Brewing Water Analysis and Treatment Simplified.

Brewing Water Analysis and Treatment

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Since your brewing water constitutes the majority of your homebrew, it makes a difference in the final taste of your beer. The minerals present can affect the starch conversion of your grains.

For extract brewers, you don’t have to worry about this. The extract will have all the minerals needed from the water at the location that the extract was made. If you are having problems with some off flavors, or can’t seem to make certain types of beer by adding your own water to extracts, try using distilled water. If you are adding mineral salts to your water when using extracts, you may be over doing it since these minerals are already in the extract. Call the manufacturer to find out the brewing water profile of the brewery that made the extract. You can then make adjustments from there.

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If your brewing water smells like a swimming pool, you would probably think it has a lot of chlorine in it.  But, the chlorine smell comes not from chlorine, but from chloramines and boiling won’t affect it. What I usually do prior to brewing is to add a campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite-available at winemaking suppliers) to my brewing water to treat out the chlorine and chloramines. You do get a very slight increase in sulfate and chloride ions after using this method though (<10 ppm) and one tablet should treat up to 20 gallons of brewing water. The reaction takes place within a few minutes at room temperature. Another good way to treat your brewing water is by carbon filtering. Using activated carbon should remove most or all of the off flavors including chlorine in your water, but won’t affect the minerals.

You can use a water softener only if you are brewing with extracts. Too much of the necessary calcium and magnesium is removed through ion exchange, usually with sodium, for it to be used with all grain brewing. The mash needs these chemicals to convert the starches efficiently, increase the efficiency of the enzymes, and for fermentation later on.

Lastly, you can use bottled water when you brew with extracts. One note on using distilled water, only use distilled water when you need to dilute your hard tap water, (RO-reverse osmosis water will work the same way).

For a more detailed look at treating brewing water for extract brewing, check out John Palmer’s How To Brew. His sections on water are some of the most thorough of any of the homebrewing books.

If you are an all grain brewer, brewing water chemistry becomes more important.  I recommend you get a brewing water analysis done at Ward Laboratories, inc.   Order the W-5A Brewer’s Test which tests for: {Sodium, Nitrate, Total Hardness (Lime), Calcium, Carbonate, Total Alkalinity, Magnesium, Bicarbonate, Iron, Potassium, Sulfate, Phosphorus, Chloride, Electrical, Conductivity, pH, and Est. Total Dissolved Solids}. Here is a link to their pricing…

To take the water sample, run your tap for several minutes to clear the water from your pipes (about five minutes is sufficient) and fill the provided water bottle. Make sure the lid is secure, a piece of tape over the lid is preferred to keep it from coming loose in transit. Double check the information on the sample submittal form and make any necessary corrections. Use the bubble wrap sleeves to pack the water bottle, then place the bottle and submittal form in a box. Securely tape the box closed for shipping, then place an address label on the outside of the box. Drop the package off at your local post office.  The price of the W-501 Brewers Test plus the kit (at the time of this writing) is $27.25.    

Shipping Address (All Shipping Companies Other Than USPS)
Ward Laboratories Inc.
4007 Cherry Ave.
Kearney, NE 68847

Mailing Address (USPS)
Ward Laboratories Inc.
P.O. Box 788
Kearney, NE 68848-0788 (800) 887-7645

[email protected]

If you want to learn all about the chemistry of brewing water (also
called liquor), it’s complex and the subject of a very good book written
by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski.  Here is a video about the book from
Brewers Publications:

Brewing Water-Some Basics

I highly suggest you purchase the book by John and Colin.  Here are some basics about your brewing water:

Waterfalls from the sky in its purest form, then trickles through rocks and sediment to your aquifer. If those rocks are limestone, which the majority are, your water will absorb calcium and carbonate. If the rocks are dolomite, the water will absorb magnesium and carbonates. Volcanic rock doesn’t affect it much, but occasionally you’ll find areas of gypsum and the water can absorb calcium and sulfates. All these minerals now in your water make up its hardness. The word hardness was originally used to describe how well water lathered with soap.

A water’s hardness can be of two types. One is called temporary hardness, or carbonate hardness. Temporary hardness is usually evidenced by higher alkalinity which increases pH. Many beers were developed around water high in carbonates. In those days, they didn’t understand about water chemistry, but they did understand that when they tried to brew a light, highly hopped beer, they got very harsh, astringent flavors that were not pleasant. By trial and error, these areas found that dark beers tasted great. We now know that the darker malts have enough acidity to lower the pH into the proper brewing range (5.1-5.5) where the tannins aren’t extracted. As a result, the dark beers were smooth and balanced with no harsh bitterness. So remember this: If you have high alkalinity in your brewing water, brew more dark beers

How to remove hardness from carbonates

There are ways to get rid of most of the hardness from carbonates. Boiling your water is the best method. Everyone has noticed the flakes floating at the bottom of a pot after boiling the water. These are the carbonates being precipitated out as calcium carbonate. Carbonates depend on dissolved carbon dioxide CO2 (which in water forms carbonic acid CO) to stay soluble. So, remove the CO or carbonic acid and the carbonates will fall out into the white flakes.

Boiling to remove hardness works best with a source of calcium which gives the carbonates something to combine with and allows them to fall out of solution. Calcium can be added to your brewing water in the form of calcium hydroxide (slaked or hydrated lime) or calcium chloride (a common salt). If you have moderately carbonate (alkaline) water, which is found in much of the country (not in wells, which can be much higher), Randy Mosher in Radical Brewing says that you can add about 1 teaspoon (3.5 grams) of calcium chloride or 2 teaspoons (8 grams) of gypsum per 5 gallons of water to help precipitate carbonates. He also reminds us that boiling will not remove all of the carbonates, but should lower it enough that you can make a pale bitter beer.

Other minerals are not welcome in your brewing water. Salts can give an impression of “savory roundness” to your beer as Randy Mosher says. But too much salt will make your beer taste, well, salty. Iron and manganese are both detrimental to the flavor, clarity and yeast health of your beer. The worst of the additions to your water is free chlorine or chloramine. Remove chlorine by boiling or carbon filtering and remove both chlorine and chloramine with a campden tablet.

Finally, two minerals which are beneficial are zinc and copper, as long as they are present in trace amounts. The yeast use these minerals as nutrients. Too much of these minerals can cause problems with off flavors and yeast fermentation.

Water high in sulfate, which causes permanent hardness, gives beer a dry fuller flavor (although it can be too sharp). Above 500 ppm sulfates in water can be strongly bitter. That’s why it is kept around 150 ppm by dilution with distilled water, unless the beer will be highly hopped, in which case levels can be up to 350 ppm which will give your beer a cleaner bitterness.

If you are interested in the brewing water chemistry, I suggest you read New Brewing Lager Beers by Gregoray J. Noonan. The entire book is directed to those that like the technical aspects of brewing. It’s a very good book and one you should have in your brewing library

For those that want to adjust their water for deficiencies, check out John Palmer’s How To Brew section Using salts for water adjustment. It is a very good source of information and is indispensable for those that want to adjust their brewing water. Some brewing software have water adjustment tools. Utilize these tools if your water needs adjustment, or if you just want to experiment.

A quick overview of water types:

  • SOFT WATER has hardness of < 150 ppm. If the pH is <7, you have little bicarbonate alkalinity so you may need to treat with acid for mashing with pale malts. If the pH >7, up to 7.6 then the alkalinity is mostly from bicarbonates (although it’s still low). You may need to treat mash water with acid to lower pH. Add calcium to match styles or correct deficiencies.
  • HARD WATER has hardness >150 ppm. If the pH is between 7.0-7.2 your hardness is permanent (or sulfate hardness). This is a great water to use for almost every kind of beer you want to brew (except for Czech Pilsners which needs very soft water). If your pH is >7.2 with hardness between 150-250 ppm, it is just moderately hard with bicarbonate hardness. For most beer styles, you must precipitate the excess carbonates out, or adjust pH with acid (use this water with gypsum additions to brew Dortmunder lagers or Burton ales). Many homebrew supply stores offer what they call “Burton Salts” which when added to distilled water, will give you a brewing water profile similar to Burton-on-Trent where they are famous for their pale ales. If your hardness is >250 ppm your water is hard to very hard (up to about 1000 ppm). It is mostly bicarbonate hardness and makes good Dortmunder/Vienna lagers and Burton ales. For all other styles you should precipitate the carbonates by boiling and/or adjust the mash pH with acids.

Ground Water Hardness as CaCO3

Ground Water Hardness as CaCO3

Common Water Treatment Chemicals

Brewing water adjusters calcium-sulfate
Gypsum-Calcium Sulfate

From Gregory Noonan’s book New Brewing Lager Beers, here are the common uses for these common salts:

  • Gypsum: Calcium Sulfate-used to increase calcium level, lower pH, improves quality of hop bitterness and gives drier fuller flavor.
  • Epsom Salt: Magnesium Sulfate-used to increase Magnesium levels when deficient. It is usually unnecessary because the yeast can get all the magnesium it needs from the grain. It is also usually avoided in pale lagers.
  • Slaked Lime: Calcium Hydroxide-used to precipitate calcium bicarbonate and magnesium bicarbonate from solution where it is in excess. The quantity of slaked or hydrated lime should never exceed the ppm of your alkalinity as CaCO3 in your water report.
  • Precipitated Chalk: Calcium Carbonate-used to buffer the pH of mashes, very strong buffer.
  • Table Salt: Sodium Chloride-is used to accentuate bitterness and enhance flavors and fullness of your beers. It also promotes diastatic enzyme activity.
  • Calcium Chloride: a common salt, is used to increase calcium levels without adding too much sodium, and to increase saltiness. It is a commonly used treatment.
  • Campden Tablet: potassium metabisulfite- used to remove chlorine and chloramines from brewing water. Use no more than 1-2 ppm.

Here is a very nice brewing water calculator from Brewer’s Friend.com. 

Brewing Water Analysis from South Louisiana

As an example, here is the analysis done by Ward Laboratories, Inc. of my tap water in South Central Louisiana:

  • pH 7.4
  • Total Dissolved Solids 553
  • Sodium, Na 157 ppm (brewing range:0-150 ppm. At 70-150 ppm, the sour/salty taste rounds out the flavors, accentuating malt sweetness. Above 200 ppm and the beer will taste salty. These levels can be achieved using a water softner).
  • Potassium, K 2 ppm (imparts a salty taste. If >10 ppm will inhibit enzyme activity.)
  • Calcium, Ca 22 ppm (brewing range: 50-150 ppm is instrumental in many yeast, enzyme and protein reactions in the mash and boil. It promotes clarity, flavor and stability in finished beer and should be adjusted mainly for the enzyme activity in some mashes.)
  • Magnesium, Mg 6 ppm (brewing range: 10-30 ppm. It is very similar to calcium and is an important nutrient for yeast health and as a co-factor for some enzymes. At >50 ppm will give a sour bitter taste to the beer and >125 ppm have a laxative effect.)
  • Total Hardness as CaCo3 80 ppm
  • Sulfate, SO4-S <1 ppm (brewing range: 50-150 for normally bitter beers and 150-350 for very bitter beers, will accentuate hop bitterness, making it seem drier and crisper. Levels >400 ppm and the bitterness becomes harsh.)
  • Chloride, Cl 121 ppm (brewing range: 0-250 ppm accentuates flavor and fullness of beer. Chlorides are different than chlorine and levels >300 ppm from heavily chlorinated water, can give your beers a medicinal flavor.)
  • Carbonate, CO3 <1 ppm (Is not a principal component of brewing water with pH <8.4)
  • Bicarbonate, HCO3 303 ppm (brewing range: 0-250 ppm: will determine brewing water chemistry)
  • Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 249 ppm

Looking at the report, here is my analysis of my brewing water:

Bench type pH Meter from samiascientific

The pH of the water is not too important yet. The water must combine with the grain bill in your recipe before the pH should be taken. If the pH is then out of range, it can be adjusted.

The calcium levelis below the recommended brewing range of 50-150 ppm as is the magnesium level which should be 10-30 ppm (magnesium is an important yeast nutrient), but as mentioned above, the yeast will get plenty of magnesium from the wort which derived its magnesium from the grains.

The biggest problem is the bicarbonate level of 303 ppm. The proper levels of bicarbonate are 0-50 ppm for pale, base malt-only beers, 50-150 ppm for amber toasted malt beers and 150-250 ppm for dark, roasted malt beers. My water is above even the highest recommended level of 250 ppm. The carbonates can be lowered to the 50-150 ppm level by two methods, boiling or dilution. The problem with boiling is that it can only remove the temporary hardness (which is the lesser of the total alkalinity as CaCO3-249 ppm or the total hardness as CaCO3-80 ppm). In my case the lesser is the total hardness as CaCO3 at 80 ppm. If the total hardness would have exceeded my total alkalinity, then most of the alkalinity could be removed down to the 50 ppm range (which has to do with the solubility constant of Calcium). In my water, only part of the alkalinity and almost all of the calcium (which is low already) will be precipitated when boiled (this is definitely not a good situation). I would need to add back more calcium to equalize the alkalinity.

If I wanted to lower my carbonate levels, there are a couple of methods I could use.  One way of lowering carbonates is by adding slaked lime for a calcium source to precipitate the carbonates as calcium carbonate, and the other method is dilution. Adding slaked lime is complicated and must be done with care and precision. Dilution is much simpler and just as effective. I vote on dilution. But, if you want to try using slaked lime, the procedure from John Palmer’s book How To Brew is listed here. Click here to learn about using slaked lime or dilution for carbonate reduction. 

Brewing water adjustments can be complex. But, if you are having problems with your beers brewed with only pale malts, or just want to take your brewing to the next level, it is a worthwhile endeavor to learn. In the Brew Strong segment on brewing water, John Palmer says that he thinks your beer’s competition scores could go from the 30’s up into the 40’s by correctly adjusting your brewing water (if your water needs adjusting, and all of your brewing processes and sanitation are correct). The main caveats to remember are: know what your water’s chemistry is and know why you want to make adjustments to your water.

The most important aspect of your brewing water’s chemistry is its residual alkalinity (RA). If you only adjust one thing, work on that first. Getting the correct RA for your brewing water will insure that you get the proper pH in the mash. 

To learn more about your mash’s pH and how to adjust it, click here. A very good source of information is John Palmers book, How to Brew. John has worked up a spreadsheet that I often use to make adjustments to my water. Click here to download John Palmer’s Residual Alkalinity spreadsheet at the bottom of the page. Once you have the spreadsheet downloaded, enter the numbers from your local water report. Then, each time you brew, go to the spreadsheet and work through the calculations to get the RA required to brew the beer. John makes it easy and all you do is follow the steps, 1-2-3. You have several choices for making chemistry adjustments here. One is dilution. If your water is way out of specs, dilute with distilled, deionized, or RO water. Enter the amount of water in the mash and what percentage you want to dilute it. Another method is by adding acid to the mash. John gives you two sources, hydrochloric acid and lactic acid. These additions will be small, usually around 1-6 ml. And the final method of changing your water chemistry is by adding salts, such as gypsum, calcium chloride, epsom salts, and baking soda. You can experiment with these until you get the final water like you want it.

If you get your water’s residual alkalinity in the right range, the next thing to look at is your water’s chlorides to sulfates ratio. John has set-up the spreadsheet to give you this ratio. He tells you whether your beer will end up being Very Malty, Malty, Balanced, Bitter, or Very Bitter, depending on the ratio of your water’s chlorides to sulfate ions. These can be adjusted using the salts mentioned above. So, once you get the RA in line, and the chloride/sulfate ratio how you want it, you are all set. There is one more (optional) step available from the spreadsheet. You can adjust your sparge water by adding acids. Just input the amount of sparge water you are going to use, and the spreadsheet gives you the recommended amount of acid to add to your sparge water to insure you don’t allow your wort pH to climb too high and strip out too many tannins (or polyphenols) from the grains in the mash.

As I get a little more familiar with John’s spreadsheet, I’ll try to work up a tutorial on how to best use it, but until then, you’ll have to do as I do, work through it by trial and error. But just remember, just about every water has a beer that can be brewed from it without any adjustments. If your water is high in alkalinity, brew dark beers (or adjust it to brew light beers), and if your water is soft and low in alkalinity, brew light hoppy beers (or adjust it to brew dark beers). In my case, all I really have to do is filter out the chlorine with a carbon filter and my water is perfect for brewing all kinds of dark beers without any kind of adjustment at all.

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