by Liam Anderson

Late last year, SeqWater announced that they would be making changes at the Mount Crosby and North Pine water treatment plans, which would result in an average increase in pH from about 7.8 to 8.4.  This change was scheduled to take place in Autumn/Winter this year.  Out of concern and alarm, I thought it would be a good time to check if there would be any significant changes other than pH, and was pleasantly surprised to see that SeqWater now provide monthly reports in a (somewhat) easy to digest clickable map.

Check the SeqWater monthly report summary for your supply area here.

Will this affect us homebrewers?  

Not hugely.  BABBs last commissioned our own water analysis in 2022, and the numbers have only moved a few points since then.  

The reports do not give bicarbonate directly – this is estimated from Total Alkalinity as CaCO3 using the following formula:

Bicarbonate (ppm) = Alkalinity (ppm as CaCO3) *1.22 

A reminder that Brisbane water is treated with both chlorine and chloramine. Chlorine will evaporate or boil of quite easily. Chloramine must be either neutralized with Campden (potassium or sodium metabisulfate) or filtered by with a carbon filter at low flow rate.

If not dealt with chloramines will react with phenols in malt during the mash to produce chlorophenols. These are detectable as a plastic-like taste in just a few parts-per-billion in finished beer! Think band-aid plastic, medicinal, or listerine mouthwash flavour and aroma.

So there you go, keep an eye on the water reports for any changes, and plug em into whatever brewing software or spreadsheet of choice.