Martin, you need to go to Ron Pattinson's blog and search out his articles called The Salts of Brewing Waters. I believe it is a three part article but is by no means the only article Ron has written on water chemistry in the 19th century. In them he quotes pages from brewing publications printed in the 1800's in which they report in detail water analysis. The earliest reference to water analysis I have read there comes from letters written to the Joshua Tetley and Son brewery in the 1850's. The following is a report they commissioned while building a new facility in Leeds...
"Messes. J. Tetley and Son. Gentlemen,—Having undertaken, at your request, an inquiry into the purity and excellence of your Ales, I beg to submit the results I have obtained.
"It is well known that good Ale cannot be brewed with water unadapted for the purpose. Analysis has before shown that the water of your Brewery contains a very large quantity of earthy carbonates; consequently non-professional and inexperienced men would at once consider it ill adapted for Brewers.
"This, however, is not the case; for in the course of boiling, the excess of carbonic acid in the water, by which the earthy carbonates are dissolved, is expelled, and these salts are precipitated: further, the phosphates of soda and potassa present in malt decompose the sulphate of lime, giving rise to soluble sulphates. By this means the hard water becomes soft, and is well suited for extracting in the manufacture of Bitter Ale. When the earthy carbonates are precipitated from the water used by you, it is much better suited for brewing than even the Burton water, which contains nearly twenty grains per gallon of sulphate of lime"
(and here is the report submitted)
ANALYSIS OF THE WATER USED BY MESSRS. JOSHUA TETLEY AND SON, FOR BREWING.
Amount of Ingredients in the Imperial Gallon, represented in Grains.
Carbonate of Lime } 19.78
Carbonate of Magnesia }
Carbonate of Protoxide of Iron 0.93
Sulphate of Lime 4.97
Sulphate of Soda 13.09
Sulphate of Magnesia 9.78
Chloride of Sodium 7.11
Chloride of Magnesium 4.74
Loss 1.72
Total amount of fixed Matter 62.07
Analysis Of The Ales Of Messes. Joshua Tetley and Son, Leeds.