MX1

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All I can get in bulk water is Culligan which is RO...

I have used that for all my brews so far, but know that it is bad. So today I will purchase some regular bottled water from the local (Belgium) supermarket.

Their water gets pretty expensive, so in a 5 gallon batch, knowing that I need over 7 gallons to brew with, would 2,5 gallons of reg water be enuff to overcome the RO water?

Tim

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The Pol

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This is almost like asking, "will this recipe work" and not posting the recipe.

Depends, what is the makeup of the "regular" water? And, what is the water profile you are shooting for.

If you are looking to build a certain water profile, then mixing unkown water types together, wont help, because you still wont know what you have.

Ever thought of getting some water salts and just making your water?

MX1

Recipes 

you know, I am a dumb ass, and now that you say it, I know that you are right....

I will still mix the store water witht he RO water, and hope that it is better than just RO plain.

Not shooting for any particular water profile, just something that will help my mash a bit.

Tim

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The Pol

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Id say that any mineral content would help, but yeah, who knows what you will have.

Water salts are dirt cheap and allow you to create any water profile you like. If you have to use RO water anyway, this would be an excellent idea for you IMHO.

Zen_Brew

Recipes 

I have just started playing a bit with adjusting water as Seattle water is very soft. If you are using RO water anyway than The Pol is right, you might as well just build it up from scratch. You can literally get all the salts you need for under $20 and they will last you a long time. I also picked up a cheap 50 gram pocket gram scale on Ebay to weigh them out for like $10. I was pleasantly surprised to see it tested accurate and repeatable to like .02 grams all the way down to 1 gram.

There is a bit of a learning curve, and I am still on it, but once you know it you can create anything you want. There are some very user friendly spreadsheets out there, and I know The Pol has experience with using some of the software out there as well as I have read some other posts he was involved in.

There really is no fix all solution. The most important thing you are missing from RO is calcium, but there are different salts for calcium. Some give you calcium with a chloride bump, and some with a sulfate bump. What you want varries with the style of beer you are brewing. The on line How to Brew covers water in chapter 15. How to Brew - By John Palmer - Understanding the Mash pH

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