water report

[pittsy]

Many seem to forget about lactic acid when thinking on water treatment , as mentioned adding sulphate may not be wanted but crs is sulphate (calcium sulphate ) unless using calcium chloride . Just a thought .

 

[Aleman]

Many seem to forget about lactic acid when thinking on water treatment

I don't forget it, I completely disregard it!

If you are talking about making very minor changes then it may be acceptable, but even when using it at ~6ml in 60L of liquor I could detect the presence of it in the final beer, a pilsner. . . not so much as a taste, but it kicked my salivary glands into action via the aroma . . . something that I had learned to associate with a lactobacter infection . . . and I wasn't the only one to pick it up.

Phosphoric is 'flavour neutral' (something else I disagree with) and would be a much better choice.

Personally if I don't want to add sulphates, then I use hydrochloric acid . . . if I don't want to add chlorides then I use sulphuric.

CRS is very much a pile driver used to open a peanut

 

[MacKiwi]

Hi Aleman - what is your source for food-grade Hydrochloric acid? I found Phosphoric acid easily enough, and Murphy's appear to sell Sulphuric, but Hydrochloric seems a little harder to find.

Thanks!

 

[pittsy]

True Aleman , I only adjust for ales with lactic . Pilsners etc needs better water to start with

 

[Aleman]

Hi Aleman - what is your source for food-grade Hydrochloric acid? I found Phosphoric acid easily enough, and Murphy's appear to sell Sulphuric, but Hydrochloric seems a little harder to find.

Thanks!

Mine is AnalR grade . . . I don't ask where She gets it from when she comes home from work with some for me :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

 

[danb]

Well, I've spoke to someone at seven Trent who are going to test further and get back to me in the next 24 hours with alkalinity, calcium and magnesium figures. I am still going to get a test kit for alkalinity. Does it need to be salifert? Also r/o water is £3.50 for 25 litres around the corner.

 

[danb]

I've had a phone call today and they cannot give me alkalinity which is fine as I'll test myself. Although I have calcium and magnesium readings which Ithink are either very high or wrong.
Calcium is 125mg/l
Magnesium 117mg/l
Do these sound right with a total hardness of 233mg/l as CaCo3? Something iI found with a chart showed with that sort of hardness the calcium would be about 60mg/l and magnesium around 15mg/l.

 

[pittsy]

You need a calcium test kit too , watch out for magnesium tests as they are for sea water (usually ) and aren't sensitive enough ( the lowest reading is 30 ppm on the test kit and you should have somewhere between 5 and 30 ppm ) Your caco3 of 233 when converted to ppm calcium is 93 ppm which is good for some brews and too much for beers like lager ( you may want 30 to 60 ppm for a pilsner) Your magnesium wants to be around 5 to 10 ppm ideally , never add magnesium ( unless using RO water) as too much is bad but some is needed for the yeast .
Your sulphate to chloride ratio favours malty beers as is .
Try bru n water out with those figures and see how much distilled water ( or RO even better ) you need to dilute to achieve your water target , it also gives you targets to aim for .
So you have ,
calcium 93 ppm
magnesium ?
sodium 19 ppm (ideal)
sulphate 47 ppm (good , if brewing hoppy beers more would be better , up to 150 ppm unless super hoppy wanted .)
chloride 92 ppm ( a little on the high side but still good , i wouldn't add any more )
hardness caco3 233 ppm
nearly there .

 

[danb]

Cheers pittsy calcium is 125 mg/l
And magnesium is 117mg/l

 

[danb]

I've tried getting bru n water but it loads up on the tablet but cannot input anything in the boxes.

 

[danb]

Is it more likely they said 0.117 of magnesium and I missed the ppoint?

 

[Aleman]

Is it more likely they said 0.117 of magnesium and I missed the ppoint?

it's more likely that they said 11.7 even Eric who lives on the magnesium limestone of the NE doesn't have a magnesium content that high (117)

 

[danb]

Should I give them a ring to confirm aleman? Or is safe to say it will definitely have been 11.7.
Is the reading of 93 what pittsy said or 125 for calcium what I should enter?
On brewers friend calculator it asks for hco3 is this what I'll find out when testing the alkalinity? Although I thought that was caco3.
Cheers

 

[jonnymorris]

Alkalinity can be expressed in different ways. Have a look at Grahams Water Treatment Calculator (google it). Lots of info on there and a relatively simple calculator.

p.s. my magnesium is 9.4 ish.

 

[danb]

Entering hardness without alkalinity and the other readouts for 40l I'm getting 45ml or crs to be added.

 

[danb]

Ordered 5kg of lager malt and a bottle of AMS too from murphys. Grahams water calculator can be entered as hardness and not alkalinity which gives me the same figure of 45ml in 40l on the lager profile.
Ordering a saliferrt kit too but not sure I'll have it in time for brewday.

 

[ryanshelton]

Ordered 5kg of lager malt and a bottle of AMS too from murphys. Grahams water calculator can be entered as hardness and not alkalinity which gives me the same figure of 45ml in 40l on the lager profile.
Ordering a saliferrt kit too but not sure I'll have it in time for brewday.

If your close to Ilkeston or chilwell over the next few days I have a Salifert test kit you can borrow?

 

[danb]

Cheers mate I'll let you know. Thanks

 

[danb]

Test kit ordered :thumb:

 

[danb]

Well the test kit didn't come this morning so I'll have to hold off the brewday.