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A superb new addition to the Knowledge Base today: Thom writes about water[/url:uww8thqv] -- the most important ingredient in any beer -- and the varying effects of the assorted chemicals which are generally found in a domestic or industrial supply.

It can be read in conjunction with Adeptus's piece from last year on Irish Water Profiles[/url:uww8thqv], which gives the figures for the three Dublin supplies. If you have numbers for other water supplies, let us know and we can add it in.

It is definitely very useful to have a summary of this sort of stuff if you are thinking of going all grain (like me!). Thanks Thom.

And to second Mr Nut's call, if you have a publsihed water profile for your public water supply, let us know and we can add it to the pitifully short list I made last year. Not always easy to get though...

I received my water report today. My supply is from the Stillorgan Reservoir which is "a blend of water produced from the Ballymore Eustace waterworks and the Roundwood waterworks"

Data as follows (no figures for Magnesium & Sodium and I'm not sure if 'Calcium Hardeness' is the figure for Calcium, but it roughly tallies with the test kit I used recently). Inevitably I have questions to follow but for now I'll just list what I got:

Stillorgan Reservoir


Water Quality Guide Values



Colour (Hazen)………………………………. .. <10
Turbidity (NTU)………………………………. .. <1
PH………………………………………………. 7.0 - 8.030
Conductivity (µS/cm)…………………………. 135 - 150
Chloride (mg/l)................................................ 10 - 15
Sulphate (mg/l)................................................ 10 - 25
Total Dissolved Solids (mg/l)........................... 90
Total Residual Chlorine (mg/l)......................... 0.05 - 0.15
Nitrate (mg N/l)............................................... <1.5
Nitrite (mg N/l)................................................ <0.01
Ammonia (mg N/l)........................................... <0.02
Phosphate (mg P/l)........................................... <0.01
Aluminium (mg/l)............................................. <0.10
Iron (mg/l)....................................................... <0.10
Fluoride (mg/l)................................................. 0.6 - 0.8

Total Coliforms (MPN/100ml).......................... <1
E. coli (MPN/100ml)......................…………… <1
Enterococci (CFU/100ml)…………………….. <1
Heterotrophic Plate Count 22°C (CFU/ml)....... < 20
Heterotrophic Plate Count 37°C (CFU/ml)....... < 20

Odour…………………………………………… None
Taste…………………………………………… None

Total Alkalinity (mg CaCO3/l)......................... 20
Calcium Hardness (mg CaCO3/l).................... 40 - 45
Total Hardness (mg CaCO3/l)......................... 50
Saturation pH.................................................. 8.7 to 9.6
Langelier.......................................................... -2.0 to -1.5
Ryznar............................................................. 10.2 to 11.8

&amp;quot;bigears&amp;quot;:3oi5855u wrote: I received my water report today. My supply is from the Stillorgan Reservoir which is [b:3oi5855u]"a blend of water produced from the Ballymore Eustace waterworks and the Roundwood waterworks"[/b:3oi5855u]
[/quote:3oi5855u]

They make it sound like Craft water.

Hmmmmm I shouldn't be giving the marketing bods ideas

Bigears - your water is like most supplying Dublin city - there is bugger all in it. In terms of alkalinity it is superb for brewing pale beer, but is deficient in calcium and sulphate. For stouts you will need to add carbonates to meet mash pH but on the whole its not bad. I always think it is far easier to add the required minerals than try to remove them.

Here is the water report for my area, haven't a clue what it means. Please enlighten me...

[img:1bl6gg2q]http://i.imagehost.org/t/0787/clanewater.jpg[/img:1bl6gg2q][/url:1bl6gg2q]