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MyQul

MyQul

Chairman of the Bored
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Location
Royal Hamlet of Peckham. London.
London water is sh*te for making pale ales. I could get all into water chemistry/adjustment but I can't be arsed as it's not of that much interest to me.

So my plan is just to make Stouts, Porters and Milds which do suit London water.

However I do like the occasional bitter from time to time so I was wondering if any knows whether supermarket bought water is ok/good for bitters? I vaguely remember recommendations for Tescum Ashbek?
 
Yeah, Teco Ashbeck has a very low Total Dissolved Solids rating. I started using it for fresh coffee as it makes a big difference.

I think some people might say it's too soft for brewing, but the beer I've made with it tastes great. If you are unsure, then just mix some tap water in, which is what I've done with some darker beers.

On the subject of water, I think there is more to it than just balancing PH. Having a water with high purity helps to extract more solubles from the grain. This could be good or bad, but I know that for coffee it is very important.
 
Have you thought about buying a filter? Probably a lot cheaper than buying 5L of water at a time.
 
GlentoranMark said:
Have you thought about buying a filter? Probably a lot cheaper than buying 5L of water at a time.
Click to expand...

My water needs treatment (changing it's chemistry), which I can't be bothered to do, if I'm to make half decent pale ales rather than a filter. I only really plan on doing 5L from time to time so it's no biggie. The rest of the time I'm just going to use my tap water for darker beers
 
I guess the water bottle label contains a detailed description of the water's chemical profile. If so, you'll know exactly what you might need to add, if anything.
 
McMullan said:
I guess the water bottle label contains a detailed description of the water's chemical profile. If so, you'll know exactly what you might need to add, if anything.
Click to expand...

Actually that's true isn't it. I don't normally buy bottled water so I didn't think of that. I can then just put the figures into one of the water treatment calculators/spreadsheets you find online
 
MyQul said:
London water is sh*te for making pale ales. I could get all into water chemistry/adjustment but I can't be arsed as it's not of that much interest to me.

So my plan is just to make Stouts, Porters and Milds which do suit London water.

However I do like the occasional bitter from time to time so I was wondering if any knows whether supermarket bought water is ok/good for bitters? I vaguely remember recommendations for Tescum Ashbek?
Click to expand...

I use tesco value water. It's from chase spring


Chase spring (Tesco)/ Clearview (Tesco)/volvic

Calcium 38/15/12
Magnesium 12/5/8
Sodium 8/9/12
Potassium 2.5/2/6
Bicarbonate ?/45/74
Chloride 12/11/15
Sulphate 14/12/9
Nitrate 5/13/7.3
PH source 7.8/6.3/7

As for using water for star san I use volvic. lowest ph I can find atm. tesco clearview i've not seen for a while. I think Evian is 7.2 ph.

perhaps we should have a thread for water mineral content (although a spreadsheet would be better.)

so my chase spring water has been good for my brews so far which are not porters or stouts.
 
dad_of_jon said:
I use tesco value water. It's from chase spring


Chase spring Tesco Clearview Tesco volvic

Calcium 38 15 12
Magnesium 12 5 8
Sodium 8 9 12
Potassium 2.5 2 6
Bicarbonate ? 45 74
Chloride 12 11 15
Sulphate 14 12 9
Nitrate 5 13 7.3
PH source 7.8 6.3 7

As for using water for star san I use volvic. lowest ph I can find atm. tesco clearview i've not seen for a while. I think Evian is 7.2 ph.

perhaps we should have a thread for water mineral content (although a spreadsheet would be better.)

so my chase spring water has been good for my brews so far which are not porters or stouts.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that d_o_J. hink I'll plug the figures into a calculator now and see what it comes up with
 
Bicarbonate for chase spring is 155 (website).

The most pure water I've found is lidl value water - 17p (or is it 27p) for 2 litres and it is almost distilled and a great base for adding salts or using as is for lager. I've got about 60 litres of it waiting to get converted into something useful ;-).

I use both Morrisons and Ashbeck 5 litre bottles and use the containers as FVs.

Ashbeck is probably closest to pale.

Ca 10
Mg 3
Na 9
Chl 12
SO4 10
Bic 25
pH 6.2
 
myqul,

tbh it's a crying shame here where i live re: water as up until about 3.5 years ago the tap water was superb, then we noticed a film forming on milk free cups of tea. Thought it was the tea bags so changed those but same problem. So welsh water have added something to the supply hence i now use bottled water.

we also have

http://www.breconwater.co.uk/perfect-balance/

in tescos but the chase spring does the job for me as our tap water is now treated to hell. :twisted:
 
dad_of_jon said:
myqul,

tbh it's a crying shame here where i live re: water as up until about 3.5 years ago the tap water was superb, then we noticed a film forming on milk free cups of tea. Thought it was the tea bags so changed those but same problem. So welsh water have added something to the supply hence i now use bottled water.

we also have

http://www.breconwater.co.uk/perfect-balance/

in tescos but the chase spring does the job for me as our tap water is now treated to hell. :twisted:
Click to expand...

Bet it's not as bad as London water. I sure they just pump it straight out the Thames and into my house
 
Have you tried just boiling all the water you need for mashing, sparging, topping-up, (all 30 litres or whatever) for 30 mins the day before, which should take away most of the temporary hardness and then adding a Campden tablet or two to clear the Chlorine? Possibly chuck in a small amount Calcium Carbonate first to give the Calcium in the water something to stick to and adding Calcium Sulphate afterwards, just to replace the Calcium that will have settled out. You probably don't need anything more complicated than that.
 
dad_of_jon said:
myqul,

tbh it's a crying shame here where i live re: water as up until about 3.5 years ago the tap water was superb, then we noticed a film forming on milk free cups of tea. Thought it was the tea bags so changed those but same problem. So welsh water have added something to the supply hence i now use bottled water.

we also have

http://www.breconwater.co.uk/perfect-balance/

in tescos but the chase spring does the job for me as our tap water is now treated to hell. :twisted:
Click to expand...

I'm from Cardiff. Bet it was Fluoride.
 
HebridesRob said:
Have you tried just boiling all the water you need for mashing, sparging, topping-up, (all 30 litres or whatever) for 30 mins the day before, which should take away most of the temporary hardness and then adding a Campden tablet or two to clear the Chlorine? Possibly chuck in a small amount Calcium Carbonate first to give the Calcium in the water something to stick to and adding Calcium Sulphate afterwards, just to replace the Calcium that will have settled out. You probably don't need anything more complicated than that.
Click to expand...

That all sound fiendishly complicated Rob. I've just tried out my Salifert Alkalinity test kit that arrived today. It's really simple to use and once I have my result I just plug the figure into the water treatment calc on the forum . It then tells me to add (depending on style of beer I'm making) some gypsum and some of the brupaks CRS acid I bought. simples. Think I might have a go a starting treat my water when I do pale ales to see if it makes a difference - I suspect it will as they never seem to turn out as good as my stouts and porters
 
As I'm relatively new to brewing, what difference does water make to pales and stouts etc? I'm still working out what different grains do, so for me water pH and mineral content is a long way off!

As it happens, I use Sainsbury's Basics water at 20p/2ltr, but only because our tap water tastes like it's been drained from a swimming pool and using bottled saves me measuring and treating/filtering. Seems to give good results and I only really make pale, but as I don't know what the effects are, I can't really judge!
 
Hops_and_Dreams said:
As I'm relatively new to brewing, what difference does water make to pales and stouts etc? I'm still working out what different grains do, so for me water pH and mineral content is a long way off!

As it happens, I use Sainsbury's Basics water at 20p/2ltr, but only because our tap water tastes like it's been drained from a swimming pool and using bottled saves me measuring and treating/filtering. Seems to give good results and I only really make pale, but as I don't know what the effects are, I can't really judge!
Click to expand...

I'm definately not an expert on this very complicated area of brewing but If you cant really judge andyour getting good results from bottled water, then good. As you don't need to worry about water chemistry unless you want to get into it. London water isn't very good for making pale ales (too hard) so I'm needing to alter my water unless I buy bottled
 
Stayed in Winchester overnight on way back from holiday, the water was disgusting certainly harder than the water supplied to the sw19 area. the drop of water on the taps left really noticable mineral deposits, never seen it that bad anywhere else! :(
 
Last edited:

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