The quality of water is impt for your coffee ... both the taste of the coffee & the longevity of the machine.
The water actually serves as the medium for flavor.
the mix of Magnesium (Mg+2), calcium (Ca+2) and carbonates are impt.
These 3 components influence how coffee extracts.
Magnesium and Calcium help extract coffee flavor.
Too much or too little can be bad
The Bicarbonates influence Buffering. Buffering is the ability of a solution to resist a pH change.
Note that coffee is acidic. It wants to lower the pH of the beverage.
If the water has a high buffering capacity, then the coffee acidity will be lost (which is part
of the flavor experience).
The coffee industry talks a lot about hardness.
There are actually two types of hardness. ... Total vs Carbonate.
Total hardness is the amount of calcium and magnesium present in water, whereas carbonate hardness is a measurement of the levels of carbonates and bicarbonates.
Primarily, we are looking for clean, filtered water that has some but not too much mineral content.
For most optimal results we are aiming for:
a] Hardness above 45ppm and below 80ppm.(ideal 68ppm)
Any reading below 60ppm is considered soft.
The Specialty Coffee Association recommends using water with a total hardness of 50 to 175ppm
and a carbonate hardness between 40 and 75ppm.
b] A pH between 7 and 8.5
The SCA recommends a pH level between 6 and 8.
Note that although there is a relationship between pH level and buffering capacity,
it is not a direct correlation.
c] Keep chloride below 60ppm. Less than 30ppm is ideal.
Chlorine can cause corrosion in coffee machines.
For the record the tap water in Sydney, Australia has these properties:
Hardness; 24-36ppm (so its very soft)
Ph:7.5 -7.96
Chlorine: 0.79 (mg/L) = ppm
Melbourne also has soft water, with the supply's mineral content (hardness)
typically testing at between 11 and 38 milligrams per litre.
Ph: 6.5 - 8.2
Chloride : 0.4 - 1.33
Water hardness refers to the magnesium and calcium minerality of water
Use a water softener if you get a measurement above 85 parts per million (PPM)
Water that is too hard can cause excessive scale buildup inside your machine.
But if water is too soft your coffee won’t taste so good.
So just using demineralised water isn't a great idea.
You've got to get the perfect balance .... as if this exists.
I think it's all personal taste
So maybe just use a brita filter to remove excess chlorine and you are ok.
I like the taste of Sydney water.
You will still need to descale the machine .
Or you can make your own water.
There are so many recipes out there on the net.I start out with a water distiller to produce
the basic water.
It will make H20 with a TDS of zero & a Ph of 7
Use a TDS meter to check that the Total Dissolved Solids are zero.
--------------
Then you will need to add things.
Most Mineral recipes use these components:
Distilled water
Baking soda - bicarb soda (NaHCO3).... Alkalinity Buffer
Epsom salt - magnesium sulfate (MgSO4•7H2O)
Potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) .... Alkalinity Buffer
Magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2•6H2O)
Calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl2)
The ratios of the components vary widely.
I think I just need to experiment.
The two components you need to adjust are the Ph & the mineral content / mix
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The simplest recipes use just baking soda, epsom salts & distilled water.
They don't use calcium & instead use Mg.... This protects against scale build up.
The baking soda controls the Ph & Epsom adds the minerals ... in this case Mg.
Play around with these 3 simple ingredients first.
Once you have found one recipe you like, add the other ingredients.
Note that Mg is believed to extract different flavors to Ca, though the
science hasn't been worked out yet.
So you will probably end up using a mix of magnesium and calcium as the extracting agents.
Total dissolved solids TDS is just taken as their sum.
---------------------------------------
I use a pH & a TDS meter to check the water I produce.
Another way to test pH is by using a strip (that you would use for an aquarium).
These testing strips measure alkalinity in KH (carbonate hardness).
I think the TDS meter is particularly useful even though it doesn't actually measure hardness or
tell you exactly which minerals are present. If you started with distilled water with a TDS of zero
then any minerals detected can only be from what you put in.
In the case of Mg and Ca, it will add to general hardness.
In the case of carbonate, it will add to carbonate hardness.
The basic idea is the same . Make two concentrate solutions and add small
portions of these to distilled water.
The concentrate solutions are:
Baking soda to make the buffer solution (1L)
Epsom salts to make the hardness solution (1L)
1. dissolve 1.68 g of baking soda into 1L of water (to make the 1L buffer solution).
2. dissolve 2.45g of Epsom salts into 1L of water (to make the 1L hardness solution).
==============================================================
Recipe 1:
159g of Buffer solution
321g of Hardness solution
3520g distilled water
(this gives you a 4L bottle of brewing water)
Its very close to the
Barista Hustle Water Recipe
40.1g Buffer solution
80.7g Hardness solution
879.2g DI water
(this gives you a 1L bottle of brewing water)
.....................................................................................................................
These recipes are from Barista hustle
These following recipes use the same idea as above.
Make two concentrates (a Baking Soda buffer & a Epsom Salt hardener) in 1L bottles.
Weigh each concentrate according to the recipe & add them to the 3rd bottle that has DI water
MELBOURNE WATER
Melbourne likes to remind the rest of Australia, that they make the best coffee.
(I'm from Sydney so I disagree, but for the record here is their recipe)
11.5g Buffer solution
23.7g Hardness solution
964.8g DeIonised water
another way to make this:
5L Distilled or Deionized water
1.22g Epsom Salts
0.34g Baking soda
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WOC (world of coffee) Budapest
40.1g Buffer solution
51.2g Hardness solution
908.7g DI water
--------------------------------------------
SCA - Specialty Coffee Association.
40.1g Buffer solution
68.6g Hardness solution
891.3g DI water
I sometimes use a 5L bottle.
So you would use 200.5g of the buffer & 343g hardner.
Then fill the bottle to the 5L mark
My TDS & buffer measurements were:
TDS: 97ppm
pH: 6.9
--------------------
Dr. Pavlis' scale free water:
It only uses a buffer .
The aim is to get 50-100 milligrams of potassium bicarbonate (KHCO₃) per liter of water.
To 5L Distilled or Deionized water add
0.5g Potassium Bicarbonate. (that's it !!!).
It's interesting that this recipe uses no magnesium (Epsom salts) or calcium.
Or
add 10g Potassium Bicarbonate to 1L distilled water to make a concentrate.
To make the final brew water add 40g of the concentrate to 4L of distilled water (or 10g of concentrate to 1L).
My TDS & buffer measurements were:
TDS: 54ppm
pH:7.6
-------------------------
Rao/Perger
5.0g Epson salts
1.7g Baking Soda .... buffer 1
2.0g Magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2•6H2O)
1.5g Calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl2)
2.0g Potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) .... Buffer 2
------
12.2g = total mineral weight
It's interesting as this uses two buffers..... two sources of Mg & one of Ca.
Add these minerals to 187.8 g (187.8ml) distilled water to make the brew water concentrate.
Basically, the total weight of the minerals + water = 200g .
To make the final brew water add 4ml of this concentrate to 1L of distilled water.
Another variation on this recipe is to make a 1L of the concentrate.
(Just multiply everything by 5)
25.0g Epson salts
8.5g Baking Soda .... buffer 1
10g Magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2•6H2O)
7.5g Calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl2)
10g Potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) .... Buffer 2
------
61g = total mineral weight
Add these minerals to 939g distilled water to make the brew water concentrate.
You should end up with 1L of concentrate.
The concentrate is really cloudy so shake well before you make your final brew water.
To make the final brew water add 4ml of this concentrate to 1L of distilled water.
I'm reading a pH of 7.9 and a TDS of 76ppm for the final brew water.
Link: Aramse
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Matt Perger recipe.
I've seen a few versions of the recipe.
Version 1:
Add 8.6g bicarb soda, and 25g epsom salt to 500g distilled water. This is your concentrate.
Add 2g of the concentrate to 500g distilled water. This is your brewing water.
Doing the math, 250 x 0.5L = 125 litres (approximately of brew water).
Of course weigh everything rather than use approximate volumes.
Version 2:
Barista Hustle's simplified version of the Rao recipe is:
50.1g Buffer
75.7g Hardner
874.2g DI water
--------------------------------------
Wolff recipe
Concentrate 1
Add 1.47g of Calcium Chloride Dihydrate to 1L of pure water.
This will give 1000ppm (parts per million) of hardness.
Concentrate 2
Add 2.03g of magnesium Chloride to 1L of pure water.
This will give 1000ppm of hardness.
Concentrate 3
Add 2.0g of Potassium Bicarbonate (buffer) to 1L of pure water
This will give 1000ppm of hardness.
Once you make these concentrates you can mix them to make your final brew water.
Eg:
To make water with only 100ppm of calcium hardness.
Dissolve 100ml of the Calcium solution into 900ml of distilled water.
or
To make water with 150ppm of Ca & Mg hardness.
Dissolve 100ml of the Calcium solution & 50ml of Magnesium solution
into 850ml of distilled water.
As far as the bicarbonate goes add 10ppm to start.
Note that bicarbonates react with the acidity in coffee which you may want to control
The sweet range lies between (10 to 20ppm).
The SCA recommends a carbonate hardness between 40 and 75ppm.
Thus our final brew water recipe is:
Dissolve 100ml of the Calcium solution + 50ml of Magnesium solution + 10ml of bicarbonate
into 840ml of distilled water.
You can adjust these ratios to your taste.
Every one milliliter (ml) of solution will add 1ppm of hardness.
In the case of Mg and Ca, it will add to general hardness.
In the case of carbonate, it will add to carbonate hardness.
You can check this using a TDS meter.
Since we are starting with distilled water with a TDS of zero, we can control and identify every molecule that's added.
Hardness in ppm means 1 mg of solute per liter of solution.
Thus, for 1000 ppm, you need 1000 mg (or 1 g) of hardness per liter.
TDS is most often measured in parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter of water (mg/L). .
In TDS for water , PPM = Mg/L
The Specialty Coffee Association recommends using water with a total hardness of 50 to 175ppm
and a carbonate hardness between 40 and 75ppm.
The SCA also recommends a pH level between 6 and 8.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wolff /Jono variation.
The original Wolff recipe used 3 ingredients to make 3 concentrates:
1. Calcium Chloride Dihydrate (adds calcium)
Add 1.47g of Calcium Chloride Dihydrate to 1L of pure water.
to give 1000ppm (parts per million) of hardness.
2. magnesium Chloride (adds magnesium)
Add 2.03g of magnesium Chloride to 1L of pure water.
to give 1000ppm of hardness.
3. Potassium Bicarbonate (buffer)
Add 2.0g of Potassium Bicarbonate (buffer) to 1L of pure water
to give 1000ppm of hardness.
However, the two most common ingredients weren't included:
Baking soda - bicarb soda (NaHCO3).... Alkalinity Buffer
Epsom salt - magnesium sulfate (MgSO4•7H2O)
According to Chatgpt (I'll need to check this):
Add 0.839 grams of NaHCO₃ to 1L of distilled H20 to achieve 1000 ppm of hardness
Add 2.46 grams of MgSO₄•7H₂O to 1 liter of distilled water to achieve 1000 ppm of hardness
The Specialty Coffee Association recommends using water with a total hardness of 50 to 175ppm
and a carbonate hardness between 40 and 75ppm.
The SCA also recommends a pH level between 6 and 8.
1ml of any of the above solutions will add 1ppm to distilled water.
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Take away thoughts and ideas.
Its a deep rabbit hole.
But the basic idea is the same .
Make concentrate solutions (buffer & Hardner) and add small
portions of these to distilled water.
The barista hustle solutions are great starting points.
Baking soda to make the buffer solution (1L)
Epsom salts to make the hardness solution (1L)
Once you have found a recipe you like start varying the components:
Buffer components: Baking soda - bicarb soda (NaHCO3)
vs potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3)
It's interesting to play with the sodium
vs potassium buffers. Does the Na add
a salty taste?
Hardness components: Epsom salt - magnesium sulfate
(MgSO4•7H2O)
Magnesium chloride hexahydrate
(MgCl2•6H2O)
Calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl2)
Note that at the moment there is no objective study that has found out the perfect combination of these minerals. Every coffee is different. Maybe we need to match our coffee to different waters?
I've read that Mg enhances fruity, floral & light notes.
Ca works more on the heavier notes ..... chocolate, nutty, dark fruits, creaminess.
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Links
Many thanks to
+ Link: Aramse
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