TOPIC:

If you havent seen it before The lovely gents on the homebrew forum have come up with this lovely little calculator for lazy folk like me...well not for me but for everyone!

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php">www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php

very handy.

Bah! Stupid required registration <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

I'm also lazy, so would appreciate calculator wizardry <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

All, I have always used 5.2 powder before but I am planning on treating my water this time instead. I am making a Lager using the Budvar yeast. As this is a Pilsner I will need make sure the water is soft enough. I have tested my water. The water has a total alkalinity of 165 mg/l CaCO3 and Calcium content of 70 mg/l.

I am planning on using some CRS to get the alkalinity down to about 20 mg/l. Is there anything else I need to do to get the water correct. Do I need to add Calcium? Do I need to concern myself with other chemicals in the water? Comments welcome.

Just wondering if there are any decent public access springs in south Dublin area? I can get plenty down at home in County Clare, but for convenience sake, would prefer not to have to haul barrels with 90 litres across the island.

Not that I know of. What's the advantage over the domestic supply?

Naturally free of Chlorine or Chloramine. Generally the spring water in North County Clare, and areas with similar limestone deposits in Dublin (the west and north areas of the city as I undertand it), have high calcium content in the water.
Being a novice and an inherently lazy person, the less compound manipulation I have to involve myself in, the better, I would imagine.
Any other takers to this evidence deficient, idle speculation <!-- s:?: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_question.gif" alt=":" title="Question" /><!-- s:?: -->
An old hippy home brew friend from Tuamgraney in County Clare insisted on using spring water from his neighbor's land. I do not believe he ever had a spectrum analysis of this water however.