Let's gather this data and make a (clickable) map of the area on the web
site...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike" <mpv(a)yuck.net>
To: <sphbc(a)sphbc.org>; <mnbrewers(a)yahoogroups.com>; "Minnesota
homeBrewers
Association" <mba(a)thebarn.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 6:28 PM
Subject: [mnbrewers] Re: Water make-up in Twin Cities area (Document)
I definitely encourage the exercise of collecting area
water analysis
from your local water departments. Most are happy to send you their
data. MHBA has done this before, too bad we don't have the results
published somewhere. Here's what you'll find:
For the purposes of brewing, there are basically two types of water
sources in the area: ground water (Mpls - Mississippi River, StP -
lakes) and well water (the rest of us). The exception is Richfield
which uses a combination (east - river, west - wells, but some places
get both).
For Mpls and StP, the water contains very little carbonate/bi-
carbonate hardness ("temporary hardness") and adequate calcium and
therefore needs little treatment for mashing and brewing. Boiling or
carbon filtering to remove chlorine is about it. One could add
various salts to duplicate famous water profiles (e.g., calcium
sulphate to mimic Burton water), but that is unnecessary to achieve
good mash chemistry in the mash tun.
For the rest of us (and that goes for the greater upper midwest, not
just the Twin Cities), water hardness is a function of how deep your
well is, since pure water travels up through limestone, where it
picks up calcium and carbonate. As I recall (admittedly not all that
well), temporary hardness of 250-400 ppm is not uncommon in the twin
cities. That may seem like a big range, but for our purposes
treatment and the resulting water is the same. Boiling and then
cooling the water causes the calcium to bond with carbonate/bi-
carbonate and precipitate out as chalk. Decant the water off the
chalk and you will have water with no calcium and about 50 ppm
carbonate. That's little enough carbonate that you don't need to
worry about the buffering effect in the mash tun. Simple add back
enough calcium (in the form of calcium sulfate or calcium chloride)
and the water fine for brewing most styles of beer.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mike Valentiner, Minneapolis, MN
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