lukemarsh
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I'm making a Coopers Best Extra Stout this afternoon and decided it was a good idea to panic about brewing water on the morning of B-Day.
I've posted on here before about issues with water, but keep getting different responses. My house is entirely dependent on rainwater, which is filtered through a one micron filter. As this wont eliminate ALL bacteria and nasties, I'd need to boil it. I'm a 19 yo slack male who can't be bothered to fuss with such things.
Now, I went and spoke to the man at my local Brewcraft store about adding things like calcium sulphate to the water to harden it up and about using Spring Water in brews. He explained that different types of beer require different types of water, like lagers and ales both would require different hardnesses of water. He said I'd be fine to use spring water for a stout, as it'll have lots of body and flavour to not need hard water.
I've bought two 10L tanks of Woolworths HomeBrand Spring Water to use in my Coopers BES (the recipe I'm using is Coopers Stout can 1.7kg, Thomas Coopers Malt Extract 1.5kg, 500g Dextrose, 20L or 22L final volume) which are currently sitting in the fridge cooling so I can pitch the yeast soon after filling the fermenter at the right temperature.
The typical analysis for HomeBrand Spring Water is as follows:
- Bicarbonate 37.6 mg/L
- Sodium 15.2 mg/L
- Chloride 12.0 mg/L
- Calcium 4.4 mg/L
- Magnesium 2.1 mg/L
- Potassium 0.6 mg/L
Would this water have any bad effects on my brew? Is this ok water to use for any brews?
I've posted on here before about issues with water, but keep getting different responses. My house is entirely dependent on rainwater, which is filtered through a one micron filter. As this wont eliminate ALL bacteria and nasties, I'd need to boil it. I'm a 19 yo slack male who can't be bothered to fuss with such things.
Now, I went and spoke to the man at my local Brewcraft store about adding things like calcium sulphate to the water to harden it up and about using Spring Water in brews. He explained that different types of beer require different types of water, like lagers and ales both would require different hardnesses of water. He said I'd be fine to use spring water for a stout, as it'll have lots of body and flavour to not need hard water.
I've bought two 10L tanks of Woolworths HomeBrand Spring Water to use in my Coopers BES (the recipe I'm using is Coopers Stout can 1.7kg, Thomas Coopers Malt Extract 1.5kg, 500g Dextrose, 20L or 22L final volume) which are currently sitting in the fridge cooling so I can pitch the yeast soon after filling the fermenter at the right temperature.
The typical analysis for HomeBrand Spring Water is as follows:
- Bicarbonate 37.6 mg/L
- Sodium 15.2 mg/L
- Chloride 12.0 mg/L
- Calcium 4.4 mg/L
- Magnesium 2.1 mg/L
- Potassium 0.6 mg/L
Would this water have any bad effects on my brew? Is this ok water to use for any brews?