g_rath

Recipes 

I am on a well and I use cold tap water to top off. Yes there is a bigger risk but I am on my 9th batch and I haven’t had an infection problem yet.

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Melancholy Dog Brewery

Planed: more cider.
Primary: empty
Secondary:Dry hopped amber ale, Does Equis clone.
Keged:Pumpkin spice, wizen.
Bottled: Hard cider, Oaked bourbon vanilla cider, Vanilla Porter.

nuclearguy

Recipes 

I boil 2.5-3 gals, and have had great results as far as hop utilization. I also use tap water from the kitchen sprayer without issues( Detroits finest tap H2O). As long as you keep everything else sanitized your tap water should not be the issue.

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Primary- Wee Heavy Ale
Secondary- open
Keg/Bottle/Conditioning-
Drinking- Pumkin Ale, irish stout, sierra nevada clone, Citrus Wheat

Rick_R

Recipes 

As mentioned by others, I think it's a preference based on your water supply. I buy drinking water and use it for both the boil and to top off; I don't boil the top-off water, though I sanitize the area around the top and the handle of the container prior to pouring it in.

Rick

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*Any advice above comes from a beginner*

Primary: Nottingham Apfelwein, American Wheat
Secondary: Nothing
Drinking: Autumn Amber
Aging: Wee Heavy
Up Next: Milk Stout
Recently Gone: Irish Red Ale

Jaeger48

Recipes 

Agreed, I really like the 2.5 gallon boil. My hop utilization is better and the remaining 2.5 gallons offers a good deal of cooling when I pour into the primary. I've used tap water on my first two batches but I used distilled water on my third.

I watched a Penn & Teller BS episode that featured bottled water and because bottled water isn't FDA scrutinized there's no guarantee that it's going to be bacteria free. I also love looking at bottled water labels because they'll say where they were bottled. (most often some local source- hurray city water with a markup)