Water

I just posted this morning about chlorinated tap water that probably ruined my latest IPA batch. What works best for you guys? Bottled water? Do you treat the water? Anyone reading this ever tried just leaving the water in a bucket for a day or two? Succes? Failures???



Envoyé de mon iPhone à l'aide de Home Brew

I'm on a well so do have that problem, but here's what I know:
If your water is treated with chlorine alone you can let it sit overnight to degas. But most municipal water supplies are using chloramine which won't degas. This, you treat with Camden(potassium metabisulfite). It works practically immediately.
Of course, you can always use bottled water.

100% agree with the previous poster. Chlorine will come out if left overnight, but chloramine must be treated. Campden tabs work. So does citric acid. Both are pretty cheap compared to a batch of beer, so I don't really think twice about it. Good luck with future batches.

Edit: Not sure where you would get bottled water, but it would probably be about $0.75-1.00/gal. Maybe as low as $0.25. But you can treat 20 gallons of "free" tap water for like $0.25 for a campden tab.

When I first started brewing, my muni water used chloramines, so u would get water from a non-treated well, where I knew the chemistry. My city has since switched back to chlorine, so I fill my HLT at least 24 hours ahead and let the chlorine dissipate. If you have chloramines, or don't get your water ready soon enough, campden works great. I have super soft water, so I use the additions per AJ's sticky in tje Chemistry forum to treat my water.

Under sink charcoal filter will remove chlorine. Run your brewing water through the filter slowly for best results.

I have no other option but to use bottled water. My water is hard as a rock, and the sodium and magnesium is very high. My TDS is 1700ppm, even after running through a undersink RO system I'm at 200ppm TDS. It costs me $1 to get 5 gal of water out of those coin operated water machines, which the one one I use the water is usually 15-20ppm TDS.

Yes I take my TDS meter with me and a gallon jug to fill and test the water before filling my carboys, my plastic carboys also serve as water holders.

I use White House Artisian Springs water @ 25c per gallon. I fill my 6G BB with 5 gallons + a couple one gallon jugs. I sanitize the clean jugs with Starsan right before leaving to get the water. Works great from AE to PM.

I have my first 3 batches that have been treated with campden tabs fermenting now. The chloramine plastic taste from our muni water is noticeable only when I beer burp, oddly enough. Also with the lower gravity batch where the plastic burp effect is most pronounced - meaning barely but annoyingly there - I noticed a strong plastic smell at bottling too. So far all 3 batches - saison, Kölsch and pilsner - have had no plastic hints from taking a sniff in the fermentor. Bottling starts next weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew