Beer Forum

I recently found that my water is very high in alkalinity (CaCO3 = 346). So I started looking for other water to use. I emailed Kroger (grocery store here in Ohio/Michigan and I believe other states as well) and asked for a water analysis of their 1 gallon Drinking water. To my surprise, they emailed back.

For anyone looking for water, here is the water analysis of Kroger's 1 gallon Drinking water:

Calcium: 21 mg/L
Magnesium: 7.4 mg/L
Sodium: 26 mg/L
SO4 (sulfate as SO4): 27 mg/L
Chlorine: None detected
HCO3: The water analysis shows bicarbonate as measured by CaCO3: 59 mg/L

Most water labeled as "drinking water" is pretty soft. I've used Zephyr hills before with good success. But the cheapest and best route by far is finding one of those refillable water machines at the front of grocery stores. 5 gallons of RO water for $1.50 rather than 89 cents a gallon. Plus zero minerals. A couple tsp. of SO4 and CaCL2 and you are golden.

Brew Strong!

I'd be a little cautious about relying on a grocery store's water report. A large chain might get water from a couple of sources across the country and sometimes they have to cross-ship product to cover a deficiency somewhere. A set of aquarium test kits for hardness and alkalinity would be cheap insurance on the water's consistency.

In the land of hard water, you can often find those RO vending machines at stores. I agree with andrewgator (go gators!) that the RO water option might be an even cheaper way of brewing. Just be careful there too. If the machine is out of maintenance, you could end up with worse water quality than you were expecting. A cheap TDS meter is a good way to double check that the water out of the machine is relatively ion free. I would expect that the TDS value should be well less than 20. My home RO unit delivers a TDS of 4.