Water Testing

[pliny]

Personally I'm going to start testing water.JQ

JQ, this is an interesting topic.
Water is one of the more important and more neglected factors in homebrewing.

I have a water analysis from the city (when I get the bill) but I'd like to hear how you're going to go about testing. ex: are you going to build your water, add calcium carbonate, etc.?

I guess it'll probably depend on the style you're brewing...
Anyway, it would be good to hear about it.

[Richard]

Yeah I was thinking about this... going to start with some pH strips but even that doesn't go far enough. Really, I need to test the buffering capacity of the water.

JQ isn't using municipal water, so it's particularly important for him.

[Richard]

So for equipment / consumables for this - does anyone have a shopping list for testing water pH / buffering capacity? To my knowledge both are important.

[JohnQ]

Assuming the well is consistent, I have the test that is required by the Province whenever a well is re-drilled that tells me the exact amounts of all sorts of things in the water.
Still researching a bit, and I've brewed with both conditioned and raw unfiltered, unconditioned water to see if there is a blatant difference, but haven't come to any conclusion yet.
Watched the first of a series of videos online, going to watch the rest soon.
Thing is, when the beer is already good>very good, it's tough to be too worried about efficiency, when really it's another buck in grain to balance off against efficiency issues.

JQ

[pliny]

To be honest I'm not incredibly concerned about efficiency. I have a good idea of what my system is for now.
If making adjustments to the water is a factor in making a better beer, I'm interested in understanding.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-2.html
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

[Richard]

+1

[Dave Savoie]

5.2 Stabalizer works for me

[Dean]

Since we have a water treatment plant that provides water to the town as well as the base, water quality is something directly related to my work. I have no clue as to how certain parameters apply to brewing but I do know what is tested, how it is tested, and why

some interesting reading here, if you're interested

http://www.safewater.org/PDFS/resources ... %20_pH.pdf

and Richard - what you're looking to test is PH and KH ...the cheapest place for you to get a test kit for those is a pet store (aquarium test kits). Don't use the PH test strips, they're pretty much useless. I have a PH test kit for my tank but I don't test KH, a competent pet store can test a water sample for both those ...the place next door to Giant Tiger is good and there's a guy there who knows what he's doing

[HappyHax0r]

I actually have the city water report as a PDF/URL if anyone's interested.

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/environmen ... ts2010.pdf

These are the "typical results" for people on city water for 2010.

I know it's 2012... but this is a pretty good baseline anyway.

[brew]

Yes indeed - I have a PH tester as well, and the Fredericton PH listing in the doc Happy referred to is pretty much exactly what I get with my tester (a hannah). The Fredericton test info is also in the water profile on the Brewblogger site.

[Richard]

Thanks guys; I'll check it out.