treatment calculator on this site is about the simplist I've seen.

Glad you like it - if anyone can't find it, here it is :thumb: