“Serving the technical side of homebrewing”
By Kai, for braukaiser.com
Water composition is important for brewing and many brewers either send their water to a lab for analysis or build brewing water from scratch using very soft (e.g. reverse osmosis water) and salts. It is, however, also possible to test brewing water at home. The precision and amount of detail of such a water test does not match that of a professional analysis, but it is sufficient to estimate the residual alkalinity of the brewing water with an acceptable accuracy. At home water testing also allows regular testing of a water source in order to detect seasonal changes which may warrant a more precise professional analysis.