12 replies to this topic

[3rd party JKor]

Have you had yours done? Where did you get it done? Did it show anything surprising?

[3rd party JKor]

Ironically, a Google search for 'water test lab' brings up Environmental Testing & Research Laboratory as the second hit after the EPA website. The ironic part is that lab is located less than 2 miles from my house. The prices seem pretty high, though. $150 for the "Standard Scan".

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Ironically, a Google search for 'water test lab' brings up Environmental Testing & Research Laboratory as the second hit after the EPA website. The ironic part is that lab is located less than 2 miles from my house. The prices seem pretty high, though. $150 for the "Standard Scan".

I just got a report from my supplier (FOR FREE!). Everyone else seems to use ward labs.

[chuck_d]

Yeah, ward is what I see most homebrewers using, here's what they can do: https://www.wardlab....edule_water.htmI haven't used them myself, I've just been relying upon the water report from New York.Edit: If I were to start testing, I'd probably do it quarterly and send two samples like a week apart.

Edited by chuck_d, 20 May 2009 - 02:15 PM.

[DubbelEntendre]

I just got a report from my supplier (FOR FREE!). Everyone else seems to use ward labs.

Yeah mine is posted on the city's website which works for me.

[3rd party JKor]

I'm on a well, so obviously the supplier route doesn't help. I guess I'll try Ward, way cheaper than the local guy, looks like.

[WallyG3]

I haven't bothered sending my water to a lab and here's why:I am on a municipal water system (here in L.A.) that pulls from multiple sources. So our water mix changes depending on how much we are getting from each source at any given time. A lab analysis will only tell me what my water was the day I took the sample, and not what it will be on brewing day. At least with the city's water report, I get an annual average. Yes, I do take that average with a grain of salt (pun intended) and consider the reported range of mineral content. - Unless you have your own well, I don't think a lab analysis is any better than the annual report from the local water company. - If you are on a well, I'd assume your water will be fairly consistent and a lab report would be very useful to you.I'd love to find a fairly accurate water measurement kit for home use, but all of the affordable ones I've seen have too much variance to be useful.

[3rd party JKor]

I haven't bothered sending my water to a lab and here's why:I am on a municipal water system (here in L.A.) that pulls from multiple sources. So our water mix changes depending on how much we are getting from each source at any given time. A lab analysis will only tell me what my water was the day I took the sample, and not what it will be on brewing day. At least with the city's water report, I get an annual average. Yes, I do take that average with a grain of salt (pun intended) and consider the reported range of mineral content. - Unless you have your own well, I don't think a lab analysis is any better than the annual report from the local water company. - If you are on a well, I'd assume your water will be fairly consistent and a lab report would be very useful to you.I'd love to find a fairly accurate water measurement kit for home use, but all of the affordable ones I've seen have too much variance to be useful.

I'm on a well, so it will be useful to me. I'd imagine it would be useful to anyone who has a single municipal source (which I assume is the majority). I can see the issue with a big city like LA.

[chuck_d]

I'm on a well, so it will be useful to me. I'd imagine it would be useful to anyone who has a single municipal source (which I assume is the majority). I can see the issue with a big city like LA.

Depends on the big city. I'm not familiar with LA so I cannot comment on it, but here in NY while we have 3 different water systems 98% of the water comes from one system. If you read the details in the water reports you can get a picture of what that 2% is, it's often just like the Bronx and then some blending of the two main systems to service Manhattan south of Central Park. So even then it's not affecting me. These aberrations usually seem to last for like a month or two. So, I'm generally pretty safe ignoring hte Croton system and just using the numbers from the Castkill/Delaware system; the groundwater system is all out in Queens & Brooklyn. So that's why I say I would like to sample quarterly. Sending in two samples a week apart would let me gauge how much variability there might be in the numbers from my sampling. Sampling quarterly would help me to identify any seasonal trends. Typically the seasonal trends involve disabling the second water source altogether so it's not something that I think will impact my brewing water. I'd probably have to sample slightly more frequently in order to catch changeover blends, but I suspect that I'm in an area that isn't impacted greatly by that.

[stellarbrew]

I used Ward, and I would recommend them. Make sure to put your e-mail address on the sample form you send in, and you will get your results by e-mail within 24 hours after they receive the sample, with the hard copy following in the mail a few days later. Learn from my mistake: Ward's address on their website lists both the street address and the post office box number. Make sure you put only one of those two on the package label, or it may delay them receiving your sample for a couple of weeks , like it did for me. After a week and a half, they hadn't received my sample (which listed street address and PO address), so I sent another one with just the PO address. Three days later, they got both samples at the same time.

[HVB]

I am also on a well and have been contemplating sending out my water out to get tested. If you decide to go to ward labs let me know how it works out.

[MtnBrewer]

Have you had yours done? Where did you get it done? Did it show anything surprising?

I got the information about mine from the helpful folks at Colorado Springs Utilities. I called them up, told them that I was going to be brewing beer with their tap water and would like to know what minerals were contained therein. They connected me with a very helpful woman in the lab that was able to answer all of my questions and sent me a written lab analysis. Some utilities are not that helpful and that's where Ward Labs comes in.I had no real expectations beforehand of what the analysis would contain so I wasn't really surprised at what I learned.

[BrewerGeorge]

I used Ward and was very satisfied. They are very helpful and fast.I'm on town water, but our town has their own wells so it's pretty consistent. The published report wasn't helpful at all. I tried one phone call that yielded nothing more than more numbers to try. I thought that the $16 to Ward was probably worth avoiding the hassle of navigating the town's bureaucracy.I was pretty surprised by the analysis. I knew I had very hard water (and I do) but the RA isn't nearly as high as I'd suspected, which is probably why I was never able to get stouts that tasted good. Since I got the report and stopped using 5.2, I've used Palmer's spreadsheet to predict and modify mash pH and it has been dead-on every time.