water treatment help - leamington spa brewer

[PureGuiness]

Not sure you need both alkalinity and hardness. If you use the alkalinity then don't bother with hardness but you will need things like calcium.

Also, what residual alkalinity are you aiming for. If it's a porter you probably want around 100 depeding on how dark it is. The idea is that you balance the acidity of the darker malts with the residual alkalinity. The result should be a mash ph in the target range - around 5.2. You'll really only know how well you're getting on by treating and testing each time and then tweaking for the next time. It's a bit of a trial and error thing.

[subfaction]

Yes after further reading it seems I need to get some ph strips.

The porter is pretty dark, dosn't the gw calc take into account this via the profile, as if I select bitter/pale the crs goes up.

About to crack on with the above treatment unless anyone comes back with another suggestion?

[PureGuiness]

so is that saying you'll be adding about 1/2 tsp of common table salt? Not over the top for a porter. I always add a bit of salt to darker beers when the water treatment suggests it, although I tend to only add that to the boil and not the mash.

The GW calculator will tell you how much CRS to use to hit a certain residual alkalinity. You don't want this at zero and I think the default is 20 which ok for very pale ales and lager but will leave the mash overly acidic for a porter.

Hope that helps.

[subfaction]

eekk, about to mash in, should I abandon and start over?

[PureGuiness]

No. stick with it. It won't be a huge amount off target I don't think.

[subfaction]

sod it I'm going for it anyway, the difference in amount of crs between residual alk, 20 and 100 is 3.3ml with my water volume of 36.5, hoping this dosn't impact too much.

[PureGuiness]

You'll be there or there abouts anyway. Closer than no treatment at all. It'll all be good.

[subfaction]

smells absolutely lush, just @ mash out.

[subfaction]

and relax, AG 04 safely in the FV, it all went swimmingly, fingers crossed the extra effort on water treatment pays off.

[subfaction]

just got this from Severn Trent:

The address of your property places you in the ZWA11 Leamington Water Quality Zone, which is supplied entirely by Campion Hills Water Treatment Works. This facility treats water from the River Leam, which is then pumped to Willes Meadow Reservoir. Water is also received from Draycote Reservoir.

As a consequence of this water being abstracted from rivers there will be seasonal fluctuations in a variety of parameters including magnesium and calcium carbonate. The information detailed below includes all parameters associated with hardness and includes both magnesium and calcium carbonate.

Parameter Min Value (mg/l) Max Value (mg/l) Mean Value (mg/l)

Calcium (Ca) 93 114 104

Magnesium (Mg) 22 36 29

Total Hardness (CaC03) 314 466 378

Calcium Harness (CaC03) 226 318 261

Magnesium Hardness (CaC03) 88 150 117

Alkalinity (CaC03) 118 188 147

My question now is, what should I put into the GW calc...
My take is...
measure actual alkalinity before brewing, stick that number in alongside average mean total hardness, then manually enter the following?

hardness - 378 ppm
calcium - 104 (mean) or leave automatic?
magnesium - 29
sodium - 54.88
carbonate - leave automatic?
sulphate - 150.575
Chloride - 105.425

I'd be really greatful for clarity on this, cheers fellas.

[fisherman]

In my opinion forget about everything except alkalinity tested by yourself, I would not use a waterboard reading It changes so often,my alkalinity varies from 55 to 134, so I test the alkalinity every brew. Once you know the alk the rest of the additions are easy, either Grahams water calculator for seperate mineral additions or Brupacks for a one dose of DLS ( dry liquor salts ) to match the type of beer. I use DLS because it is easy.
Dont let it get to complex.

[fisherman]

In Grahams calculator Just put in your alkalinity + CRS + beer style and brewlentgh,

[subfaction]

Thanks fisherman that sounds like the approach I'd prefer. Are there guides for what residual alkality to enter in the calc, per style?