Lawrence Brewers Guild

With all this talk of New Year’s resolutions and proclamations I thought I’d give the brewery something new to tinker with. I have always brewed with either distilled or RO water from the very first time I brewed back in 1991. Yes it has been 20 years and this old curmudgeon is looking to stretch his legs a bit.

I am going to start using Lawrence tap water! 15 years ago we moved to our current location, and into the Clinton lake water supply-- which after all these years I feel good about. The previous, the Kaw, was the impetus to go the Distilled/RO route in the first place.

So, brewing water filtration for the brewery is going to be needed.
I will have a dedicated setup for the brewery’s water needs. I am looking for some thoughts and suggestions on the process. What kind(s)/brand(s) do people use? What maintenance regime is used on a brewery’s filter? etc etc

I bought the simple one from B3 a long time ago. I believe it's a 10 micron replaceable charcoal filter. At the time it was cheaper to buy theirs shipped than putting one together from Home Depot. It worked fine for me. The filter is shot and I keep forgetting to replace it - then it's time to fill the HLT. Campden is all I've done for quite a while but I have different water than you do.

Wes and I use one of these:



http://www.amazon.com/Culligan-RV-500A- ... WURJ07H4JF

For American beers we just filter. For UK and Continental beers, we use ProMash's water profiler and add gypsum, epsom salt, canning salt, baking soda, calcium chloride and/or chalk to bring it close to the profile we want.

Just call me old fashion, but I don't do anything but add Campden tablets. Call me cheap

By the way Jeff, there is a good water thread started here:
http://hbd.org/discus/messages/1/50055.html?1293824406

I use the B3 water filter with the charcoal filter. Works great... I added a copper "shepards staff" to the output along with a ball valve so that I can just plop the copper rod on top of the kettle and then control the water flow. You want a slow flow to maximize effectiveness of the carbon filter.

The Palmer(howtobrew.com) water spreadsheet that shows the residual alkalinity is great. For security, I also use 1/2 the recommended amount of 5.2 to make sure my PH is correct. You will need to first get an analysis of your water to determine your calcium, mg, hardness, etc... On some beers(Pils) I will use a portion of distilled water to get my RA in check.

Thanks for the input so far guys! Good link Chris, I found that thread very interesting. So am I to gather that most filter users are a one stage-- slow as it goes flow filter users? I want to strip the chloride family and some unfriendly heavy metals, but I do want to preserve a lot of the mineralization. I have been building my own water for so long.. but I always wonder about those odd ions that I am not adding to RO or distilled. Yeast are finicky and I what to treat them like kings of course!

I already have a few filter housings. One came from HD the other Ive had for awhile. Both are 10" and the cartridges can be had at HD for low money. I also have found that carbon filtering and PH 5.2 works well with Clinton Lake water. These filters can have many 100's of gallons of water before having to replace them. For me thats about once per year if it needs it or not. The only thing that you need to be aware of is twice per year (spring and fall) the lake will turn over. The water dept monitors this very carefully and treats accordingly. But just something to think about.

As far as care of the carbon filter, just drain and keep open to air so mold doesn't form inside the canister. I used to toss the carbon cartridge into the freezer in between uses, but have found this practice unnecessary.

You might find a small change in your beers Jeff switching over from building RO but Ive found building water just isn't worth it. Lawrence water is pretty decent. I usually get a report once per year. They will provide one upon request.

What do you mean the lake will turn over?

Ace wrote:What do you mean the lake will turn over?

Temp changes and other factors will cause the upper portion of the lake to sink pushing the bottom portion upwards. Interesting phenom.

Here a link describing it.

http://science.jrank.org/pages/3792/Lak ... ation.html

Blktre wrote:
You might find a small change in your beers Jeff switching over from building RO but Ive found building water just isn't worth it. Lawrence water is pretty decent.

I have found that to be the case with so many fine beers that I drink from our club off the Clinton tap Andy. And quite frankly RO is a lot of work... You are right the water dept does offer analysis of both taps, actually every 3 months. I'll take charge getting those releases, and work with Sean to sticky post them for both the Clinton and Kaw taps.

I'll take charge getting those releases, and work with Sean to sticky post them for both the Clinton and Kaw taps.

Now thats talk from a Brewer of the Year right there.
That would be an awesome resource for our members for sure!

Blktre wrote:

I'll take charge getting those releases, and work with Sean to sticky post them for both the Clinton and Kaw taps.

Now thats talk from a Brewer of the Year right there.
That would be an awesome resource for our members for sure!

That would be great! I've found it can be tricky to get the right information sometimes from the city water dept.

Jensen- let me know what you end up using to filter your water. . . . Crane and I have been looking for something for a while now. I just don't know enough about it to spend money on one. . . . want to get my money's worth.

Jensen wrote:

Blktre wrote: I have found that to be the case with so many fine beers that I drink from our club off the Clinton tap Andy. And quite frankly RO is a lot of work... You are right the water dept does offer analysis of both taps, actually every 3 months. I'll take charge getting those releases, and work with Sean to sticky post them for both the Clinton and Kaw taps.

Any word on this?