Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?

[swordofmytriumph]

How did mussels get into the water pipes in Texas of all places? Lol I’ll have to tell my brother he moved there last month. I don think he knows yet to avoid the tap water.

[Baisao]

How did mussels get into the water pipes in Texas of all places? Lol I’ll have to tell my brother he moved there last month. I don think he knows yet to avoid the tap water.

People visiting here from other places put their boats in the water without flushing the water out of their boats first. This carried mussel larvae from infected lakes to our lakes, to our water treatment areas.

Carpetbaggers be gone!

[swordofmytriumph]

Ew yuck.

[Victoria]

Those zebra mussels are invasive and predatory and they love clogging up municipal dirty pipes. They have been a big problem in Europe for some time. Austin has its hands full with water.

[Baisao]

Austin has its hands full with water.

Ain't that the truth! Boom town troubles.

[Victoria]

Just came across @Atlas post about water in his and S_B blog, DeadLeaves.club;
What’s in a water?. Here he recommends Kroger’s Palomar Mtn spring water (110-120ppm TDS). I can’t find any data on it though.

[Rickpatbrown]

I also used Fiji years ago and though I liked the flavor, the high TDS (around 250) made tea that was heavy on the palate and lacked elan. While it is a delicious water, it pushed the tea around. Political and environmental issues also concerned me with this water.

Hey Baisao, can you explain "elan"? I dont recall hearing this term before.

[Baisao]

I also used Fiji years ago and though I liked the flavor, the high TDS (around 250) made tea that was heavy on the palate and lacked elan. While it is a delicious water, it pushed the tea around. Political and environmental issues also concerned me with this water.

Hey Baisao, can you explain "elan"? I dont recall hearing this term before.

@Rickpatbrown, here’s the definition for for elan. In this context, to me, it is a kind of energetic lightness that some waters and teas have.

8350E4C7-CD45-405A-8989-2642364AC09D.jpeg (156.18 KiB) Viewed 11635 times

[Victoria]

This book, available in April, sounds like it will be very interesting to see. The photographer, Brad Temkin, is based in Chicago and has gone around the USA documenting water treatment facilities;
https://www.wired.com/story/wastewater- ... t-gallery/

https://radiusbooks.org/books/brad-temk ... -of-water/

[There is no self]

Take this with a grain of salt, but I've been having good results brewing shu with Acqua San Bernardo. If anyone's curious, here's the analysis courtesy of the University of Pavia:

TDS: 34 mg/l
Ph: 7

Sodium: 0,8 mg/l
Calcium: 8,9 mg/l
Silica: 4 mg/l
Sulphates: 2,3 mg/l
Nitrites: < 0,002 mg/l
Magnesium: 0,6 mg/l
Potassium: 0,4 mg/l
Bicarbonates: 27,9 mg/l
Nitrates: 1,4 mg/l
Chlorides: 0,6 mg/l

[Victoria]

Thanks for the data @There is no self. I’m guessing you are somewhere in Italy, looks like it’s only distributed there. Do you have a link to this data, so we can include in compilation?

[There is no self]

Thanks for the data There is no self. I’m guessing you are somewhere in Italy, looks like it’s only distributed there. Do you have a link to this data, so we can include in compilation?

The only data available online is here: www.sanbernardo.it/le-acque/bottiglia-pet-150cl/
It's from 2013, though, whilst the one I took from the bottle is from 2016.

Yes, San Bernardo isn't distributed abroad, but perhaps people can look for waters with similar parameters.

[Victoria]

....Yes, San Bernardo isn't distributed abroad, but perhaps people can look for waters with similar parameters.

Thanks for link, I’ll use both. You are right about the benefits of comparing data. @There is no self wonder if you can get Total Hardness and Alkalinity data from Univ. of Pavia ?

[gatmcm]

Here are the specs of the water I use for tea, Serra da Estrela brand, its good if a bit flat, feels the most 'neutral' out of the ones I tried

Água-de-Nascente-Serra-da-Estrela-pH-58-a-70.jpg (92.8 KiB) Viewed 11477 times

[Rickpatbrown]

Just an update to my water pursuit:

I found Nice! Iceland spring water to probably be the best water I can find in Maryland, but its $1.60/liter (about $6/gallon)... the most expensive option.

I've gone back to getting Mt. Valley Spring ($4/gallon) water delivered (230 TDS, slightly basic) and I'm mixing it with Poland Spring ($1.10/gallon and 33-100 TDS slightly acidic).

The mixture of these 2 seems to work well. I can try to figure out the ratio for specific teas. This gets my price down to about $2.5/gallon for some pretty nice water.

I still get some precipitation when I boil, even when I mix them. It's not as substantial as the pure Mt. Valley water and it doesn't really bother me. It turns my kettles white, but wipes up pretty easily.

I think I'll rest here for the foreseeable future. I dont know if others have access to these two, but I'd love to hear if others agree.