Water Water Water!? Moving to tap water

[jimpy0]

Just as an add to - water companies reports are generated on what they get at the treatment plant, it rarely includes what happens to it on its way to your house.

[SimmoUK]

Thanks all, some excellent advice all round. Really appreciate it.

Will get onto the Salifert testing and look into getting the water tested. Also will have a read through the bru n water website and give the 50/50 split between tap and ashbeck a go for my next ipa brew.


Thanks again

[Gandolf]

Don't waste £7 on a salifert ----put it towards The Murphy's route----best £20 I ever spent.

G

[SimmoUK]

Ok good idea, cheers will do.

[orlando]

Don't waste £7 on a salifert ----put it towards The Murphy's route----best £20 I ever spent.

G

No, any Murphy's or for that matter any other water testing service will give you a snapshot of a given moment in time. Alkalinity can vary and I have seen some really wild swings with other brewers. The Salifert is cheap enough and accurate enough for you to keep a track for EVERY brew. By all means get the test but don't not check your alkalinity for every brew.

[Aleman]

Don't waste £7 on a salifert ----put it towards The Murphy's route----best £20 I ever spent.

If you happen to be one of the brewers whose water does not vary from brew to brew(*), then that is reasonable advice (PM me for details about Phoenix Analytical, a more thorough water testing service). Unfortunately water companies often swap water supply depending on the state of the water supply, the levels in the reservoirs the ground water levels the state of the boreholes, so unless you check at least your alkalinity each and every time you brew, you are taking pot luck with your water treatment. Randomly throwing chemicals into your water without knowing what you have in there is not water treatment, it's more akin to witchcraft!

£7 for 100 tests . . . test before and after alkalinity reduction is 50 brews . . . if you brew every 2 weeks thats 2 years worth of tests so £3.50 a year, or assuming 40 pint brews = 1000 pints so an additional cost of .35p per pint

A salifert test takes 5 minutes to do, and given that Charles, Martin, Palmer, Strong, Zainasheff, Wheeler, Lewis And Young (**) , all agree that adjusting your alkalinity for the style (colour) of beer you are brewing is the most important thing you can do as far as water treatment is concerned, then it makes sense for it to be the one thing that you measure when you brew.

(**)Oh and Me Too

(*)My water gets drawn from two sources one from the Haweswater/Thirlmire reservoirs, and one from Borehole a,d my alkalinity can range from 15 to 135mg/l, which if it's wrong can screw up pretty much any brew I want to make. Ok for Charles' pedantic sake it won't make completely crap beer, but it will take the clean edges off, I don't want to be brewing a pilsner with an alkalinity of 135 and neither do I want to brew a stout with one of 15, I'm investing 8-15 hours brewing a batch of beer (from 20 to 150l) and if I'm making that investment then I want it to be the best it can be.

I've decided to get a monthly report from a really good lab I trust just to get a trend of what is happening with my water, so that when I do my alkalinity and calcium tests I should be able to make a reasonable assumption about what's happening with my water. For what it's worth I have also measured my water prior to sending it to Neil, and this time my calcium reading was spot on, and my alkalinity reading was about 5mg/l higher which is operator error when making the test so I also now have confidence that the Salifert kits work and are even reliable at the lower end of their ranges considering that they are usually intended for use in sea water which has much higher mineral concentrations than freshwater.

Just received my results from Phoenix Analytical (Neil aka wallybrew)

Water supply name: Blackpool South
Water supply code: Z070

Code: Select all

               28th Oct   11th Feb
 Calcium    -    35.7      (24.3)
 Magnesium  -     8.3      ( 3.1)
 Sodium     -    16.2      (12  )
 Potassium  -     1.0      ( 0.7)

 Sulphate   -    68.2      (42.8)
 Chloride   -    15.6      (11.1)
 Phosphate  -     6.2      ( 4.7)
 Nitrate    -     2.1      ( 1.3)

 Alkalinity -    67        (32  )

[AnthonyUK]

Don't waste £7 on a salifert ----put it towards The Murphy's route----best £20 I ever spent.

G

So £20 for a one off test is better than a £7 test kit that will do 100 or more
I know what I'll be going for

[Dennis King]

+1 for the Phoenix Analytical and DEFINITELY the salifert test, my alkalinity changes from brew to brew.

[barneey]

Its amazing how many people don't test there Alkalinity before each brew but just throw any old recommendation into there water

My advice BUY an Alkalinity Test Kit, test the water you intend to use before a brew, treat accordingly, test said treated water again with the alkalinity kit, then brew with it.

BEST £7 you will spend on water treatment.

Example A water test report tells you you're water has an alkalinity of say 150 CaCO3 mg/l so using what ever calculator you choose to use you treat the water to get it down to say 40 for a pale brew. = Everything fine

BUT say the report was wrong or the Alkalinity had dropped or risen since the report, you could be brewing with a water much higher or lower than 40 CaCO3. Or you might have added the wrong amount of acid or the acid is labelled wrongly, how would you know if you hadn't tested the Alkalinity before and afterwards?

[Eric]

Last December Murphy's tested my water. To cut a long story short they eventually confirmed alkalinity at 240ppm CaCO3.
In January Phoenix Analytical tested a sample with a more comprehensive report when alkalinity was 255ppm
The alkalinity of my tap water reduced as this year progressed and at one point in September it was 70ppm.
At the end of October Phoenix once again provided a full analysis when alkalinity was 107ppm.
I brewed last Sunday when alkalinity was 120ppm.
Yesterday it was 180ppm.

An alkalinity measuring kit can be used not only to test your tap water, but rain, local spring, river, pond and other waters getting a better grasp of a complicated subject, but most of all ask yourselves this, is the object of water treatment to change it from what you don't know to what you don't know?

Get a kit.

[Horden Hillbilly]

I'll add my name to the "get a kit" list. I, like others, have found a fair variation in alkalinity levels over the years that I have used one.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

As others have said, get a Salifert kit and start there. That's the most important thing to know. Then if you want to know more Phoenix Analytical can do you a full and accurate water test which will tell you all the things you need to know.

[darkonnis]

Or you can just be a hill billy like me and not test your water at all!
On a more serious note, the kits are worth getting I reckon.

[Martin G]

Agree with the kit for alkalinity (even though mine doesn't change much), what I think sending for tests did was put me in the right zone for all of the additions. I was in a muddle over balancing sulphate:chloride ratios, mash pH, alkalinity. The test gave me a clear picture of what I should be doing and provides a good reliable baseline.

[Dave S]

Agree with the kit for alkalinity (even though mine doesn't change much), what I think sending for tests did was put me in the right zone for all of the additions. I was in a muddle over balancing sulphate:chloride ratios, mash pH, alkalinity. The test gave me a clear picture of what I should be doing and provides a good reliable baseline.

Mine doesn't change much either, (yet) but I wouldn't be happy taking my eye off the ball for the sake of £7 and a twice yearly full analysis.