Water advise

ken0062

Living in a soft water area and having good tasting water straight out of the tap I have previously not given much thought to filtering and water additives but the more I read about it the more i am not sure if I should be delving down that particular rabit hole, if not for machine safety then for taste reasons (filter and espresso)

I have put up a water report from my area, any opinions welcome

CoyoteOldMan

If you look at the ‘theory’, it’s not alkaline enough or hard enough, but if it tastes good when you brew with tap water… then nothing to change there.

From a scaling point of view, it is not likely to scale as long as you refresh steam/service boiler water regularly.

I would leave the rabbit hole well alone.

ken0062

Pretty much my own thoughts, however I have been wondering if adding a touch of sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate to my unfiltered tap water would be worth doing just to bring up the alkalinity

Rob1

I’d increase alkalinity to 40mg/l and see if you prefer it.

ken0062

Trying to get my head round the calculations, Is there a simple method say to add sodium bicarbonate at a specific concentration to add to say 1 litre of my tap water to bring up the extra 20mg/l alkalinity at least as a initial test

CoyoteOldMan

ken0062 Yes, there is, but it’s not “practical” - 34 mg/l sodium bicarbonate adds 20 mg/l of KH; 40 mg/l of potassium bicarbonate does the same. This entails measuring relatively precisely 34 mg of NaHCO₃ powder, which - believe me - is quite tedious (and 1 litre only lasts for a dozen coffees or so; far fewer with a lever or if you steam). This is why most people that remineralise their own demineralised water use concentrates.

For example, you could mix 1.70 grams of sodium bicarbonate to a litre of your tap water, and then add 20 ml of that “concentrate” water (with a syringe or a set of scales - coffee scales are perfectly fine!) to a litre of fresh tap water that you want to increase KH for.

Rob1

ken0062

Take 500ml tap water, add 1.26g Potassium Bicarbonate.

Take 985ml tap water and add 15ml of the above concentrate.

Alternatively, add 1g (1.06g) of Sodium Bicarbonate to 500ml instead.

If you use pure distilled water the calculations are a little different, I’ve taken into account the fact you’re making a concentrate with water that already has 19.6mg/l alkalinity.

Best keep the concentrate refrigerated in a sealed container and use up as quickly as possible, and just to be safe boil the water before use - e.g don’t make cold brew with it or just drink it.

You’re getting an additional 8.70mg/l Sodium using Sodium Bicarb over Potassium. Not really sure that will make a difference but you never know….

MWJB

CoyoteOldMan 64 mg/l sodium bicarbonate adds 20 mg/l of KH;

Sorry, what is the calculation there? I was under the impression that sodium bicarbonate to alkalinity as CaCO3 was more like a *0.6 relationship, so adding sodium bicarbonate at 64mg/L would result in an increase of 38mg/L as alkalinity?

CoyoteOldMan

MWJB You are correct; I was doing mental calculations from my preferred “potassium” recipe, and I screwed up somewhere. Now corrected in the posts above.

ken0062

Thanks for the replies and simplifying things for me, decided I will experiment with the water and report back at a later date once I get more familiar with pulling consistent shots on the Bianca

Rob1

Testing the increased alkalinity with an immersion brew will be much easier, it’ll take a while for the water in the boiler to be exchanged. If you don’t have a french press or can’t be drip you can just do cupping and scoop off the grounds.