# Hobart Water



## BilBrewing (30/9/13)

Just out of interest has anyone had Hobart water tested or know of somewhere that can perform a test? 

Currently i am filtering the brewing water with a Brita jug filter and using ph5.2 in my BIAB setup which seems to be working fine but as with anything i like to be able to obtain specifics rather than guestimate!

Cheers

unky


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## brewtas (30/9/13)

Whereabouts in Hobart are you? I have the Goodwood numbers I asked for in November 2011 and Blackmans Bay numbers from last year. 

I emailed Southern Water (as it was) and there was a bit of mucking around but they eventually got me what I was after.


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## somnar (30/9/13)

I have Risdon Dam...


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## BilBrewing (30/9/13)

I'm in West Hobart. I wonder if Southern Water would be able to provide them for my area then?

Brewtas, i see you add salts to your brews. Are you filtering your water at all?


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## brewtas (30/9/13)

I was filtering but I haven't bothered in a while. The only reason I'd bother with that with our water is to remove chlorine but I haven't found it to be a problem in my finished beer. 

Try to find an email address on the Southern Water website and tell them you're a home brewer looking for the water report for West Hobart. They were a bit funny about it before I said I was a brewer. All you really need is calcium, sodium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate and carbonate.


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## Not For Horses (30/9/13)

You might find that Southern Water are no more. Try Taswater!


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## BilBrewing (2/10/13)

TasWater were quick!

Here are my findings should anyone else want to use them.

Alkalinity CaCO3- 9mg/L
Calcium - 5.11mg/L
Calcium Hardness - 128mg/L
Chloride - 6.4mg/L
Magnesium - 1.08mg/L
Magnesium (Dissolved) - 4.4mg/L
Sodium - 3.89mg/L
Sulphate - 3.6mg/L

pH tests over the last fin year were performed 53 times with readings from 6.33 to 7.69 with an average of 7.0611.

Anyone know of any good software or calculator to use to calculate salt additions?


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## Not For Horses (2/10/13)

Easy water calc works well for me. Pretty simple spreadsheet. DL from www.ezywatercalculator.com


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## brewtas (2/10/13)

That's the one I use too


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## manticle (2/10/13)

Your water looks amazingly soft. Even softer than Melbourne as far as I can tell at a glance.

Consider it a blank slate. I can see why Brewtas wouldn't be worried about filtering. definitely need to get some calcium in there but you can turn that into whatever you want. EZ calc or Brun water. EZ calc is easy (funny that), brun water is more comprehensive.


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## BilBrewing (2/10/13)

Yeap,i've got a copy of Ez Calc and have had a bit of a play with numbers. Should be more than enough for what i need to do. 

Thanks for the input everyone!


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## brewtas (2/10/13)

manticle said:


> Consider it a blank slate. I can see why Brewtas wouldn't be worried about filtering. definitely need to get some calcium in there but you can turn that into whatever you want.


Yeah, the water is very similar to that all over the greater Hobart region. These days I always bump the calcium up to a minumum of 50ppm and noticed an immediate improvement in beer clarity and flavour when I did.


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## Not For Horses (4/10/13)

Same as Launceston too.
When Boags say 'From the pure waters of Tasmania', they aren't kidding.
Too bad they turn it into snooze-worthy un-drinkable misery juice.


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## spryzie (11/10/13)

Can I ask a stupid question? What do you add to bump the calcium up?


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## brewtas (11/10/13)

Hi spryzie, that's not a stupid question. Add Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) or Calcium Chloride. A simple starting point is to add Sulfate for hoppy beers, Chloride for malty ones. Are you using EZ Water Calculator or something like that?


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## spryzie (12/10/13)

Where do you buy gypsum (food grade?) around Hobart?


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## brewtas (12/10/13)

No idea. I just ordered it from an online store. Less mucking around that way.


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## hyjak71 (13/10/13)

Home brew shop in Hobart has Gypsum, although the young girl in there had to ask Amanda what & where it was when I bought it.


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## BilBrewing (13/10/13)

I just bought in bulk from grain and grape rather than chase the separate salts around Hobart!


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## spryzie (14/10/13)

How much Gypsum should I add per litre of Hobart tap water for 50ppm of calcium?

Something like 1 teaspoon / 10 litres?


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## Not For Horses (14/10/13)

I have a precise scale (.05g accuracy) for measuring my salts.
If you like I could measure out a metric teaspoon and let you know how much its weighs.
Then you can use ezy water calc (highly recommend you download and use) and figure out exactly how many teaspoons you need for various brews. It won't be highly accurate but it will be better than using none at all.

link for ezy water calc http://www.ezwatercalculator.com


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## spryzie (14/10/13)

Google says 8g to a metric teaspoon.

Ezywatercalc says 4g should do me with my Big W pot size brews.

So half a teaspoon it is.

Thanks!

Oh, it says Hobart is a little low on magnesium - how big a deal is that?


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## Not For Horses (14/10/13)

I checked google as well and found multiple pages stating 4g/teaspoon.


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## brewtas (14/10/13)

Weighing it out is a much better option. A set of digital scales accurate to 0.1g is only $5-10 on ebay. 

Don't worry about magnesium, there's enough in the barley itself.


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## spryzie (14/10/13)

Hmmm, seems there are difference between crushed, powdered, pulverized and solid forms of gypsum when it comes to weight/volume - I'll go with what the homebrew forums say (I was looking at something more scientific without paying enough attention).

I'll go with a whole teaspoon from the looks.



Not For Horses said:


> I checked google as well and found multiple pages stating 4g/teaspoon.


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## Lobby Lobster (2/11/13)

Great thread. I have been wondering about the Hobart water profile and couldn't find anything on the Tas Water website.
I'd better gypsum up! Thanks.


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## bradmcm (14/1/14)

Yep, thanks for letting me know. I knew the water was soft but I've only done one full all grain since moving down here.


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## bradmcm (14/1/14)

spryzie said:


> Oh, it says Hobart is a little low on magnesium - how big a deal is that?


None at all. Mg provides some use in metabolic activity during fermentation but there is enough Mg in grain to not be bothered adding it as a salt to the liquor.


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## Foster (19/1/14)

Great thread. Thx


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (19/1/14)

Any idea of how to obtain this info for non-Hobart water?


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## Not For Horses (19/1/14)

You can ask taswater but you may need to be very insistent.
I've got a contact for the guy that does the testing but I'll have to get it when I'm back in the office.


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## BilBrewing (20/1/14)

I simply just emailed TasWater with my enquiry and got a very quick response. If you have no luck obtaining the info i'll pm you the contact that emailed me.


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## dago001 (20/1/14)

I wouldnt mind your contact. I have tried numerous times here in Burnie, but to no avail. Dont even get a reply from them.
LB


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## Kudzu (20/1/14)

I emailed asked for Lilydale and Launceston (St Pat's) and they replied with the reports is less than 24 hours. Doesn't help you much for Burnie though.


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (22/1/14)

*MOD: *Gents I've moved this to the Water subforum, as it's not really a club-related thread, but rather an ingredients related thread.

*MOD: *Gents, I've moved this back, per a very reasonable request from a Tassie based brewer. Basically, the idea of the Tas Brewers Club subforum is to gather Tassie based material, which will (given how small Tas is) get lost in the forum.


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## Foster (11/3/14)

Guy's,

what is the best stage to add Gypsum? Pre mash, Post mash pre boil, during the boil??

Cheers,

Fozz


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## hyjak71 (11/3/14)

Pre mash


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## Foster (11/3/14)

Thanks hyjak 71.

I have plugged in a grain bill in ezy water calc & adjusted the gypsum ok. As mentioned above, the magnesium is still low, as also mentioned above, the grain has plenty of magnesium.

Q1 are the calcs taking the magnesium content of the grain bill into account?
Q2 assuming the answer to Q1 is no, what would the outcome be if I added 5mg of epsom salts to the mash water? This brings the magnesium to 15ppm, mid range.


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## Not For Horses (11/3/14)

A1 I believe not but not 100% on that.
A2 Piss all besides a slight decrease in PH.


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## ivars (17/3/14)

Kudzu said:


> I emailed asked for Lilydale and Launceston (St Pat's) and they replied with the reports is less than 24 hours. Doesn't help you much for Burnie though.


I was wondering if I could somehow have a copy of the Launceston report? Failing that perhaps you could let me have the email address you used? Don't really know where to start. :wacko:


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## Not For Horses (17/3/14)

ivars said:


> I was wondering if I could somehow have a copy of the Launceston report? Failing that perhaps you could let me have the email address you used? Don't really know where to start. :wacko:


Pm me your email and I'll send the spreadsheets I have been using. Not up to date but it doesn't change that much. Tried uploading but had no luck...


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## ivars (18/3/14)

Not For Horses said:


> Pm me your email and I'll send the spreadsheets I have been using. Not up to date but it doesn't change that much. Tried uploading but had no luck...


Done, thanks very much for your help.


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (19/3/14)

Where are we getting gypsum from?


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## brewtas (19/3/14)

I ordered mine from Craftbrewer


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## dago001 (19/3/14)

Craftbrewer, MHB, or try the HBS if you are in Ulverstone. They sometimes have brewing salts their, although they were from THBS and given the unfortunate avents of late, they may not have any. I can check here as well.
Cheers
LB


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (19/3/14)

Thanks mate.

Not going down to Hobies anytime soon, so I might have to mailorder from my old stomping ground.


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## glenos (20/3/14)

BilBrewing said:


> TasWater were quick!
> 
> Here are my findings should anyone else want to use them.
> 
> ...


Some of these numbers appear to be incorrect.

Mg (diss) cannot be greater than Mg and the hardness looks way too high, it is calculated from the Mg and Ca, hardness = 2.5(Ca2+) + 4.1(Mg2+), using the higher numbers for Ca and Mg I get 28 mg CaCO3/L.

I am planning a BiAB and will be adding 1g of CaSO4 and 0.5g MgSO4 per 5L.


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## BilBrewing (21/3/14)

Glenos, 

Thanks for reviewing the numbers. A sanity check is always helpful.

I reviewed the report that i got from TasWater and found:

1. Calcium hardness was 12.8, not 128 as i originally posted. This was only measured once in a year.
2. The Mg numbers are correct but again, these were only measured once in a year, so the plausible explanation is that they were measured at different times.

Either way the water is pretty free of most salts/ions so that should provide a good base to make addition calcs off.


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## glenos (21/3/14)

The dissolved Mg looks too high, should be about 1.5mg/L. I would say the SO4 and Cl are a bit low on that sample but it will depend on the time of year the sample was taken and which part of the system it was from, although all of Hobart is pretty consistant.

As I have advised people in the past, assume there is bugger all there and aim for the bottom end of the water chem you are trying to hit.


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## ASYLUM_SPIRIT (18/6/19)

BilBrewing said:


> TasWater were quick!
> 
> Here are my findings should anyone else want to use them.
> 
> ...




Sorry to bring up a old thread, but its the only thing I could find relevant to Hobart.

I got a copy of water report from Taswater last year but I couldn't find the minerals on the report like on the above that BilBrewing posted.

Does anyone know if what BilBrewing posted about Hobarts Water report is still relevant?

Im looking to use Ezy Calc as everyone suggested and was wondering for example where its states calcium 5.11 mg/l when entering it on ezy calc is that 5.11 ppm? or is ppm something different to mg/l?

Thanks!!


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