Water testing

[carrisr]

First of all, I don't use those charts so can't advise you on their use. I much prefer the Bru'n Water spreadsheet. It was created by a guy who's an expert in water treatment. Second I can't imagine adding that much Ca is going to make an enjoyable Lager, especially Pilsners. You want soft water for them. I usually shoot for around 30-40 ppm Ca (and many people go lower).

I usually need to add an acid for these very light beers even using RO water to get the pH low enough.

Not surprising but my well water is pretty similar to yours. One of the best things I did for my brewing was to stop trying to use it and switch completely to RO. From there you can do anything you want. You can go simple or get more complex.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[daryl]

I agree Randy. From what I've looked into with regard to the aquifers in Iowa, we have it pretty good on the eastern/north-eastern part of the state....out west it is a poorer quality. Ours is pretty high in alkaline.

So taking the dilution approach one step further, here are the results for using my well water at 10% strength.

This would require an additional 85 ppm of Ca....still a little high.

I am going to run the chart to compute the amount of acid required to bring the pH inline...I'll run it for the 50% well and 50% RO.

What acid do you use Randy?

Ph Nomograph - Palmer - McCall Water Chemistry Small 10 percent.jpg

(81.8 KiB) Downloaded 1128 times

[daryl]

This chart is for 50-50 Well and RO water.

The difference in Alkalinity in CaCO3 is about 160 ppm - 17 ppm = 143 ppm.

143 ppm / 50 = 2.86 mEq/L. - mEq is milliequivalents per Liter

Lets assume the mash is 4 gallons or 15 Liters.

Then we would need 2.86 mEq/L * 15 L = 42.9 mEQ of acid to achieve a pH for a light colored pilsner/lager.

Lactic Acid at 88% concentration has 11.8 mEq/L....the amount of acid required would be 42.0/11.8 = 3.56 milliliters of acid.

Still need to do a little more playing around with diluting the well water and using acid or salts to bring the pH inline AND try to make the water chemistry comparable to the region associated with the style of beer (i.e. Pilsen, Ireland, etc.).


Interesting stuff..... I'll need to check out the water SW/models too.

Ph Nomograph - Palmer - McCall Water Chemistry Small 50 percent - Acid.jpg

(81.31 KiB) Downloaded 1130 times

[Schwerkraftbrauer]

Surfing the web and asking on other forums, most people have commented doing a RO water ratio mix vs. Salt/ Chemical Additives. And have recommended trying that first and dialing in from there ( 1/3 RO- 2/3 Tap. To. 50/50) This will dilute the minerals in my tap water that are too high, I will be experimenting doing this in a few weeks for my lighter styles.
Granted this will probably not do anything for ph

[daryl]

Gordon Strong is a big proponent of using RO water and dosing with salts and acids....no measuring pH, just brew. And I have been having good results with that.

As far as Palmer's Nomograph or the Brewing Water SW/Tools Randy mentioned, for either one, they are irrelevant until one starts applying them to practice and tasting (and/or measuring) the results.

[carrisr]

Yes, Gordon's approach is what I meant earlier about the simple method. Nothing at all wrong with it. You can also use it with more neutral water such as CR tap water. I do the more complicated approach because I enjoy it. It's part of the recipe crafting process for me.

As for the question on acid, my go-to is 85% phosphoric. It's flavorless. If you want to try it I have way more of it than I can probably ever use. I also use citric acid in some styles such as wheat beers. Though I doubt it contributes any flavor at such low additions. It's easy to buy and easy (safer) to measure out too.

I'd also recommend checking out the Bru'n Water spreadsheet even you are not sure you want to get that technical. He's put a lot of good information on water in general in it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk