Testing Water For Brewing Beer

The website is a bit misleading.

Testing water for brewing beer.

There are tons of companies which can test your water. Ever crack open a beer and think wow this taste is so smooth. One test is for water hardness and it is used amongst different beers. When choosing a lab make sure you get a brewing water test and not a regular water test because many regular water tests do not include the big six ions.

Some water sources change over time because some municipal water plants pull water from different sources during the year. Dark beers use harder water while light beers use softer water. The brewlab basic and brewlab plus from the lamotte company are economical easy to use test kits to quickly measure the mineral content of water and allow the brewer to make informed decisions in the brewing process. Many different tests are used when it comes to water.

The first step to understanding the effect of water on brewing a great beer is to know what is in it. Not a paid endorsement it s just fast and easy and affordable. They ll send you a container. There are lots of testing kits out there and you might get some solid info from municipal water reports but for my time and money there s nothing better than ward labs brewing water report note.

In a nutshell according to the great john palmer good brewing water for conducting the mash and creating the wort should be moderately hard and have low to moderate alkalinity in most cases if your tap water is good to drink and doesn t taste overly funky it s going to be perfect for brewing most types of beer.