Home Water Testing

[Megary]

Given that Calcium Chloride prills can range from about 5% water to about 40% water, and you can't know where they are at in this regard by looking at them (until at some juncture they turn to a slushy mush), building from RO may actually be less consistent.

Interesting. That's good to know. Not that I'll ever bother with RO anyway...

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Interesting. That's good to know. Not that I'll ever bother with RO anyway...

The best way to get around this problem is to make a solution of CaCl2 in water, and then (after it cools to room temperature) measure it's specific gravity.

Grams/Liter CaCl2 =-684.57+175.12*SG+509.45*SG^2
(where SG = specific gravity)

Example:
SG = 1.077

Grams/Liter CaCl2 =-684.57+175.12*1.077+509.45*1.077^2
Grams/L CaCl2 = 94.96
Grams/mL CaCl2 = 0.09496

If, for example you then want to add 3.5 grams of anhydrous CaCl2, then:

3.5/0.09496 = 36.86 mL required to be added

PS: If you make up 100 grams of CaCl2 prills with distilled water to a total of 1 Liter of solution, and (after it cools, wherein this blend gets right hot!) its SG is 1.077, you now know that your CaCl2 was 94.96% CaCl2 and 5.04% water. If instead the solutions SG = 1.065, then your CaCl2 is 79.76% CaCl2 and 20.24% water, etc.... Thus, this is also a great way to test the purity of your CaCl2, as it currently exists. But CaCl2 prills continually assimilate water from the air over the passing of time plus exposure to air, so it is best to just use it as a liquid solution that can no longer take on additional water.

PPS: AJ deLange deserves all credit for this method.

Lastly, for CaCl2 to be 100% pure (or anhydrous), 100 grams of it when made up to 1 L in distilled water will yield an SG of 1.081 at room temperature. I have never seen this happen. Fresh stuff, newly opened, and in my experience, is about 94-96% pure. YMMV

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I'm looking onto one of those portable RO systems for this reason. Just not sure it's worth the $$. But then again, the beers I'm making could be much better. Ahhh there's the trap.

Before you spend money on an RO system, you should brew with RO water bought from the store. That way you can judge whether an RO system is worth the investment. But your following quote leads me to believe it won't make much difference.

The beers I have brewed have been very good to me and my test tasters. Some I use salts and some I just fill up the brewzilla and go for it. All have come out fairly decent.

 

[Nosybear]

Does RO water adjusted with salts provide better beer than using the results from any water test results (Ward, Brew Labs etc.) adjusted for the type of beer you are trying to brew?

With RO you know about where you're starting. Our tap water makes great ambers but it's never certain.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I once tested (via the method seen in post #22) some of my brewing CaCl2 prills that were roughly 1 year old and they came in at ~86.5% CaCl2 and ~13.5% water. After each use I rapidly capped the bottle tight, but each time I opened it for use its concentration was clearly going down.

I recall a guy on the HBT forum testing his CaCl2 prills and and finding them to be only about 60.5% CaCl2. Until he did this he had no idea.

I left an open bag of CaCl2 driveway de-icer in my garage for a few years and it turned into a messy and corrosive liquid slush of water and CaCl2.

AJ deLange once commented on the HBT forum that he placed a scoop of CaCL2 prills onto a very expensive laboratory analytical balance (scale), and then sat back and watched it get heavier as it drew in water from the air in the room.

 

[Craigerrr]

I use RO water, it is pretty cost effective for me at about $5CDN per 5 gallon batch.
My municipal water is treated with chloromine, and comes from multiple sources.
Testing water, and or maintaining an RO system, is just an unnecessary headache for me.
We use the same water in our water cooler in the kitchen so it was a no brainer.
The salts are then just consistent recipe ingredients that can be adjusted as needed.

 

[Over The Cliff Brewing]

I think my next batch I'll use purchased RO water on a recipe that was hit with my volunteer taste testers to see if it make a diff.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

If you spread out some CaCl2 prills onto a cookie sheet and heat them to 400 degrees F. for an hour, that should drive off the water and return them to the state of being anhydrous (or 100% pure CaCl2). They will start taking water out of the air as they cool. And by the time they cool enough to safely go back into their container, where they will additionally pull the water out of the air within the container, my pure guess is that they will be at about 96-97% CaCl2 and 3-4% water when you subsequently get around to first use...

 

[56 Firedome]

Fascinating discussion. When I started to pay attention to my water, about 3 years ago, I discovered, using the Bru'n Water calculator on BF, that the biggest part of this taking minerals put of your tap water before adding back the minerals called for in the recipe.
Using RO water had less to remove & an RO device was out of the budget. I chose Distilled water as it has no minerals in it. RO & Distilled water are about 80 cents a gal at the local grocery store.
So, using the Water Calculator in BF, I set my base water to 0 all the way across. Now I only have to concern myself with the minerals the recipe calls for.
My only problem is that my scale can not measure decimals of a gram. Big pinch, small pinch.
I can buy many gallons of Distilled Water for what a RO Machine costs , there's no maintenance or testing either. Distilled Water is always the same no matter the season.

 

[Donoroto]

Plus or minus a gram in a 5 gallon batch is nothing to worry about, a rounding error.

That being said, my $8 scale measures 0.01 gram - very precise, but unknown accuracy.

 

[Hawkbox]

I think consistency is more important than pure accuracy at our scale.

 

[Craigerrr]

I think consistency is more important than pure accuracy at our scale.

That is a bingo!