Brisbane Water for brewing

[Sippa]

Hey,

Looking to take my brewing a little further, I wanted to work out what base water chemistry I should be shooting for to optimize my brewing. Currently I don't do anything with my brisbane tap water or even measure and adjust mash pH so I was wondering If you smart fella's could give me some advise.

I have attached the latest water quality report from our water utility (QUU)

Cheers.

View attachment FINALQ009452015 Drinking Water Quality Management Plan Report 2014 15.pdf

 

[LorriSanga]

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Have a read of this. There are tables for water profiles.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

THank you guys so freaking much for the water plan and the brunwater water knowledge link. I knew my lower than expected efficiency was pH related, and this seems to confirm it, Now to build my water profile.

 

[kevinj]

[SIZE=10pt]I recently did some reading on water and collecting of water profiles from articles and spread sheets.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Not one set of number was the same, not even from the same site (brewersfriend).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]What gives?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Have spread sheet if you’re interested, includes all the formulas I found.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]With no chemistry at school, getting the head around[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]mEq/L is defined as milliequivalents per liter[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]and ppm or mg/L[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]and Alkalinity ppm as CaCO3[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]and so on [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]The 3rd time you read each article is the charm, sometimes.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Needed to use wiki to decipher the wiki.[/SIZE]

 

[Bribie G]

Depending on where you live in the greater Brisbane Area your water could be coming from the Gold Coast, Wivenhoe, North Pine, Sunshine Coast or even from the Caboolture River at Bellmere or from bore holes on Bribie Island, as they are all interconnected via the SEQ Water Grid.

If concerned, buy a RO system.

 

[Oz-Brewer]

I'm looking at move back to Brisbane in the new year, and I'm interested in this topic. Probably will buy in the Ferny Grove area.

Wondering if any brewers have a water profile for that area?

Are people getting there water tested on a regular basis for consistency?

How much does it cost to get your water tested?

 

[wynnum1]

You can buy a meter to test water that they use to see if ro system is working correctly will not tell exactly .Rain water may be better then tap water and add back the salts

 

[Meddo]

I'm in Brisbane and used the Queensland Urban Utilities contact form on their website to ask for the specific water parameters for my suburb (Morningside) recently. It took them a couple of weeks to respond but eventually one of the water quality officers sent me the fortnightly test results for the last twelve months. If anyone's interested in Morningside specifically let me know and I'll post them here later, otherwise just hit up QUU and they should sort you out.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I do live in Ferny Grove (and have returned from further locations). I'd be interested in seeing the reports for Ferny Grove.

We actually sit like an isthmus of Brisbane sandwiched between Moreton Region's North Western Areas. From what I know we get a fair bit of water from North Pine and Somerset dams.

I've seen some reports of a general nature, but now i know I can contact QUU about a suburb specific query, I will do so.

I'll post any results if I remember.

 

[Matplat]

Yep, I've been in contact with a guy at unity water a fair bit, likewise he gave me a whole spreadsheet of measurements for each different analyte I requested. Didn't take weeks though...

 

[Reedy]

Meddo, I'm in Carina so would be interested to see the water profile for Morningside

 

[Rambo]

Yeah, I'd be interested too. Not sure if I'd know what to do with the information yet. But will be looking into playing around with
my water shortly and live in East Brisbane

 

[SimoB]

Getting know water has helped my brewing so much. learning about water enabled me to troubleshoot problems with my brewing where before I only looked at obvious symptoms. ie. mash temp, infection, sanitation etc.

On a side note, who's measuring Ph throughout their brewing process?

• Mash ph
• Boil ph
• Pre-fermentation
• post fermentation

?

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Meddo I'm in Cannon Hill so also very interested in Morningside water profile.

 

[Meddo]

No worries. The line below is from old mate's email regarding Morningside water, I've got no idea how far outside Morningside these test results are good for though. Raw data attached and averages shown below.

I have attached a copy of the WQ data for the parameters requested. The water being supplied to the
Morningside area is normally supplied directly from Seqwater owned and operated reservoirs located in
Wellers Hill.

View attachment WQ Data Morningside 20160624.xlsx

Edit - if anyone here stayed awake during statistics please feel free to post a better analysis for this data than my simple averages...

 

[evildrakey]

Email I got from SEQWater in June...

Good morning Evildrakey,

Thank you for contacting Seqwater.

In regards to your enquiry, please find below the typical results for Mt Crosby for the parameters requested. I’ve used data from 1 January 2015 through to today.

CaCO3 – I’ve assumed this is meaning total hardness as Ca CO3 – range of about 80 to 125 mg/L average of about 115 mg/L
SO4 – range of about 23 to 33 mg/L average of about 26 mg/L
Cl – range of about 45 to 130 mg/L average of about 67 mg/L
Ca – range of about 19 to 28 mg/L average of about 24 mg/L
Mg – range of about 12 to 16 mg/L average of about 14 mg/L
Na – range of about 35 to 51 mg/L average of about 39 mg/L

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

FG Represent:

[SIZE=11pt]The Ferny grove area is supplied water via the Grovely Reservoirs located at Callan St, Keperra.[/SIZE]

From reading the report, the averages are:

Iron mg/L .01
pH 7.6
Chlorine mg/L .53
Nitrate and Nitrite as N mg/L .54
Manganese m/g/L .0026

That's about all i can manage from the report so far.

They took 2 days, which I think is fantastic.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Okay, so he's said that they use :
[SIZE=11pt]We have a sample point located in the middle of Brisbane city that is our “flagship” sample point.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]We use this as the gauge for the whole of Brisbane. I have attached that report for your reference. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Sodium mg?l avg 32[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Sulfate as S04 mg/L 25[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Calcium as mg/L 21[/SIZE]

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Magnesium 14 ppm
Chloride 57
Alkalinity 80

I think that's all that I need.

 

[fishingbrad]

So who is the best contact, SEQ Water or QUU ?

Cheers.