Water chemistry and municipal water consistency

[Morgs]

Hi,

I want to get your thoughts on the consistency of municipal water sources and adjustments for water chemistry. I've recently starting adjusting my mash and lautering water, but I wasn't confident in the consistency of the municipal water. I have the water report, but I'm not certain the water I'm brewing with is the same as what was sent out for testing. Granted, I have no basis for not trusting the water hasn't changed much, but I also have no basis for believing it's the same. Any adjustments I've made to my water have been accomplished by using distilled water and adding minerals/salts to get my target profile.

Can you give some insight as to whether or not this is a good approach to targeting a specific water profile, and also your take on the consistency of municipal water sources.

Thanks!

Morgs

[DavisOnAPlane]

Hey Morgs, welcome.

This is a problem run into by every brewer using municipal water.  The report is accurate for a time, but then it will change without anybody knowing until after they've used the new water.

In terms of what can be done about it, there are only a few options.  You can just keep requesting reports on a regular basis to try to catch changes before you brew, there are home testing kits sold at Home Depot that will allow you to run your own analysis, you can use a bottled water (Aquifina, Dasani, etc) as they tend to be more consistent due to their treatment plants, or you can build your water up from distilled and skip the whole thing.

I tend to use all distilled, and add in the salts/nutrients that I need.

Hope this helps
-Davis