Oromocto Water Report

[feldmann]

It was a slow day at work last week and after being transferred back and forth between 2-3 different offices about half a dozen times, I was finally about to get a water report for the city of Oromocto.

A lot of this stuff goes way over my head so I'd appreciate if someone looked it over just to see if my numbers look alright. I input the data into the Brewer's Friend Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator and I think I've finally got a balanced basic profile. Here's the relevant data:

Calcium: 17.5
Magnesium: 2
Sodium: 23.4
Chloride: 6
Sulfate: 41
Alkalinity As ppm CaCO3: 35
pH: 7.56

And here's what I believe I need to add:

Gypsum: 1.5g
Calcium chloride: 4g
Chalk: 3g

[Two Wheeler]

What type of beer are you shooting for? Also how much water do you use in the mash, and in the sparge?

[feldmann]

I had the calculator set for "Balanced Profile" it says its suitable for anything from dark golden to deep amber in colour. I usually mash with 3-4 gal depending on the amount of grain and sparge to top it up to 7.5 in the boil kettle.

[Two Wheeler]

I've been playing with this a bit the last few months, but am far from an expert here. I usually go back and forth between the Bru'n Water and EZ Water spreadsheets. I plugged your values into each of them and attached.

Bru'n Water is more complicated, but I find is easier to help me achieve a certain profile.
EZ Water is simpler and used to confirm and get estimated PH.

They both assume that you treat the mash water and sparge water the same. I simplified it and said you would mash with 4 gal and sparge with 4 gal so you can adjust for your values.

From what I understand, each style will benefit from very different profiles so it's good to do this exercise before each brew, depending on what you're brewing.

[Roger]

+1 on Bur'n water its great. I don't think you'll want to add chalk though it will raise your pH and if the water pH is already as high as 7.5 than you'll start leaching tannins from the grains. You should play with the Bru'n water spreadsheet it's full of info and knowledge.