Pre-Heating and decanting water to lower alkalinity

[Uncle Puck]

Hello all,

Delving into brewing water treatment for the taproom/brewery space we're soon going to be taking over. The water comes from a well, and the report shows rather soft water with high Total Alkalinity (summary below). Reading Water, by Palmer and Kaminski, I've been looking at ways to lower the residual alkalinity, which comes in at about 164 if I calculated correctly. Eventually we will likely go to a RO system, but for the time being, I need to work with what I have.

Na - 19
K - <1
Ca - 36
Mg - 19
Total hardness as CaCO3 - 169
Nitrate - 0.3
Sulfate - 1
Cl - 2
CO3 - <1.0
HCO3 - 243
Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 - 201
P - <.01
Fe - .11

Pre-boiling, circulating through the spray ball, and then decanting off the precipitates after a period of cooling would probably help, but from my understanding our rather low calcium would be the limiting factor for the precipitation of bicarbonates. That is, the bicarbonates would precipitate out as long as there was calcium to react with, but once the calcium reaches a low enough level the reaction and thus the reduction of alkalinity would cease. Palmer cites 20 ppm of calcium being the lower limit, and with only 36 ppm to start with, my question is whether adding 170 ppm calcium (for a total initial calcium of 206 ppm) to the hot water before pre-boiling it would allow us to further decarbonate the water and bring the residual alkalinity down to a reasonable level? Would calcium chloride work best?

There is an equation given for how much calcium would remain after the preboil: [Ca]{final} = [Ca]{initial} - ((HCO3{initial} - HCO3{final}) / 3.05) so... [Ca]{final}= 206 - ((243 - 80)/3.05) becomes 206 - 53.4 = 152.6 ppm Ca after the precipitation reactions bottom out. Does it make more sense to only add enough to get calcium the HCO3 down to the 70-80 range, and then use additions to the strike water from that point to get where you want to be? I'm not trying to achieve a particular water profile yet, just to get the residual alkalinity down in a range where we can work with it to achieve the right profile for a given style.

Thanks for any feedback on this.

Patrick

[TGTimm]

Boiling/preheating will reduce carbonate (temporary) hardness. AFIK, it will have little or no effect on any other solubles.

[rdcpro]

I don't have a lot to add, except that lime softening can be used to reduce total alkalinity where the TA is greater than the permanent hardness. If you have to also reduce carbonate hardness, you can add gypsum. Either way, you'll have to deal with the precipitate. But is your TA and bicarbonate hardness really all that high?

This is a pretty good description of what happens:

https://www.gewater.com/handbook/ext_treatment/ch_7_precipitation.jsp#Alkalinity Reduction

Actually, the whole page is a good read; you don't necessarily need heat with cold lime softening, but it works better. I've used lime softening in several applications, but all were related to water or wastewater treatment, not brewing specifically.

You might want to PM Buckeye Hydro...he posts on probrewer occasionally, and can probably recommend something more specific.

Regards,
Mike Sharp

[BemidjiBrewing]

That water looks pretty good, actually. Other than the alkalinity you have low numbers across the board. Any reason to not use phosphoric acid and/or acid malt to tackle the alkalinity?

Having to pre-boil, settle, and decant all of your brewing water will get real old, real quick!

[Uncle Puck]

That water looks pretty good, actually. Other than the alkalinity you have low numbers across the board. Any reason to not use phosphoric acid and/or acid malt to tackle the alkalinity?

Having to pre-boil, settle, and decant all of your brewing water will get real old, real quick!

Good point. I have to look more closely at both the lime option and the acidification options. Thanks for your assistance!


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[Uncle Puck]

Thanks Mike. I'm looking into it for brew water specifically. And I'll see if BuckeyeHydro has any suggestions.

Slainte!


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[Uncle Puck]

Boiling/preheating will reduce carbonate (temporary) hardness. AFIK, it will have little or no effect on any other solubles.

Thanks!


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