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Wiltshire water
I had a record of high mash pH and low efficiency for my last few brews. The nice man at Wiltshire water had told me our water contained about 200 ppm CaCO3 and I had based my CRS addition on that. I bought a KH/GH test kit from the local aquarium place (Porton Garden Centre for those that know Wiltshire) for less than a tenner. Used it last week before brewing and low and behold it gave a reading of 240 ppm CaCO3. I think that means our water must be harder than just about anywhere else in the country.
I adjusted the CRS addition accordingly (a massive 5.5 ml/5l) and low and behold mash pH of 5.2. Not sure if this improved efficiency as I messed up my grain bill and had to do a bit of fast shuffling with mash volumes to compensate (problem with starting at 6 in the morning before caffeine had kicked brain cells into action).
Brewed a pale ale with late honey addition (challenger, EKG and styrian goldings for the hops). Looks and smells good in the FV so we shall see.
Well worth trying one of these analysis kits if you are having mash pH efficiency problems and are useing CRS.
Conditioning;
In FV; Wigle Waggle
plannIng; Summer with elderflower
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Ian,
How did you go about getting the water analysis from the Wiltshire water? I'm in Tidworth so I guess I would fall under Wiltshire water. I've been considering water treatment for next brew day.
Fermenting: GW's Timothy Taylors - Landlord AG
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: GW's Fuller London Porter AG, GW's Gales Festival Mild AG
Drinking: Excellent English shop bought stuff with depth and character
that the Canadians cannot even imagine.
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
The Water board (wessex) told me that my water was 270 but comes out around 250.
Si I would get a water testing kit from Porton Garden centre (or any aquatic shop).
This is the one I use. Link
Just multiply the result by 50 and that will give you the reading in CAC03.
You should be able to get all the other readings from your local water company. Most are pretty helpful and some even publish it on the website.
These are the figures you want (these are mine)
Calcium 105 mg/l
Magnesuim 2.2 mg/l
Sodium 8.3 mg/l
Sulphate 12 mg/l
Chloride 18 mg/l
Alkalinity (as CAco3) 271 (this is the one the test will check/confirm and its the most important really).
Hope this helps.
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