What do you guys do?

[vw addict]

I'm at the point were I am comfortable enough to dig a little deeper into the variables of brewing. I have my mash/sparge to the point which I am not worried about what I am going to screw up. I figure the next step is to take a closer look at the water I am using. Have you guys had yours tested? Where can I have that done? As far as PH goes, do you guys just toss in the 5.2 stuff and be done with it? I am not really talking about adding things to get to a particular style, I just want a good all around base water to start with for now.

[zoom6zoom]

My water company mails water quality test results to its customers at least twice a year. Call yours, they should have this information available to you at no cost. (Of course, this assumes you're on public utilities and not on a well or something).

I don't bother with pH testing, my supply is well within normal ranges. Many of us also just use bottled water for brewing, too.

[vw addict]

Yes, we have well water. Not too keen on buying 14 gallons of water for a brewday either. I can get water from our local brewery, Old Burnside, but the trip isn't super convenient. Just figured I would try to make the most of the water I have.

[corkybstewart]

I don't worry too much. We have very hard water and it works great for most styles. I buy reverse osmosis water for Belgians, but everything else just gets tap water. When our water coop changed supply wells a couple of years I had to re-do the hops in a lot of my recipes, but that was all I did.

[Mad Scientist]

A basic water quality test should not be too expensive, and you would benefit from knowing what you are drinking, aside from brewing.... You should test your water in the winter, and in the summer.

edit: If it tastes fine coming out of the tap, then you should be okay to brew with it. My tap water is hideous, like Corky's, and I use only R.O. water to brew with. Previosuly, when I lived outside of San Antonio, I brewed with the tap water, slightly hard, but it made great beer all around.

[corkybstewart]

Actually Boerne, our new wells have better tasting water than before,not as salty, but the hardness is probably higher.

[Vienna Lager]

vw, if you have well water then you can contact your county AG extention office or University AG extension office for a water profile. Just tell them what township or parish you live in and they can send you a profile sheet. Compare that to John Palmer and his section on water in his 'How To Brew' book.

If you soften your water you can use the water from the tap or go down in your basement and use straight well water from the by pass. I would at least use water that has passed through a 10 micron or less filter (paper or fiber) for big chunks and iron. If you want go to the 5 micron filter and/or the carbon impregnated filter, then that should work for lagers. For English Ales I suppose you could go straight well water to get all the minerals and their flavor benefits.

Most people I know try and hit a ph of 5.8 to about 6.2 for sparge water. This usually means adding about 2-3 tablespoons of 5% phosphoric acid to about 5 gals of 170 degree sparge water.

Then again use the water you have with no alterations and if it tastes good then you are good to go.

[Cosmic Charlie]

In my quest for better beer, I recently started mini-mashing (after 10+ years of extract with grains). I also have thought about delving into ph next. I also need to improve in an area that is basic for most people - temperature control. I live in the South, and my basement can get hot.

[Vienna Lager]

Cosmic, what temp is your basement floor? is it bare concrete?

[Mad Scientist]

Get a fridge and a temp contoller....which is what I do here in TX.

Or you can do what corky does, and make your beer seasonally....lagers in winter, ales in spring and fall, belgians in the summer.

[Cosmic Charlie]

Most of it is concrete, but I keep my beer where we have some vinyl down. In the summer, fermentation can run in the upper 70's. My immediate solution is to put the carboy in a cooler full of ice water and periodically add ice.

[Mad Scientist]

You need to research the wet t-shirt method

[BrewDog]

yes, wet t-shirt research is highly recommended.

;)

[Cosmic Charlie]

I have, and that's what made me think an ice water bath might be more effective. In fairness, I have not tried a wet t-shirt with a fan.

[Mad Scientist]

Hmmm...wet t-shirt with a fan...THAT would be interesting to see.....

[Vienna Lager]

The actual concrete may be cooler than the air around it and direct contact of the primary-secondary with the concrete floor may (hopefully) get you in the 60 degree range.

Any of the WLP ale yeast will ferment in the mid 60's to 70 degree range and WLP 810 is 58 to 65 degrees. WLP820 and 850 go up to 58 degrees.

In Wyeast 2112 is 58 to 68 degrees and 2001, 2035, 2124, 2206, 2272 and 2278 ferment as high as 58 degrees.

Nottingham, is from 62 to 72 degrees and I've heard can give pseudo-lager style beers if you ferment toward the lower temp range.

[Cosmic Charlie]

Thanks.

So now I can tell my wife that everyone thinks wet t-shirts are a good idea!

[dparsons]

I use filtered tap water for darker beers. My water has quite a bit of Carbonate in it and it works well for them. I've been messing around with trying to get it right for light beers and have finally ended up at RO water with salt additions. Seems to do better by the hops.

[MichaelM]

light beers i mix my tap water(which is ungodly hard) with store bought distilled/RO water usualy 3-4 gallons of bought water and make up the rest with tap water, for the dark beers I use straight tap water the hardness really turns out great stouts :)