Water - Filtered Bottled vs. Boiled Tap

Hi:

This subject has probably been talked to death, but, I was unable to find anything with this title listed.

Up until now, I have been using store bought filtered bottled water. As you know it can be a chore to ensure you have enough when brew day arrives.

Anyway, I have purchased two 3 gallon jugs (from Walmart) and was wondering about what would be the best water to use to fill them.

I have four options:
1) I have a Britta water filter pitcher. I use it for my everyday water needs; i.e. coffee, drinking, etc. I can use it to filter my tap water and pour it into the jugs; a lengthy process, but, will produce 'clean' water.
2) I can just boil the water in large pots, allow it to cool, and pour it into the jugs.
3) Run down to the local Walmart and get water from the bottling water station they have.
4) Purchase filtered bottled water.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or, should I just stick to the old method of purchasing filtered bottled water?

Tanx, in advance.

I think the bottling station from Wal-mart is perfect, but reverse osmosis water (from the water machine) is different than typical bottled water. I'd make sure it says "reverse osmosis" water on the machine and not "spring water" or something else.

I'd either get a water report from my water company (or send a sample out to Ward Lab for $16.50 for a full report), or use the reverse osmosis water from the store.

If the tap water makes good beer, there is no reason to not use it of course. But I don't know what's in your tap water.

Yooper said:

I think the bottling station from Wal-mart is perfect, but reverse osmosis water (from the water machine) is different than typical bottled water. I'd make sure it says "reverse osmosis" water on the machine and not "spring water" or something else.

I'd either get a water report from my water company (or send a sample out to Ward Lab for $16.50 for a full report), or use the reverse osmosis water from the store.

If the tap water makes good beer, there is no reason to not use it of course. But I don't know what's in your tap water.

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Thanks for the feedback.

I don't have a clue as to what is in my tap water either. And, I don't trust what they may be putting in the tap water these days. One would think that they could just run down to the local water company (in my case Sun Valley General Improvement District [Sun Valley, NV <just north of Reno.] SFGID for short) and get a report. In fact, I will give that a try.

Either that, or break down and purchase a report. To be honest, I am a bit fearful of what the report would say about what I have been cooking/drinking. LOL

Did you try finding the report online? Mine is online (Cincinnati) so I assume most are too.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all that information and if I should change my brewing habits, which is to use tap water for all my brewing.

mtnagel said:

Did you try finding the report online? Mine is online (Cincinnati) so I assume most are too.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all that information and if I should change my brewing habits, which is to use tap water for all my brewing.

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I have not been able to locate any water reports for my city (Sun Valley [Reno], NV) online, to date. If anyone has a suggestion as to where to look, please advise.

Here's the report for Reno. I don't know for sure how close you are or if the same water source is used.
http://tmwa.com/docs/your_water/water_quality/2012_wqr_report.pdf

I filter. Get a whole house filter for around $30 and the actual filter inserts are $20. Each one lasts for a few years, easy. They say they last 30 days for whole home use, so brewing is way less. Anyway, get brass adapters so you can attach it to a hose and you're done. It is quick and will take out the chlorine/chlorimines as well as the other bad stuff. I've used this for years and the beer has been great. The only time I didn't use this setup was when I lived in Colorado Springs. The tap water there was just fine.

Make sure you open it up and let it dry out after using it so it doesn't get mold.

I didn't answer because my tap water is fantastic for brewing. Have you checked yours? By far the best option if it is viable.

I dunno about the advice that if your water tastes fine to drink it will make good beer. My water tastes fine to drink (perhaps because of the whole-house carbon filter), but it is fairly alkaline (8.3 pH) so it makes *terrible* beer as is.

Switching over to RO water made a world of difference for me.

Note, I also tried using "Spring water" from the grocery store, but with no real difference in the taste of my beer. Turns out the spring water is nearly as alkaline as my tap water (8.0 pH).

Look for the thread in the Brew Science sub-forum titled "Water chemistry primer" or the like and read the first post carefully. It saved my bacon for sure.

Whatever you do, make sure the water is filtered. Filters remove more than just chlorine, so this is a must. Buying filtered water is fine, but you generally don't know the mineral content, so your beer isn't very reproducible and you're not learning much about how water impacts your beer. Of course, if you're buying RO water you know the mineral content (nearly zero), so just realize you'll have to add back minerals, generally just CaCl and gypsum will do it, but that's it's own area for research.

Yeah, I didn't say that EVERYONE should use tap, I said that I do.

Louisville has some of the best water quality in the country and my beer is FANTASTIC. I have let many beer snobs taste my brews and I will let any of you do the same. If you don't have such good water, fine, I feel your pain.

I just mentioned it since the simplest solution should be the first one considered.

How about a choice for local/bottled spring water? I get it for 10c per gallon right from the source.

I'd recommend using your boiled tap water if you like the beer it produces.

But I doubt that's the case, or you wouldn't be using bottled water/ conducting this poll.

I voted Walmart water dispenser because that's closest to what I do. I use reverse osmosis water with 1 tsp calcium chloride per 5 gallons water with 2% acidulated malt in the grist. Took this from the water chemistry primer on the Brew Chemistry Forum and it works great for me.

None of the above. Tap treated with campden tablets to precipitate out chlorine and chloramine. Sometimes diluted with a percentage of distilled water to cut bicarbonates or reduce sulfate and/or chloride depending on the style.

All of the WalMart's I have been in have Culligan (Primo label) water filling station which is RO water. That is what I use along with Bru'N Water for chemical additions. Works great, but WalMart is close to my house.

I use unfiltered, unboiled tap water. Of course it boils as wort. My latest batches (in sig) have been delicious. We have good water. The guy at my LHBS basically said "if its good to drink, its good to brew". I even topped up a batch (.75 gal) straight out of the tap once - beer tastes great. I usually do any topping up with bottled water though. Mostly full boils at this point, so the topping up is minimal.

Malty_Dog said:

I use unfiltered, unboiled tap water. Of course it boils as wort. My latest batches (in sig) have been delicious. We have good water. The guy at my LHBS basically said "if its good to drink, its good to brew". I even topped up a batch (.75 gal) straight out of the tap once - beer tastes great. I usually do any topping up with bottled water though. Mostly full boils at this point, so the topping up is minimal.

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Just want to throw in against the whole " good enough to drink, good enough to brew" philosophy. Very untrue in my experience.

tagz said:

Just want to throw in against the whole " good enough to drink, good enough to brew" philosophy. Very untrue in my experience.

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I don't think that anyone said that. It is more of a "My beer tastes fantastic, so my water is OK".

Sorry for all of you unlucky ones with crappy water.

It really depends on where you live. San Diego has very hard tap water, and it's filled with chloramine. Personally, I just boil tap water and add a campden tablet to neutralize the chlorine flavor(which is VERY prevalent in the flavor of the beer). I haven't bothered with filtering or purchasing water, without the chlorine flavor the beer tastes great.

tagz said:

Just want to throw in against the whole " good enough to drink, good enough to brew" philosophy. Very untrue in my experience.

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+1. "Good enough to drink = good enough to brew" is not good practice. There was a good thread recently on how much chlorine is too much (answer is "any"), here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/chlorine-any-too-much-400507/ See especially post #9.

IMHO, the most critical elements to good beer are: (a) a good recipe, (b) temperature control during fermentation, and (c) filtered water. Everything else is secondary.

Simply boiling your water won't necessarily change your water profile. If you don't like your tap before boiling, it will be the same after. You might boil off some of the volatiles and reduce some of the sulfides introduced through the pipes, but most of the minerals will still be there afterwards, only in a more concentrated amount. You'd have to use tablets or additive to truly balance the ph and neutralize any flavors. Just saying.

cheezydemon3 said:

I don't think that anyone said that. It is more of a "My beer tastes fantastic, so my water is OK".

Sorry for all of you unlucky ones with crappy water.

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The post I quoted said it.

MagicSmoker said:

I dunno about the advice that if your water tastes fine to drink it will make good beer. My water tastes fine to drink (perhaps because of the whole-house carbon filter), but it is fairly alkaline (8.3 pH) so it makes *terrible* beer as is.

Switching over to RO water made a world of difference for me.

Note, I also tried using "Spring water" from the grocery store, but with no real difference in the taste of my beer. Turns out the spring water is nearly as alkaline as my tap water (8.0 pH).

Look for the thread in the Brew Science sub-forum titled "Water chemistry primer" or the like and read the first post carefully. It saved my bacon for sure.

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The pH of water can swing a lot, especially if your water is low in minerals as there is little buffering capacity. The pH doesn't really say much about the mineral content of the water. Leave that water out and you will see the pH drop as it absorbs CO2.

When high water alkalinity is mentioned it doesn't mean the pH is high, like acidic vs. alkaline, but that there is a high concentration of bicarbonate.

tagz said:

The post I quoted said it.

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That was me. Or I should say my LHBS employee . But I get that that doesn't work for everyone. No worries.

I live out in the country and have a well. I also have a water softener. I made my first pilsner out of softened water. For ales, I usually just use the water straight out of the well. I don't have any iron to speak of, but I do have some hardness, about 25 grains.

Just wanted to follow-up. I have made two batches using a simple RV waster filter and a hose. As the water is boiled during the boiling process, it has worked just fine. Thanks for the input.

Water Bottling Machines are suitable one for filling medical syrups, chemicals, juices, mineral water and many others. These machines are in wide demand these days. However, it offers excellent performance durability and reliable operations. These machines are tested using various parameters to measure their efficiency and quality. It is also cheap in cost compared to other machines.

Since responding to this poll a year ago, I've switched to using 100% distilled water and building the water profile from scratch. I used to test my water 3-4 times per year. Ions were wildly variable from report to report and I would have to dilute my water normally to cut something. After doing some math, I realized it wouldn't cost that much more to skip the testing and switch exclusively to distilled--and I would know exactly what was in my water.