Water Analysis Help...

[BrewBlender]

Can someone please look at this water analysis and help me decipher it? Any suggestions for changes? I will be brewing a Belgian Abbey on Saturday and want to know if I should add anything to my water?

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=33093

Thank you for the help.

[Speyedr]

First, I am NO expert on water, but I have been listening to the water shows recently.

Second, from the water shows I gather 2 things:
1-it is your MASH you are concerned with, so if you can check the Ph of the mash, then you can decide what to add, but don't just mess with the water.
2-The breweries of the world change their water anyway, so you may not want to bother emulating the tap water they go to great lengths to change.

Based on this I would do 2 things:
1 - Get the Chlorine out of the water either by filtering or other means, but I'd always rather REMOVE something than add something else to remove it.
2 - Check the pH of the mash and modify if necessary,if you are confortable with this.

That said, the proflie for Antwerp, Belgium in Beersmith is:
Calcium - 90ppm
Magnesium - 11ppm
sodium - 37ppm
sulfate - 84ppm
Chloride - 57ppm
Bicarbonate - 76ppm
Based on this your water is WAY lower in all areas they list. B3 has salt kits, etc., but you should really ask yourself if you want to mess with this part of your brewing yet. I still haven't, but I'm thinking about it.

Rob

[Danno]

You've got Bull Run water! Even the brewers of Pilsen would be jeoleous! It just doesn't get any softer than that. That's why Intel has all those chip plants on the west side. Excess quantities of very clean water.

For Belgian beers, add 0.5g of CaCl2 per gallon to get your Calcium up to 50ppm which is needed for achieving a proper mash pH of 5.2 to 5.4. Don't sweat the chlorine. There isn't enough there to worry about.

If you brew a hoppy beer, use CaSO4 and if you brew a dark beer, like a stout, add CaCO3 to balance the acidity of the roasted malts.