Hopefully my last water treatment question

I use the simplest of filters, a high-flow activated charcoal filter designed for filtering the camp water going into an RV. It works - no chlorophenols! It's about $15 on Amazon, will treat thousands of gallons of water and fits standard US hose bibs.
 
I don't use Camden tablets using my carbon filter it seems to take the chlorine out. Eg if I drink unfiltered tap water and leave it in a bottle in the fridge first whiff is like drinking pool water. Filtered on the other hand no chlorine smell and tastes much cleaner plus bloke I bought it off recons it takes all the chlorine out.

Yea I'm loving this thread too it's great to see how everyone handles brewing water and mineral and ph adjustments.

Last thing I'm brewing a light based brew for my berry saison tomorrow. Using mineral adjustments on water calculator my ph is down to 5.4 within the sweet spot on the mash ph range. Now if I were to adjust ph with citric acid only from my homegrown lemons by adding a few mls into total brew liquor in kettle testing with ph meter do you think that would be crazy stupid?o_O
 
You lot have given me a headache!

All I've done in the past is mix tap water with cheap bottled water 50/50 (I always use the same bottled spring water) and Phosphoric acid to adjust the PH to 6.2, little higher for dark beers.

Now I've not done any calculations to get to the above method, it's a guess, but reading this thread has prompted me to get my finger out.

So I bunged in all the chemical stuff from an average of the two waters and added grist from a pale low ABV beer.

I was quite pleased what the water calc thingy said.

Ca+2 241
Mg+2 4
Na+ 12
Cl- 100
S04-2 59.2
HC0 22.4

Grist water PH 5.67
Mash PH 5.21

Overall water report is normal except Ca+2 which is high
SO42-/Cl- ratio 0.6 very malty

Normally I just keep track of PH. But the biggest improvement in my brewing was to use 50/50 tap bottled water.
 
Trialben said:
I don't use Camden tablets using my carbon filter it seems to take the chlorine out. Eg if I drink unfiltered tap water and leave it in a bottle in the fridge first whiff is like drinking pool water. Filtered on the other hand no chlorine smell and tastes much cleaner plus bloke I bought it off recons it takes all the chlorine out.

Yea I'm loving this thread too it's great to see how everyone handles brewing water and mineral and ph adjustments.

Last thing I'm brewing a light based brew for my berry saison tomorrow. Using mineral adjustments on water calculator my ph is down to 5.4 within the sweet spot on the mash ph range. Now if I were to adjust ph with citric acid only from my homegrown lemons by adding a few mls into total brew liquor in kettle testing with ph meter do you think that would be crazy stupid?o_O
Click to expand...

I would think natural citric acid would be better than the stuff out of the bottle. Like the Pirate says its an anything goes beer. You could get too tart though. All beers need a little balance.
 
sbaclimber said:
Thanks for the input.
Sounds like I am on my to buying some campden tablets...and then a water filter. :D
Click to expand...

Campden tablets (1 per 20 gallons) will remove chloramine/chlorine instantly.

Water filters remove sediment. Filters will NOT remove alkalinity, ions, and things that impact the mash pH. It may not be useful at all for you.
 
Trialben said:
I don't use Camden tablets using my carbon filter it seems to take the chlorine out. Eg if I drink unfiltered tap water and leave it in a bottle in the fridge first whiff is like drinking pool water. Filtered on the other hand no chlorine smell and tastes much cleaner plus bloke I bought it off recons it takes all the chlorine out.

Yea I'm loving this thread too it's great to see how everyone handles brewing water and mineral and ph adjustments.

Last thing I'm brewing a light based brew for my berry saison tomorrow. Using mineral adjustments on water calculator my ph is down to 5.4 within the sweet spot on the mash ph range. Now if I were to adjust ph with citric acid only from my homegrown lemons by adding a few mls into total brew liquor in kettle testing with ph meter do you think that would be crazy stupid?o_O
Click to expand...
Not at all. I use phosphoric acid because it's flavor-neutral but thinking about using Acidulated Malt, apparently lactic acid in the concentrations we use doesn't provide much flavor, either. From cheesemaking, I know if you combine it with a touch of diacetyl you get cream cheese flavor. Citric acid from lemons? Why not? Careful, though: for a light brew like you're describing, I'd go for the low end of the pH range just out of fear of extracting astringency.
 
Yooper said:
Campden tablets (1 per 20 gallons) will remove chloramine/chlorine instantly.

Water filters remove sediment. Filters will NOT remove alkalinity, ions, and things that impact the mash pH. It may not be useful at all for you.
Click to expand...
Beg to differ, an activated charcoal filter will remove chlorine and chloramine. Lots of science here if desired: http://www.wqpmag.com/catalytic-carbon-chloramine-removal
(WQP stands for "Water Quality Products" in this URL)
 
Yooper said:
That water isn't bad at all!
Click to expand...

It's more like kick ass water.

Most people don't have water that soft and yet have enough hardness to brew darker beers. Just put through a carbon filter to remove all the chlorine products. Personally I would mash with that water and sparge with RO for lighter beers (adding a little calcium chloride and calcium sulfate missing from the RO) and using it straight up for darker beers.
 
Yooper said:
Certainly. But you don't need both. If you're using the campden, a filter won't matter. The filter will not remove ions or alkalinity.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Both are unnecessary.
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
It's more like kick ass water.

Most people don't have water that soft and yet have enough hardness to brew darker beers. Just put through a carbon filter to remove all the chlorine products. Personally I would mash with that water and sparge with RO for lighter beers (adding a little calcium chloride and calcium sulfate missing from the RO) and using it straight up for darker beers.
Click to expand...
We're really in that category here, with the exception of calcium concentration (37 ppm). That said, our local brewers generally don't treat their water, acidification is enough, they tell me. Hence my camping in the "minimal water dorking" camp: Filter out the chlorine, add a bit of calcium, acidify to pH 5.6 with phosphoric acid. That pretty much holds true regardless of style, since I generally don't add dark grains until I'm sparging.
 
Yooper said:
Certainly. But you don't need both. If you're using the campden, a filter won't matter. The filter will not remove ions or alkalinity.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, my water here is otherwise "okay"...
fwiw, it is here as profile "Leipzig, Probstheide, Germany"
 
so I acidified my brew liquor to 5.5ph that's total brew liquor I think I used around 30ml of squeezed lemon juice amazing it only takes so little.
 
Low buffering in your water then , most of our local water is underground and plenty of limestone and other porous rock under Radelaide so we have reasonable hardness and RA
 
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