Water Question

This may be a stupid noob question so forgive me ahead of time. Been reading a lot about the brewing process (this site, How To Brew, etc.) and one thing I haven't been able to find an answer to. Well either that or I am just missing it. When you are boiling your wort, say 2.5G and you are done with that process and it has been cooled and everything I see where you obviously need to add more water to bring the amount to 5G or so. My question is, does this cold water you are adding need anything special done with it or can I bring it straight from the tap (or bottled water if I so choose?) Thanks for the help. So far that has been the only thing that has me hung up. I am sure I will have a ton more questions as I get further along, especially with the yeast and such. Thanks again.

by no means am i an expert, i have only brewed a few batches myself, but as far as water goes as long as you drink your tap water it is fine to brew with! I have made a few batches with tap water and they have all tasted fine. I asked my local homebrew store this same question a few weeks ago and they told me that tap water is fine, unless you dont like the way your tap water tastes, in which case you can just buy some jugs of bottled water.

I might not be asking my question the right way. The water that you are boiling in your wort gets "clean" because it has been boiled, but does the added water after the wort has cooled need to be "clean" as well? Or does it not really matter? I see in the example recipe from the How To Brew book says to boil 3G of water and pour directly to the fermenting bucker and let cool. Then you go on and cook your wort and dump it into the fermenter as well (after it has cooled of course), but then it says to add water if needed to bring the amount fo the 5G amount. Can this extra amount come directly from the faucet or does it need to be boiled first as well?

Breck -

Usually the additional water is added while the wort is still hot to help lower the temperature. This will also help kill off any of the nasties that are lurking in your water.

You can preboil the water or use somethingg like Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. If you do boil the topoff water, you will need to be especially diligent about aerating your wort, because the boiling process will remove most of the dissolved o2 from the water.

I don't claim to be an expert either but I think it depends on the water you get from the tap. I live in a city where the water is very good if somewhat hard. I finish my boil, cool with a chiller, and then use the spray nozzle and hose on the sink to shoot water into the wort until I reach about 6 gallons for a 5 gallon batch. The water jet adds O2 to the wort. I don't bother with pre-boiling the additional water and my friends seem to think I make good beer.

John

Breck09 said:

I might not be asking my question the right way. The water that you are boiling in your wort gets "clean" because it has been boiled, but does the added water after the wort has cooled need to be "clean" as well? Or does it not really matter? I see in the example recipe from the How To Brew book says to boil 3G of water and pour directly to the fermenting bucker and let cool. Then you go on and cook your wort and dump it into the fermenter as well (after it has cooled of course), but then it says to add water if needed to bring the amount fo the 5G amount. Can this extra amount come directly from the faucet or does it need to be boiled first as well?

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Breck09 said:

This may be a stupid noob question so forgive me ahead of time. Been reading a lot about the brewing process (this site, How To Brew, etc.) and one thing I haven't been able to find an answer to. Well either that or I am just missing it. When you are boiling your wort, say 2.5G and you are done with that process and it has been cooled and everything I see where you obviously need to add more water to bring the amount to 5G or so. My question is, does this cold water you are adding need anything special done with it or can I bring it straight from the tap (or bottled water if I so choose?) Thanks for the help. So far that has been the only thing that has me hung up. I am sure I will have a ton more questions as I get further along, especially with the yeast and such. Thanks again.

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back when i did extract i would always use spring water or reverse osmosis. Get the cheap ones at the grocery store and just toss them in. You don't need to do anything to them. You can also use tap water but the risk of microbes is a bit higher and my tap water tastes like ass so i never use it. Consider hows yours tastes before you decide

ISLAGI said:

Breck -

Usually the additional water is added while the wort is still hot to help lower the temperature. This will also help kill off any of the nasties that are lurking in your water.

You can preboil the water or use somethingg like Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. If you do boil the topoff water, you will need to be especially diligent about aerating your wort, because the boiling process will remove most of the dissolved o2 from the water.

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So if I am adding the water to help cool the wort, does this mean that the wort should already be in the fermenting bucket?

I was just mainly concerned if after I have cooled my wort and need to add say a gallon or so of water to bring the level to 5G would I be able to use water straight from my tap or a jug/Britta filter pitcher. Sounds like it would be best to boil some water beforehand and have set aside for my top off water. Maybe cover it with foil or something so no nasties get in.

Again sorry if these are really stupid questions.

I'd cool your wort, transfer to fermenting bucket, and then add you top off water. I do extract with 2 gallon boils. I always cool in water bath, transfer to my bucket, and use my faucet sprayer to fill up to 5 gallons.

Thanks for all of the information guys. Here I am asking these questions, and I don't even have any equipment yet. But when I do, I think I will just boil with the amount the recipe calls for and then have some gallon jugs of spring water to use as my top off water. Then shake the bucket to get some air in there. I can't wait to start brewing. Although my wife can.

the entire point of adding bottled water is for taste AND to cool the beer. Hot wort goes into fermentor and then cold water gets added to bring you to pitch temp. If your using a glass carboy then cool slightly prior but the majority of the cooling is from the bottled water. I used to put them in the fridge and it works wonders.

scinerd3000 said:

the entire point of adding bottled water is for taste AND to cool the beer. Hot wort goes into fermentor and then cold water gets added to bring you to pitch temp. If your using a glass carboy then cool slightly prior but the majority of the cooling is from the bottled water. I used to put them in the fridge and it works wonders.

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Thanks for the extra information. This will be exactly what I do.

I use jugs of spring water that have been cooled as much as possible to help bring temps down. Apparently distilled water should be avoided.

I've read some stuff that considers water quality to be important. Do you want your beer to "taste fine" or do you want it to "taste great"? I'm not sure whether I could tell the difference between tap and spring water...or between liquid and dry yeasts...or between fermentation at 63 degrees and 70 degrees...but you start adding all the little things up and next thing you know you have great beer instead of average beer.

I'm going to toss out another thought for you to consider as you go into your brewing adventures. Should you ever decide to clone a beer and want to really nail the flavor, head, etc, you will need to match the water where the original beer is brewed as closely as possible. Let me give a couple of examples.

Let's say you want to reproduce Newcastle Brown Ale. The water at Newcastle on Tyne is hard therefore to really reproduce the ale you need hard water. You can get a report showing what is in your local water in terms of minerals, etc from the governmental agency in your area that handles such matters. If you are on a well you can send them a sample and they will analyze it for you. Brewshops carry mineral additives so you can put in whatever is not there.

Now let's go to the other end of the spectrum water-wise. Let's say you want to make a pilsner. The water around Pilzen is almost totally mineral-free. Unless this is the case with your local water then you might want to consider using something other than what comes from your tap. Or you can buy a purifier.

How much does all this matter? That's up to you. I seldom worry about it. The water where I live is great for brewing British or Belgian ales just as it comes from the tap. I happen to like the "anything goes" philosophy of Belgian beers and those are what I brew most often. On the other hand I was disappointed when I tried to reproduce Guinness Extra Stout. The thick creamy almost ivory colored head just wasn't there and the taste just wasn't quite "right". Next time I'll be talking to the guys at Austin Homebrew about what I need to add to the water.

Have fun,
John

Using distilled water is extremely bad for the yeast. In fact it is dangerous for you to drink it as well. The problem is the water is hypotonic and can cause cells to burst. It can rupture the yeast cells as well. In fact the only reason a human can drink it is because your stomach contains acid and salts. Besides distilled water is unnatural (that is, it is not found anywhere in nature). RO water is just about as bad, for much of the same reasons. You should not use distilled water unless you are mixing it without other water to dilute the minerals.

Yeast is a living organism. Like all live it requires some minerals to survive. Luckily the same minerals it needs we need. Only yeast can be much more sensitive to metals found commonly in water (mostly copper and iron). It needs potassium, magnesium and calcium. There is a nice writeup of it here:

http://www.beer-brewing.com/beer-brewing/brewing_water/minerals_brewing_water.htm
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-profiles-tools-131443/

It really depends on your water and its quality. Taste is just one of the them. People add salts to the water, depending on quality. And you would be surprised at how water chemistry effects the outcome of the beer (from how long it takes to start to the end haziness and off flavors it gives)

1. Distilled water exists in nature its most commonly known as rain water.

2. Extract is made by removing the liquid from wort thus concentrating whatever minerals were originally in water. If you add any water with minerals you will be altering the original water profile of the extract. Depending on your hardness you could really alter the profile.

That being said I'd be more concerned about chlorine or chloramine they will definitly make your beer taste bad.

With all grain the water profile is far more important as it can drastically effect conversion.

So tap water is likely fine assuming its not to hard or chlorinated. Chlorine can be removed with camden or a basic charcoal filter.

dracus said:

1. Distilled water exists in nature its most commonly known as rain water.

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Not exactly, while true it evaporates and condenses it is mostly dust that starts the condensation and it picks up quite a few contaminants along the way to the ground.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Put distilled water in a dish and see how long it takes mold and slime to grow in it.

Thanks for all the replies. The water our of my faucet is fine to drink and I would have no problems using it for my beer. My main concern was when I was adding water to get to the full 5G if I needed to sterilize the water before dumping into the fermenter or if I could pour water straight from the tap.

Man I really can't wait to start doing all of this stuff. I actually had dreams about it last night. Well I should say nightmare because the beer didn't turn out well and I was not very happy.

There's no need for nightmares. It is really hard to turn out a bad batch of beer as long as you follow the instructions and use a little common sense. Anyone can brew beer. The yeast does most of the work. Brewing great beer will come with time, experience, lessons learned, and patience.

John

Breck09 said:

Thanks for all the replies. The water our of my faucet is fine to drink and I would have no problems using it for my beer. My main concern was when I was adding water to get to the full 5G if I needed to sterilize the water before dumping into the fermenter or if I could pour water straight from the tap.

Man I really can't wait to start doing all of this stuff. I actually had dreams about it last night. Well I should say nightmare because the beer didn't turn out well and I was not very happy.

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dracus said:

1. Distilled water exists in nature its most commonly known as rain water.

2. Extract is made by removing the liquid from wort thus concentrating whatever minerals were originally in water. If you add any water with minerals you will be altering the original water profile of the extract. Depending on your hardness you could really alter the profile.

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thanks for posting this. the whole "distilled water is bad for you!" argument has been handily disproven, but it's one of those myths that won't go away. Even if it were bad for you in its pure form, you're mixing it with extract, hops, etc.