I haven't really brewed or read brewing forums in about 5 years but I'm looking to get back into doing a handful of batches a year as a small hobby. It is interesting to see how how much automation has increased in the last 5 years but I'm planning to stick to the old cooler/batch sparge methods. Another topic that I see discussed far more than I remember is water chemistry. I never paid much attention to it in the past and never had efficiency or taste problems with my beers. I have moved since I last brewed so I went ahead and got an analysis done of my tap water. I threw the numbers into one of the online tools and it showed the Ca and SO4 as "low, but not necessarily an issue" and that it would favor a malty profile. I'm not looking to win any awards, but I do mostly brew pale ales and IPAs so I may want to make some adjustments that would favor those styles. It seems like I would add gypsum to bring these levels up to a better balance. Curious if you guys had any other thoughts looking at the report and what tools, if any, you use for your water calculations.
pH 7.7
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 260
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.43
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.7 / 4.0
Sodium, Na 30
Potassium, K 5
Calcium, Ca 27
Magnesium, Mg 10
Total Hardness, CaCO3 109
Nitrate, NO3-N 2.0
Sulfate, SO4-S 5
Chloride, Cl 85
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 66
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 54
Total Phosphorus, P 0.17
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01
For what it's worth, I did my first batch over the weekend. It was a wheat ale (50/50 pale/wheat malt) with an OG of around 1.05. I didn't modify the water. The mash pH was around 5 with just a simple pH paper test and efficiency I'd estimate was in the 75-80% range with a single batch sparge.