# Bore Water Treatment Advice



## devo (29/3/10)

Afternoon lads

I have an opportunity to do some brewing in a rural location but the only available water on the property is bore water and I'm wondering what I would need to do in order to make it suitable for brewing? Specifically pale beers such as a boh pilsner! Am I wasting my time??

I've attached a pic of the most recent water analysts.





I also figure that filtering would be an obvious course of action. Any helpful input would be appreciated. :icon_cheers:


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## Fents (29/3/10)

will be watchng this one. also have a mate who has just brought property up at Pyalong and he's only got bore water too to brew with.


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## alowen474 (29/3/10)

I'd have to say a tsp of gypsum and you're good to go for some english pale ales Burton style.


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## Fourstar (29/3/10)

looks like its close milk of magnesium water to me! h34r: 

I'd shoot for deep copper to brown/black coloured ales but would be upping the calcium content to atleast 100ppm to compensate for the HCO3.

for any beers straw to copper coloured, you really want your hardness:alkalinity to be as close to 1:1 as you can get. Preferrably with low HCO3 content.


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## Fents (29/3/10)

Fourstar said:


> for any beers straw to copper coloured, you really want your hardness:alkalinity to be as close to 1:1 as you can get. Preferrably with low HCO3 content.



so what to add or subtract to do this?


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## eamonnfoley (29/3/10)

you would certainly want to filter the water for a start! Plenty of yeast nutrients in that water! And you'll need plenty of acid to pull the PH down, even for darkish beers


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## Fourstar (29/3/10)

Fents said:


> so what to add or subtract to do this?




Gypsum for a German pils or calcium chloride for a Bohemian. However to be a stickler for tradition, you would want to be devoid of all minerals for a bohemian so count that one out. You *could potentially do a Dortmunder with this water if you added some hardness in the form of calcium, (i'd use gypsum) if you want something with 'traditional' water.


* I dont take responsibility if your conversion blows trying to balance that much alkalinity, use pH strips to get the pH right during the mash. Dont just wing it.


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## drsmurto (29/3/10)

Fourstar said:


> Gypsum for a German pils or calcium chloride for a Bohemian. However to be a stickler for tradition, you would want to be devoid of all minerals for a bohemian so count that one out. You *could potentially do a Dortmunder with this water if you added some hardness in the form of calcium, (i'd use gypsum) if you want something with 'traditional' water.
> 
> 
> * I dont take responsibility if your conversion blows trying to balance that much alkalinity, use pH strips to get the pH right during the mash. Dont just wing it.



The water has 281 ppm of chloride and you are recommending adding MORE chloride? :huh: 

Devo - filtering using a standard carbon filter (puratap, brita etc) wont remove any of the minerals. You need something like a reverse osmosis setup which isn't exactly portable. Can you take some rainwater with you - enough to at least dilute the bore water by half? Is this seriously the only source of water - no rainwater tanks?


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## Ross (29/3/10)

I second getting a reverse osmosis filter - Will clean it up nicely & give you a good base water.

cheers Ross


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## devo (29/3/10)

reverse osmosis filter sounds like something I may have to seriously look into.


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## Fourstar (29/3/10)

DrSmurto said:


> The water has 281 ppm of chloride and you are recommending adding MORE chloride? :huh:




Whoops, missed that! (insert embarassed smiley here) I was quickly scanning the table at work and overooked it. i was like 'hmmmm, no chloride details hey... kinda strange?!' Yeah, any more chloride you might start to run into chlorophenol issues.


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## eamonnfoley (29/3/10)

Looks like relatively good bore water actually - is it quite clear ? Is it drinkable? No stain?


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## katzke (30/3/10)

Look up Palmers How to Brew and get the Excel Spreadsheet. Enter the numbers in the sheet. For light colored beers it would be best to cut with distilled water, rainwater, or reverse osmosis water. Rainwater is not blank like distilled water is. Reverse osmosis water may or may not be the same as distilled.

The next or first step is to find good proven water profiles for the styles you brew. The best source I know of is Designing Great Beers. It is not as easy as looking at a table. The info is in there for most styles. Then get the chloride/sulfate ratio correct for the style and you are ready to play with the spreadsheet.

It is easier to get the amounts if you add a program called Brewater. I do not ask it to calculate the additions as I have always had better luck doing it manually. It will take a bit of back and forth to get water close to what you want. I have never had to dilute my tap water so am not sure how to best tell you how to get the additions with the 2 programs.

You say you are doing some brewing. If you are not moving there it may be easier to just bring water with you.


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## devo (30/3/10)

They use the water for washing, cooking and the crops but not for drinking. Reason I'm thinking of starting to brew out there is because it could potentially grow into something bigger and full time hence transporting water is not an option.


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## Fourstar (30/3/10)

devo said:


> They use the water for washing, cooking and the crops but not for drinking. Reason I'm thinking of starting to brew out there is because it could potentially grow into something bigger and full time hence transporting water is not an option.




Well RO would be your best option, especially with all that Mg content. Its not too excessive but you dont want those drinking your beer running to the crapper after two pints! :lol:


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## devo (30/3/10)

Mg could be used as a marketing ploy! Something, something keeps you regular pint by pint!!

googled some RO systems and they can start around $3k for a decent one so looks like I will be adding something else to the budget. <_<


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## Fourstar (30/3/10)

Below might be a cheaper alternative to remive Mg and Ca hardness as well as the excessive HCO3.

http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-edu...-soda-water.htm


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## chewy (4/6/13)

Buy an alcohol still and purify your water with it.. All we have is channel water(untreated Murray river water) and I use a filter system.. 25ltr alcohol stills are on eBay for around $500.. Cynortic have UV filter systems for around a grand.. Cynortic.com their n.z but free post to Australia...


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