Whats In Rainwater

[Bretto77]

Hi all,
starting to have a go at brewing salts additions to adjust my water to take my brewing to the next level. Beersmith2 makes this process very easy, and does all the maths and chem for me. I have heard a few people on this forum say that rainwater is pretty close to 0 as far as mineral additions, can I therefore treat it as if its distilled water or is this unwise? I have rural rainwater free of city polution. Have heard that rainwater tends to be acidic, what would be in it that makes it that way? I realise asking whats in rainwater is probably like asking how long is a piece of string, but a ball park idea would be fine. Your thoughts would be appreciated water chemisty gurus.

Also was wondering if its just as important to adjust sparge water as well as mash water? I tend to do BIAB with 25L mash and a 15L sparge water (which I realise is not true BIAB). I add additions to both the two cubes the night before (disolving it seems to be a bit tricky) also noticed if the water gets to hot i.e. sparge water gets to boil and needs to cool it precipitates out. Thoughts on this would be great also.

Cheers
Brett Boonah, rural SE QLD

 

[QldKev]

Whats in rainwater = Bird poo :lol:

Have a search, there is a lot of threads on this topic

QldKev

 

[brando]

Whats in rainwater = Bird poo :lol:

QldKev

And at least 1ppm Frog

 

[Greg.L]

CO2 dissolves in rainwater to form carbonic acid, thats why it is a bit acidic. I use my dam water instead, lots of good tortoise piss in there, makes a good brew.

 

[warra48]

I brew with rainwater, and treat it as being a blank sheet as far as any salts etc are concerned. Anything that's in there would be a smidgeon of not very much, so I just ignore it.

I make additions based on the style I brew, and it works out just fine.

I use the Water Tool in BeerSmith, and work out the additions for the full volume of all water I use, ie mash, mash out, and sparge.
Then I weigh out all the additions in 2 equal lots. One is added to the mash at mash in, the other is added to the mash at sparge.

Works fine for me.

 

[pdilley]

Whats on your roof and wood smoke are typical in rain water. Bugs in the tank take care of all the bird poo and excess nutrients. I'll still drink bucket loads of rural rain water over city tap water any day though.

As already mentioned treat as distilled or as pure as water you can get in todays world without resorting to a whack of energy and filtration to clean up water. You have more flexibility to make any water profile you want versus others who need to get things out of their water.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[ekul]

Co2 comes out of solution at higher temps, so the effect of carbonic acid is less at higher temperatures...

I brew with tank water, its a cememnt tank. I wish another cement tanker would get their water tested and put it up (so that i don't have to!)

 

[hoppinmad]

I brew with semi rural rainwater at a pH of 4.65. I know this is quite low in comparison to most town water, but it is quite handy when it comes to mashing without crystal or roasted malts. I pretty much always hit a great pH of between 5.2 and 5.4 for my mash without needing to add lactic acid etc. When making dark beers I either add a bit of CaCO3 to keep pH up or add roasted malts at mashout. Flavor additions (chlorides and sulfates) I make during the boil. Best bet for you is to get a pH meter and check ur tank water

 

[Bizier]

I brew with semi rural rainwater at a pH of 4.65. I know this is quite low in comparison to most town water, but it is quite handy when it comes to mashing without crystal or roasted malts. I pretty much always hit a great pH of between 5.2 and 5.4 for my mash without needing to add lactic acid etc. When making dark beers I either add a bit of CaCO3 to keep pH up or add roasted malts at mashout. Flavor additions (chlorides and sulfates) I make during the boil. Best bet for you is to get a pH meter and check ur tank water

I gather that is the pH of your water. It will not really matter because it will have basically no buffering power.

I miss Sydney water, and my home Blue Mountains water even more. We have been getting a lot of rain here in Perth, and I listen to all that water go down the pipes into the city stormwater, meanwhile everything else develops scale from hard water.

 

[Bretto77]

Thanks warra48. Thats the answer I was hopping for. I also you Beersmith for salt additions makes it so easy.

Brett

I brew with rainwater, and treat it as being a blank sheet as far as any salts etc are concerned. Anything that's in there would be a smidgeon of not very much, so I just ignore it.

I make additions based on the style I brew, and it works out just fine.

I use the Water Tool in BeerSmith, and work out the additions for the full volume of all water I use, ie mash, mash out, and sparge.
Then I weigh out all the additions in 2 equal lots. One is added to the mash at mash in, the other is added to the mash at sparge.

Works fine for me.

 

[drsmurto]

I use rainwater and also use Beersmith to do my calcs.

I make up my water prior to brewing inthe fermenter(s) i intend to ferment in.

That way i simply add water to my HLT on brewday without having to weigh out salts for mash/sparge and maybe boil.

Think of it as turnig on the tap and out comes your adjusted water. No different to using mains water.

 

[stephenkentucky]

The base water I use is untreated tank water from a 32,000liter tank(plastic) the analysis is as follows.

Calcium 0.5 mg/L, Chlorides 0.8 mg/L, Conductivity = 0.02 mS/cm, iron= 0.33 mg/L
the Langelier Saturation index is -3.6
magnesium= 0.1 mg/L, manganese = 0.01 mg/L, Nitrate-N = 0.08 mg/L
ORP = 455 mV, pH 7.26 (Alkaline), phosphorus = 0.04 mg/L, Potassium = 0.04 mg/L, Sodium = 0.3 mg/L
TDS = (9.0 mg/L), Hardness 1.5 mg/L ( very soft)

To enrich the water for brewing I add approx 8% bore water which is slightly acidic and contains calcium, magnesium,
I also add approx 3 tablespoons of Gypsum (depending on style)
I also acidify using ionised water from an enagic water ioniser, to test the water I use a Hanna pH meter

our rain water is collected in the New England at just over 1 kilometer above sea level.
I hope this helps you,
Regards
Stephen

 

[chiller]

Like others have said treat rainwater as a basic blank canvas to create your own profiles. Mine is a pH of 6.4.
I make up mine based on the fact that say London or Burton or where ever basically [simplistically] added water from the "tap" to brew with, so all I need to do is make up my total water with salt additions and then brew with it.

I tried to attached a [Beersmith2] BSMX water file with some various profiles that are based on RO/Distilled/Rain Water but seems I cannot do so. Most of these are designed to make up the entire water.
If you have Beersmith2 and would like the file contact me with your email address.

Steve

 

[roo_dr]

Qantas would have you believe that there is a fair amount of Chile in the current rains. What are the constituents of volcanic ash?! :unsure:

 

[NeilArge]

The base water I use is untreated tank water from a 32,000liter tank(plastic) the analysis is as follows.

Calcium 0.5 mg/L, Chlorides 0.8 mg/L, Conductivity = 0.02 mS/cm, iron= 0.33 mg/L
the Langelier Saturation index is -3.6
magnesium= 0.1 mg/L, manganese = 0.01 mg/L, Nitrate-N = 0.08 mg/L
ORP = 455 mV, pH 7.26 (Alkaline), phosphorus = 0.04 mg/L, Potassium = 0.04 mg/L, Sodium = 0.3 mg/L
TDS = (9.0 mg/L), Hardness 1.5 mg/L ( very soft)

To enrich the water for brewing I add approx 8% bore water which is slightly acidic and contains calcium, magnesium,
I also add approx 3 tablespoons of Gypsum (depending on style)
I also acidify using ionised water from an enagic water ioniser, to test the water I use a Hanna pH meter

our rain water is collected in the New England at just over 1 kilometer above sea level.
I hope this helps you,
Regards
Stephen

Thanks for that, SK. That's brilliant. I'd been treating my rainwater (collected up the road and hill a bit from you in Armidale) as a blank slate, so don't need to anymore!

ToG

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It will depend slightly on what sort of tank. Concrete tanks will leach into the water changing the profile slightly compared to a plastic tank.

You may also get changes if the house is under trees, but again, only slightly

I have tank water only, and treat it as base line.

 

[Shed101]

The base water I use is untreated tank water from a 32,000liter tank(plastic) the analysis is as follows.

Calcium 0.5 mg/L, Chlorides 0.8 mg/L, Conductivity = 0.02 mS/cm, iron= 0.33 mg/L
the Langelier Saturation index is -3.6
magnesium= 0.1 mg/L, manganese = 0.01 mg/L, Nitrate-N = 0.08 mg/L
ORP = 455 mV, pH 7.26 (Alkaline), phosphorus = 0.04 mg/L, Potassium = 0.04 mg/L, Sodium = 0.3 mg/L
TDS = (9.0 mg/L), Hardness 1.5 mg/L ( very soft)

To enrich the water for brewing I add approx 8% bore water which is slightly acidic and contains calcium, magnesium,
I also add approx 3 tablespoons of Gypsum (depending on style)
I also acidify using ionised water from an enagic water ioniser, to test the water I use a Hanna pH meter

our rain water is collected in the New England at just over 1 kilometer above sea level.
I hope this helps you,
Regards
Stephen

interesting stuff.

what size brew are you adding 3 tbsps of Gypsum to Stephen?

 

[Desert Brewer]

I am in central australia and have access to a local hydrologist who has various monitoring points around town where he samples rainwater at various times of the year - the variation in salt content out here is amazing depending on which way the weather came from - if its come from the Sth West over lots of desert country in the winter lots of salt from transpiring plants or north from a monsoon trough in the summer - not so much salt. I have been to slack to send a sample to Darwin for a break down - i use strait rainwater for a lager, add some tap water for a pale ale 30% and about 75% tap 25% rainwater for a porter

The water we have here is very old ground water with alot of calcium/salts etc - very good for making stout - a breakdown reads almost the same as in Palmers book.

So whats in Rainwater.......lots of stuff that varies from location to location. :icon_cheers:

Cheers,


DB

 

[QldKev]

I am in central australia and have access to a local hydrologist who has various monitoring points around town where he samples rainwater at various times of the year - the variation in salt content out here is amazing depending on which way the weather came from - if its come from the Sth West over lots of desert country in the winter lots of salt from transpiring plants or north from a monsoon trough in the summer - not so much salt. I have been to slack to send a sample to Darwin for a break down - i use strait rainwater for a lager, add some tap water for a pale ale 30% and about 75% tap 25% rainwater for a porter

The water we have here is very old ground water with alot of calcium/salts etc - very good for making stout - a breakdown reads almost the same as in Palmers book.

So whats in Rainwater.......lots of stuff that varies from location to location. :icon_cheers:

Cheers,


DB

move to Qld, then you get cane toad cum in in it, those bastards!