Help with a Water Report

[stblindtiger]

I recently received my local water report, and I'm having trouble making sense of it. I've listened to the Brewstrong podcasts a few times already, and I'm still not sure what the heck I'm looking at?!?!?!?

I was always pretty bad with Chemistry, and I'm just really having trouble wrapping my head around this stuff.

Anyway, here is my water report..... is this water good to brew with? Is there anything in this report that would concern you?

Thanks!

tyles would best fit in with this water profile.
(all amounts are in mg/L)

Chlorine Residual Total - 1.55

Chloride - 75

Nitrate - 2.2
Nitrite - ND
Sulfate - 37

Sodium - 38
Potassium - ND
Magnesium - 8.4
Calcium - 31
Lithium - ND

Aluminum - .04
Iron - ND
Manganese - ND
Copper - ND
Zinc - .05

Alkalinity - 41
Hardness - 110

Total Suspended Solids - .3
Total Solids - 220

Thank you!!!!!!!

[mabrungard]

The amount of reported information looks good. You can find all the water information you need from that report. Bru'n Water has the tools needed to figure out the information and check that its valid.

[stblindtiger]

Thanks for replying.... I tried using that Bru'n Water excell sheet. I plugged in all the numbers, but I wasn't sure what number I should enter for Carbonate and Bicarbonite????

Oh wait..... do I just put what was listed for alkalinity in that conversion table and that will give me those levels?

[mabrungard]

Yep, input the reported alkalinity and it will calculate the estimated bicarb and carb concentrations that are dependent upon the water pH. This assumes that the alkalinity was provided as (ppm as CaCO3).

Plug all your concentrations into the water input table and then check to see if the anions and cations balance reasonably. If they do, great. If they don't you have to start looking at the various data. Verify that the hardness reported and the value that Bru'n Water calculated are nearly the same. If not, then possibly either the Ca or Mg concentrations are mis-reported. If the water data is from Ward, be sure the sulfate and nitrate values were converted to their real values.

When all else fails, its possible that there is another ion that is not reported in the water report that is throwing the balance off.

[stblindtiger]

I've been really concentrating on Palmer's book as well. I think I'm starting to figure out how to use that chart he gives on the last page. I just need to figure out how much to add to the mash and when to add now.....

It's some tricky stuff the first few times you look at it....