Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Does anyone know how/where to send a water sample? Costs? Ect.
I think there's places you can send a water sample say in a regular plastic drinking water bottle, that is what im looking for. Brewer specific water chemistry of course.

I have gone to my local municipal building for a water report and did get one but a Podunk version with half of what i need.

I have tried over the counter tests for these things, but on fear of operator error, i want an actual lab test to know more about my water profile.

Thanks

Ward labs is the popular one. They have a "brewers test" that's probably just what you're looking for.

LaMotte sells testing kits, but I think they're geared more towards professional brewers and are pricey.

- Josh Peanasky

I won the nice LaMott water test kit at NHC'16. It's available to be borrowed!
I believe Joel borrowed it last year to get all his numbers.

andrewmaixner wrote:I won the nice LaMott water test kit at NHC'16. It's available to be borrowed!
I believe Joel borrowed it last year to get all his numbers.

That was me Andrew, and it did give me close enough numbers but I wanted to get more exact numbers. That way I have more definite figures on how to build a water profile. Doing that water test was a little over my head. LOL

jjpeanasky wrote:Ward labs is the popular one. They have a "brewers test" that's probably just what you're looking for.

LaMotte sells testing kits, but I think they're geared more towards professional brewers and are pricey.

- Josh Peanasky

Ward labs, exactly what i was looking for. 42 bucks for test and shipping labels.
Thanks Josh

Quick and easy, now to make sense of it all. I'll have my work cut out for me

If you want help let me know. Not surprisingly yours is close to mine.

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carrisr wrote:If you want help let me know. Not surprisingly yours is close to mine.

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Might talk some on Sunday, my How to Brew by palmer book is lent out to a friend, so googling stuff for now, i never read the water chapter when i first got it being it was over my head at the time

Schwerkraftbrauer wrote:Quick and easy, now to make sense of it all. I'll have my work cut out for me

If you have a water conditioner, did you draw water from soft water or from your service/well side of the conditioner?

Your Iron count looks really low for this part of the country...especially for well water.

I get a bunch of iron/rust from our well every time we get a close lightning strike....could be from the electrical energy, but I think it is more likely the kinetic energy of the thunder shaking the earth that causes most of it.

I whole-house filter for iron, prior to the water softener.

How fast did they turn the test results for you? I am supposing they provide them to you online somehow.

I'm on City water and I have a bypass around the Water Conditioner to where I get my Brew water, so that won't affect my results. It took approximately three or four days to when they email you the test results

The city's water treatment does a pretty good job on the iron.

I should probably get my water retested, but last time I did there was no significant iron here either.

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Just received my results.

The water I drew for this test, was drawn from a hydrant that bypasses the filter and water softener.

Joel lives in Monticello, which is about 16 miles North East from where I live.

So if I am doing this right, it appears that my water is sufficient to produce the darkest of stouts.

Line 1 connects the the Mg ppm (27) point to the CA ppm point (104.8 ). Line 2 intersects the Effective Hardness scale at approximately at the value of 90. From that point (value of 90), draw a line that intersects the Alkalinity/Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 ppm (321) and also extends up to the Mash pH and Residual Alkalinity. It intersects at a Residual Alkalinity of 230. This is right below the darkest part of the SRM scale; meaning that I could brew very dark beers (assumes the dark malts will balance the pH to a reasonable value for the mash).

To adjust for a lighter style, select the color associated with the desired style. Since I plan to do Pilsners and Lagers, I selected a Residual Alkalinity of -30. From that point, draw Line 3 through the Alkalinity as CaC03 extended to the Effective Hardness. Then draw Line 4 from the Mg value (27) on the Mg scale through the point where Line 3 intersects the Effective Hardness scale and extend that to the Ca scale. In this case, it intersects at approximately 475 ppm.

Difference between the two points on the Ca scale tells you how much Ca needs to be added: 475 ppm - 104.8 ppm = 370.2 ppm

For those of you familiar with Palmer's use of this nomograph, does this look correct?

Now, if I dilute my well water with RO water (50-50, half well water and half RO water), I use the following values:
Ca - 52.4 ppm
Mg - 13.5 ppm
Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 - 160.5 ppm
I drew the following chart.

The CA to be added now is 257 ppm - 52 ppm = 205 ppm.

Now I have not tried this in practice. I am expecting this will get me close, but will still need to measure the pH of the mash and do some adjustments in real-time.

I also expect, once dialed in, this will mostly be procedural and I will be using pH meter as a double check.

Thoughts? Comments? from those of you with hands-on experience?