Also, would love someone to double check that I've interpreted my water report correctly. My applicable results are in "Greater Portland: Treated." Sorry if I'm being obtuse about this...

Scheissami wrote:Before making the concentrates/brew water, though, I have some questions about how you approach the process:

If you remineralize tap water, do you measure the GH/KH (using something like an aquariumor rely on published water reports?

I mineralize purified, but if I did mineralize my tap water I would just use the published water report. But that's because my reports are very well done and the water is fairly consistent. If I were in Portland OR I might do the same, except perhaps use a TDS meter to check - - Portland is usually 100% very soft Bull Run water, but may occasionally use a mix of a harder ground water source. If I were doing coffee water science, then I might measure GH and KH with a good drop titration kit for soft water like ones from Hach, but it would be better to do evaluations of different water formulae using purified water as a base rather than the variable Portland OR tap water.

Do you test/measure your brew water or just rely on the formulas? How do you test?

I rely on formulas and careful weighing of my salts. I have conductivity 'TDS meters' and drop titration kits for chloride, GH, and KH, but don't routinely use them for my own brewing water.

Do you use different water for filter vs espresso? Why?

No, but I'm aware there might be reasons to do that. For filter you can use calcium chloride or magnesium chloride as a source of very soluble hardness, but you would not want that chloride in an espresso machine. Also, espresso tolerates a lot more alkalinity without dulling the coffee's acidity, so some might choose a lower alkalinity for pourover than they use for espresso.

What led you to choose the composition of the water you use?

I use a soft non-scaling water that I find easy to make, is free of undesirable chloride, sulfate, silica, has good alkalinity for machine health, and is chemically similar to a soft natural water. It has some hardness minerals, but I can't really say that it's any better than plain rpavlis water (purified water with about 1 mmol/l of bicarbonate.)

Scheissami wrote:Also, would love someone to double check that I've interpreted my water report correctly. My applicable results are in "Greater Portland: Treated."

Looks OK, although you used a slightly wrong value for the Bicarbonates (HCO₃⁻). That report indicates an alkalinity of 8.2 mg/L as CaCO3, and that is your KH value. The bicarbonate ion for this water would be 10 mg/L as HCO₃⁻, and that gives you an alkalinity (KH) of 8.2 mg/L as CaCO3.

But a bigger issue: Are you not in Portland OR? This report you listed is for Portland ME. Surprisingly is even softer than the Portland OR water. Portland OR water reports can be found here: https://www.portland.gov/water/document ... 2/download

Is a little tricky because normally you have Bull Run water but occasionally switch to a mix of sometimes 100% groundwater, and the groundwater is harder. You can sort of tell when they switch by measuring with a TDS meter. 100% groundwater would read about 100 ppm on an inexpensive TDS meter at 25℃, whereas the Bull run water would only read about 25 ppm.

That is very soft water and assuming you are doing pour-over with modern light roasts, I would try that water as-is. I go pretty soft, 50Gh and 15Kh, and sometimes use only distilled. For espresso, that might be corrosive it is so soft though.

homeburrero wrote:But a bigger issue: Are you not in Portland OR? This report you listed is for Portland ME.

Ugh

Details matter, huh? Thanks for catching that, will look at my *actual* local water report before proceeding. May pick up an aquarium kit and/or TDS meter to get a better sense for what I'm doing.

Thanks for the other info as well, will take me some time to digest it (especially in the context of the "new" water report!).

While homeburrero caught that I'm using the wrong water report it wasn't actually that far off my local water.

I made a batch of brew water using the Barista Hustle recipe (using tap water via their calculator). I've only had it with one coffee so far and did not notice a massive difference cupping it. It maybe seemed to mute or avoid a mild woody aftertaste, but no dramatic improvement in brightness/sweetness/clarity. Will try again with other coffees/recipe ... Maybe not that huge a difference with this water recipe, perhaps I'll notice a more pronounced improvement with something else. Or, possibly, I'll decide it isn't worth the extra work!