broskobandi
Member
First of all, we have super hard water which forces me to use way too much acid to lower the mash pH. I learned that boiling then decanting the water reduces the hardness a great deal. This lowers the alkalinity so it will take much less acid addition to lower the pH to the desired levels.
Brewersfriend's advanced water chemistry calculator requires me to enter the alkalinity of my water either as "Bicarbonate" as mg/l OR as "alkalinity" as CaCO3. Now, in my water report that I got from our water supplier, I have two separate items that seem to be relevant, one for "alkalinity" (343 mgHCO3/l) and one for "total hardness" (313 mgCaCO3/l). Which value do you think I should use? Should I just convert my HCO3 alkalinity value into CaCO3 by dividing it by 1.22 and call it a day? But doesn't total hardness refer to the bicarbonate revels? If so, should I use my total hardness value? So many questions...
Thanks!
Brewersfriend's advanced water chemistry calculator requires me to enter the alkalinity of my water either as "Bicarbonate" as mg/l OR as "alkalinity" as CaCO3. Now, in my water report that I got from our water supplier, I have two separate items that seem to be relevant, one for "alkalinity" (343 mgHCO3/l) and one for "total hardness" (313 mgCaCO3/l). Which value do you think I should use? Should I just convert my HCO3 alkalinity value into CaCO3 by dividing it by 1.22 and call it a day? But doesn't total hardness refer to the bicarbonate revels? If so, should I use my total hardness value? So many questions...
Thanks!