Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to pull off the SCAA suggested water formula:
http://www.scaa.org/PDF/ST%20-%20WATER% ... V2009A.pdf

Right now, I'm using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and calcium hydroxide (pickling lime), at roughly 0.15g each per Gallon distilled water.

The water tastes terrible, but the coffee brewed with it seems pretty good. I haven't gotten too geeky with tastings..... yet.

I'm kinda curious what others have done. I'm coming up very short on links, etc.

That recommendation is correct, but restricted but the commercial interests of the committee appointed to write them.

• Perfect water, i.e. can register anywhere from 90 to 180 on a TDS meter; but will titrate between 40 and 50 mg/L on alkalinity and anywhere from 60 to 120 mg/L on calcium hardness
• The alkalinity is the more important one, since the equilibrium pH of water needs to be neutral.

You are adding .3 grams or 300 milligrams of alkaline carbonates to roughly 3.8 liters of water. So you are at roughly 79 mg/L alkalinity, which is about double of what you want.

If you want to create a designer water, use about half as much of the carbonates as you are now, and run the water through a calcite filter to add a little calcium hardness. That should taste a whole lot better, and make slightly better coffee

another_jim wrote:...

• The alkalinity is the more important one, since the equilibrium pH of water needs to be neutral.

You are adding .3 grams or 300 milligrams of alkaline carbonates to roughly 3.8 liters of water. So you are at roughly 79 mg/L alkalinity, which is about double of what you want.

I'm doing a local tailgate market, brewing about 20 gallons of coffee in 4 hours. I'd like the water I bring to be ideal. I also would like to have some kind of constant formula cupping water other than the gerber pure I've been buying.

Now, I don't know how the calculations work, but this calculator tells me my recipe yields an alkalinity of "40"... unit-less. http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/

Oops; you're right -- I misread calcium bicarbonate for calcium hydroxide. The recipe creates pretty good coffee water.

I think I may be the one who misread. Either way, as long as I can keep my hydroxides, bicarbonates, and chlorides straight (seemingly doubtful), I'm at least getting on the right track.

Where the calculation is sitting now:

For 5 Gallons, add:
4.30g calcium chloride CaCl2•2H2O (Ball Pickle Crisp Granules)
0.70g sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3 (Baking Soda)
0.22g slaked lime Ca(OH)2 (Mrs. Wages Pickline Lime)

= 68mg/L Calcium hardness, and alkalinity of 40


Can I calculate ppm using mass, or is that a molar thing? It seems by mass it's 290ppm.... ugh.

I was using this formula. I found I had to add slightly more bicarb to reach the author's preferred 78 ppm. Recently I switched to Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine water sourced from Salem, SC. I discovered it's possibly too soft for taste purposes. If I can find Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine from their Norman, AR or Olancha Peak, CA sources I'll probably stick to Crystal. If not I'll give post treated RO water a go again.

I made the below chart based on Crystal's quality report. I'm I correct that the two "green" sources are best for espresso? And would another source be better if preventative descaling and corrosion was a priority?

endlesscycles wrote:Can I calculate ppm using mass, or is that a molar thing? It seems by mass it's 290ppm.... ugh.

Hardness and TDS measures are based on milligrams per liter of CaCO3 equivalents. That means a 40 alkalintiy is enough CO3 to give you 40 mg/L CaCO3. A TDS reading of 150 is 150 mg/L CaCO3 if there were no other minerals in the water, etc, etc.

This sounds weird, but makes it easy to see how the recipes work. If you dissolve 1 gram of calcium hyrdroxide in a liter of water, you'd have a hardness of 1000 mg/L; a gram of baking soda would give you an alkalinity of 1000.

On a side note; there is one cheap and universally available kind of designer water:

I've tested a random variety of the gallon jugs labelled "drinking water," alomg with mass market brands like Dasani. They all fall within 40 to 60 TDS range, 40 to 60 hardness, and 30 to 45 alkalinity levels. It seems that when you do a taste test on a panel of shoppers, this mildly soft water will be preferred to either distilled or harder water. While these "drinking waters" are not perfect, they are inexpensive, standardized, fuss free, don't scale, and make fairly decent coffee or tea.

another_jim wrote:Hardness and TDS measures are based on milligrams per liter of CaCO3 equivalents. That means a 40 alkalintiy is enough CO3 to give you 40 mg/L CaCO3. A TDS reading of 150 is 150 mg/L CaCO3 if there were no other minerals in the water, etc, etc.

This sounds weird, but makes it easy to see how the recipes work. If you dissolve 1 gram of calcium hyrdroxide in a liter of water, you'd have a hardness of 1000 mg/L; a gram of baking soda would give you an alkalinity of 1000.

On a side note; there is one cheap and universally available kind of designer water:

I've tested a random variety of the gallon jugs labelled "drinking water," alomg with mass market brands like Dasani. They all fall within 40 to 60 TDS range, 40 to 60 hardness, and 30 to 45 alkalinity levels. It seems that when you do a taste test on a panel of shoppers, this mildly soft water will be preferred to either distilled or harder water. While these "drinking waters" are not perfect, they are inexpensive, standardized, fuss free, don't scale, and make fairly decent coffee or tea.

The math is very useful, thank you! I've been buying Gerber Pure water by the pallet, it's very very close to the SCAA standard, and brews mighty tasty coffee. I want to save money, and brew the best coffee I can.

endlesscycles wrote:Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to pull off the SCAA suggested water formula:
http://www.scaa.org/PDF/ST%20-%20WATER% ... V2009A.pdf...

So at this point, I'm considering the formula impossible / over-constrained.

another_jim wrote:Hardness and TDS measures are based on milligrams per liter of CaCO3 equivalents.

I'm pretty sure he meant to type "Hardness and alkalinity", not "Hardness and TDS."

endlesscycles wrote:So at this point, I'm considering the formula impossible / over-constrained.

Not sure I follow. The pH is in line with the alkalinity, as is the hardness. Is it the TDS value of 150 mg/l along with the low hardness/alkaliity/sodium numbers that you find inconsistent?