Nottingham Water Treatment

[davew]

Hi
I have downloaded the following info from Severn Trent for the water quality for my area. What treatment do I need to do to my water?
I currently only add a crushed campden tablet at present. Do I need to add Gypsum?

Analysis Typical value UK/EU Limit Units
Hardness Level Moderately Hard No Standard Applies
Hardness Clark 12.73 No Standard Applies Degrees Clark
Hardness French 18.18 No Standard Applies French Degrees
Hardness German 10.18 No Standard Applies German Degrees
Aluminium 6.08 200 μgAl/l
Chlorine 0.26 No Standard Applies mg/l
Coliform bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Colour 0.76 20 mg/l Pt/Co
Conductivity 411 2500 μS/cm at 20°C
E.coli bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Fluoride 0.2 1.5 mgF/l
Iron 19.1 200 μgFe/l
Manganese 2.23 50 μgMn/l
Nitrate 20.7 50 mgNO3/l
Odour 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Pesticides 0 0.5 μg/l
pH 7.58 6.5 - 9.5 pH Value
Sodium 19 200 mgNa/l
Taste 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Plumbing Metals
Copper 0.03 2 mgCu/l
Lead 0.63 10 μgPb/l
Nickel 2 20 μgNi/l

[Jocky]

Dave, while water reports gives you an idea of rough alkalinity and mineral composition, they don't give you much help.

Personally I'd suggest that you need to go and read some of the 8 billion threads on here and elsewhere to understand water, rather than ask for a dial a solution approach based upon a water report. If you don't take the time to understand what you're changing, you're not going to understand the end change in your beer....


Having said all that, if this was me, I'd approach it thus (with the caveat I am not a chemist nor an expert in brewing water). The report says that all your minerals are reasonably low, and hardness is moderate.

If you want to get into water treatment, the first thing to do is to treat alkalinity. Buy an alkalinity test kit and some CRS/AMS and something that can measure liquids volumes in the range of 10-25ml accurately (graduated cylinder or syringe). Measure and reduce alkalinity using that.

For a pale hoppy beer you can then add gypsum, for a darker malty beer calcium chloride. A (4 gram) teaspoon in the mash and another in the boil for 23 litres is about right.

[vacant]

What treatment do I need to do to my water?

Is there anything specific you want to improve with your brews?

[tourer]

Or you could get a proper analysis of your water from wallybrew (Neil). Just got mine now i have some idea of what i'm dealing with.
good luck

[davew]

I have started doing Biab and thought it may help with mash efficiency. Thanks for the advice I have read that people add one tsp in the mash and one into the boil. I'm going to try this next brew and see what happens.

I will have a look into getting an analysis done, just wondered what others in my area had experienced?

[Jocky]

Alkalinity adjustment will get you in the ballpark, but unless you're brewing with dozens of kilos of malt, the money and time you'll spend on water chemistry will cost way more than the extra malt on poor efficiency.

If you want to do this properly then get your water analysed by wallybrew.

[jubby]

Dave, this is my opinion based on personal experience for my water in Cambridge. There are lots of people that don't treat their water and brew perfectly acceptable beers. It depends on the type of beer you're brewing and where you are in the country. I know for sure that if I don't treat my water, the beers gonna be crap; unless it's a stout/porter. This is because I have high alkalinity levels (235 mg/l CaC03) and the acidic nature of the dark grains naturally brings the alkalinity down.

No.1 priority is to bring your alkalinity down to an acceptable level (typically 50 mg/l CaC03). In my opinion, you're 90% there with just alkalinity adjustments and adding a little Calcium (Iuse Gypsum) to the boil. You can buy a kit and test this yourself and adjust the levels with CRS or similar. If you do nothing else, do this and you will produce good beer. If you want to fine tune, then you should get a water test. The bits you're interested in most are Alkalinity, Sodium, Chloride, Sulphate, Calcium & Magnesium. Once you have this, you can use a water calculator to work out additions for different beer types.

I like to brew light hoppy APA's and I Burtonize my water. However, It's not possible for me to burtonize without boiling due to the mineral levels in my water. I have used water calculators and tried blending bottled water with known properties with my tap water to try and avoid boiling but the beer is not as good. Anyway, long story short; having tried all sorts over the years, I found that following Graham Wheelers basic water treatment advice on page 44/45 of his book 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale' (3rd edition) by boiling with Gypsum works best for me when brewing lighter beers. If I'm brewing a darker beer I will use AMS (similar to CRS) to bring the alkalinity down. The only other addition I need for my water is Magnesium (epsom).

To summarize: There's no quick and easy additions. Keep it simple and continue to treat for chlorine with the camden if you need to (I don't have to). Test for alkalinity and reduce the levels with CRS or similar. Brew the beer you like and see where you're at. A water test and fine tuning will hone your beers to perfection!