Water Treatment

Water is the main ingredient in beer but seems to get neglected by most brewers. I guess you could argue that your local water makes the beer your own recipe and gives it a unique quality. This is a great ideal but it many cases the water is not suitable for brewing at all, which results in harsh "off" flavors. If you are brewing from kits then you can get away with ignoring water condition and still get good results as it is the Mashing stage that is most dependent on good water treatment. If you are brewing using the "All Grain" method then water adjustments will have a far bigger impact on the quality of your beer. This is mainly due to the affect that Mash PH has on the wort extracted.

I live in an area where the water is classed as "Very Hard", which means that my brewing will benefit from some water adjustment. Several of my previous brews, where no water adjustment was done, have been left with a very harsh bitterness. At the time I thought that this was due to the hops utilised but this was not the problem. After treating my water, this harshness has been tamed and the real character of the hops can be tasted.

If you are new to brewing then I would suggest that you avoid this topic until you have managed to brew a reasonable beer. Although water treatment will help you to produce a quality beer, it is not as important as other factors like fermentation temperature. Get the basics right first then experiment with treating your brewing water.

What Elements Need Treating?

There are many elements that can be adjusted when treating your water but the 3 key elements are:

1. Chlorine / Chloramine
2. Carbonates
3. Calcium

If you just adjust these 3 elements then your beer will improve dramatically. Fine adjustments of elements like Magnesium, have a very small impact and will not really improve the overall quality of the beer. For a comprehensive water analysis/treatment, you can use Graham Wheelers Calculator here but this is overkill.

How To Adjust Your Water

The first thing to do is decide what water profile you are going to use. The amount of adjustments required will depend on the style of beer you are brewing. Below are some examples of what you should be aiming for. If your water is way off from these parameters then your beer will definitely benefit from water treatment. However, if you are already fairly close then you are very lucky and should just go with what you have.

• Bitter and Pale Ale. Alkalinity as CaC03 - up to 50 p.p.m. Calcium - 130 to 200 p.p.m.
• Mild Ale. Alkalinity as CaC03 - 100 to 150 p.p.m. Calcium - 90 to 110 p.p.m.
• Porter and Stout. Alkalinity as CaC03 - 100 to 150 p.p.m. Calcium - 100 to 120 p.p.m.
• Pale Lager. Alkalinity as CaC03 - up to 30 p.p.m. Calcium - 100 to 120 p.p.m.

Chlorine / Chloramine

Most water supplies will contain chlorine as this helps purify the water and ensure it is safe for drinking. For making beer we want to remove the chlorine as it has negative affects the mashing process. Chlorine removal is relatively straightforward but Chloramine is not so easy to remove. To remove chlorine you can just let water stand for 24 hors or boil it but this does not remove chlorimine.

The easiest and quickest method of removing both Chlorine and Chloramine is to use Campden tablets. You only need half a campden crushed tablet to treat all the water required for a 23L brew length. Once the Campden is added the water is ready to use in around 10 minutes. As Campden is also very cheap I would advise anyone to just use this method.

Carbonate

To be able to adjust your carbonate levels the first thing that you need establish is what level you have in your water supply.

There are two ways of doing this:

1. Look up your local water authority on the internet as they will usually publish water reports. These are available by post code in my area but will still be an average level as this will change throughout the year depending upon the amount of rainfall in the area. This is a good place to start, as it gives you an idea if your water is very hard or very soft and allows some rough adjustments to be made. Also note that Most water Authorities quote figures as "Levels of Hardness", these can be used but are not a true measure of "Alkalinity". Go to your water authorities web page and look for the "Calcium Carbonate (CaCo3)" value of your water, be aware that not all water authorities quote this. If you only have a "Hydrogen Carbonate (HC03)" value then simply divide this by 1.22 to get the CaCo3 value.
2. A more accurate way is to measure your water using one the aquarium test kits. This will obviously give you a much more accurate basis for your water adjustments and ensure that you adjust correctly. Some brewers have reported that water Alkalinity (hardness) tested is significantly different from the Water authorities official stated average. Water can even vary week by week, so investing in a Salifert test kit (under a tenner) is worth considering. If you use the Salifert test kit, you will be able to find your Alkalinity reading stated as "meq/L", to convert this to CaCo3 simply multiply by 50.

This is the water Report from Anglian water for my area, Hard to Very Hard

Measure Type	Measurement
Calcium Carbonate	333.75 mg/l (or parts per million)
Calcium	133.5 mg/l (or parts per million)
Degrees Clark	23.229 °C
Degrees French	33.375 °F
Degrees German	18.957 °dH
Millimoles	3.338 mmol/l

It's only the top figure that we are interested in.

There are a few ways of reducing CaCo3, which all involve adding acids to the water. If like me you want a simple approach then using CRS "Carbonate Reducing Solution" is the easiest way. This is sold by Brupacks who also provide the table below to help you work out how much CRS to add to your water. In the worked example below on this page, you will see that I wanted to reduce my CaCo3 from 333 to 50 ppm, which is a reduction of 283 ppm. From the table below we can see that I need to add around 1.5ml of CRS per litre of water. Remember that you need to treat all of your water not just the mash liquor.

CRS in millilitres per litre

Calcium

As with Carbonate adjustments, the first thing you need to do is ascertain what levels are required in the style of beer that you are making. The levels of Calcium present in your water will directly effect the PH of your mash so correcting this is advisable. Bear in mind that you can also correct the Mash PH by adding some Acid Malts, so if you are using these then be aware that you will also need to factor this in to any adjustments that you make.

If an adjustment is required then you can add Gypsum or just use Brupacks DLS (Dry Liquor Salts). In most cases these chemicals are added to the dry grains before "doughing in" but check the instructions with your product. Again, all water should be treated but the mash liquor is the most important part.

Using DLS is relatively simple as Brupack provide an adjustment table similar to the CRS one. Bear in mind that in this case you will normally be increasing the amount of Calcium in the water, so these figures are positive (as opposed to CRS where you are reducing). Some water companies state the Calcium figure but if you do not have this then it can be calculated by the simple formula:

Calcium in ppm = CACO3 ppm X 0.4 (Note:- this is an estimated value)

DLS in grams per Litre

From the example below you will see that 333 X 0.4 = 133.2 Calcium and I wanted a level of 180 ppm, so a 50 ppm adjustment was required. However, using Graham Wheelers Calculator it was suggested that no DLS adjustments were necessary for the style of beer I was making and therefore I decided that I would not bother.

Water Adjustment - Worked Example

I have now had the opportunity to test my water using the Salifert kit and it has shown a massive variance to the Anglian stated Average. The Salifert kit is measuring true Alkalinity" so this mat account for some variance but not to the levels that I have found.

Anglian Published CaCo3 for my Post Code = 333ppm.
Tested Using the Salifert Kit CaCo3 = 211ppm

Prior to my next brew I will test the water again to see if this value is consistent.

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate (CAC03) Anglian	333 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	50 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	283 ppm
CRS per Litre Required (Brupacks)	1.5 ml/L
Total CRS to add to Mash (17L)	25 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge- Can Only got 28L in HLT	40 ml
Chlorine Treatment
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	133.2 ppm
Calcium Required	180 ppm
Adjustment	53 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	None Added

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