daugenet

Recipes 

What is the general consensus on using tap vs bottled water. I know the preference seems to be spring vs distilled since spring still has some nutrients in it.

The water we have here works just fine for brewing and does not seem to have a heavy chlorine content so I was wondering if it would be acceptable to use. Thanks!

MedsenFey

Recipes 

If the tap water tastes good, there's no reason you can't use it.

MeadWitch

Recipes 

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Primary: Cider House Rules Cider

Tertiary: Sweet Dried Cherry/Vanilla Mead, Prickly Pear Mead, Jalapeno-Peach Sweet Mead

Bottled: Huajillo Honey Mead - 4 bottles only, first ever mead, Light Draft Style Cider, Raspberry Mead, Hibiscus Mead, JAOM, Peach Melba Mead, Limoncello, Kahlua, Spiced Winter Cider, Orange/Vanilla Mead

fatbloke

Recipes 

Medsen and MeadWitch are spot on IMO.

Yes, spring water, like tap water, will have some nutrient still in it. But if you're relying on the retained nutrients to feed the yeast then you're gonna be waiting a long time.

As medsen said, if it tastes ok then go for it. At worst, you might obtain some reverse osmosis water or get a reverse osmosis filter (not cheap). Then the only nutrients the yeast will get are the ones you put in. So you have greater control over all, while the actual differences will probably be minimal.

regards

fatbloke

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"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

KevinM

Recipes 

Whichever the water, there's always things you can add to adjust it to what you need/want. More or less calcium, ph, etc. It only comes down to which one needs the least adjusting to get to where you want. Tap water, depending on your town, would likely do pretty well. For instance, if I were MeadWitch, I'd probably just use large jugs of storebought water rather than mess with the water deposits. I don't think I'd want to use Austin water now either. Course, ours over in my area probably isn't that much different. From a river and treated with stuff. I know a person who gets a reaction to the water from this town, but is fine with the water in his town, so when I get more mead/beer practice and have a recipe I know I want to use, I'll use a bottled water so that he'd be able to drink it.