# Swan reach water



## Skillz (26/6/20)

Hello all.
Have been gone a while since the app went down but have now started back on the Web page.

I need somebody with more knowledge than me to have a look at my water report and give their opinion.

To me it seems out as when I put the numbers into brewfather the stats for hardness are double and the alkalinity is out a bit.

The ph is an average of 7.45

Calcium – 4.5 mg/L

Magnesium – 8 mg/L

Sodium – 6.1 mg/L

Chloride – 8 mg/L

Sulfate – 1 mg/L

Bicarbonate (hc0_3) – 24.4 mg/L

Hardness – 19 mg/L

Alkalinity – 24 mg CaCO3/L

Any help is much appreciated.


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## MHB (27/6/20)

Actually looks like pretty sensational water. I wouldn't be too worried about what Brewfather has to say, if your serious try Bru'n Water.
If you just want to get started do two things
1/ Remove Chlorine, not the same as Chloride, this is the antibacterial added to most water in the form of chlorine gas or Chloramines. Very bad for the taste of beer.
Either filter through a Carbon filter or use Campden tablets (metabisulfite) to chemically remove Cl
2/ Add some Calcium, 50-100 ppm (mg/L is the same) is regarded as the minimum, your water at 4.5ppm is very low in Ca (in everything really). Ca in the form of Calcium Chloride tends to give a more mellow flavour to beer, Ca in the form of Sulfate makes the hops more pronounced. Many people say it makes the beer hoppier which isn't quite the same, in higher amounts it can make the hop flavour quite harsh.
Pretty common to use some of each, a blend of 1 Chloride to 2 Sulfate is pretty common.

Your water is really low in everything, you could almost think of it as RO-Water, just pretend its nothing but water and you wont be too far off.
I have looked at water from your part of the world. This one might be a bit left field, but I would look at the Zinc content, ask your water utility if they have tested and how much there is, I suspect it's going to be in the low ppb (=ppm/1000) range. Zn is a really important trace element in mash enzymes its called a co-factor, yeast needs some to.
You can get food grade Zn for brewing but its expensive and comes in large (life time) quantities, you can also get Zinc supplement tablets from health food shops and pharmacies.
Worth doing a little reading up on, some people have had Zn deficiency problems and they can be hard to diagnose.
Mark


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