Does using distilled water make a difference?

Do forum members think using distilled water makes a big difference or not?

Reason for asking - I've been brewing with distilled water but the additional cost makes home brew as much as buying beer at Costco.

Cost of making 5 gallons:
Malt Extract kit $35
Gas or shipping $5
Distilled water $7
BTF, caps misc... $1
Result ~50 bottles
Cost per bottle $0.96

Cost at Costco for 24 bottles = $22+tax = $0.99

Distilled water is wortht he price when doing extracts/Pm's.

AG full boils though? Doesn't matter.

If you're really concerned about price per pint....switch over to all grain and get your best brew down to about 25 cents per pint.

BierMuncher said:

Distilled water is wortht he price when doing extracts/Pm's.

AG full boils though? Doesn't matter.

If you're really concerned about price per pint....switch over to all grain and get your best brew down to about 25 cents per pint.

Click to expand...

What he said.

If you want to gets your costs per beer down make the jump to AG, buy grains in bulk, and wash yeast.

Nope. Distilled water generally won't help your beer. It will make a difference...and possibly a negative one. Some minerals are good. If your tap water tastes good, brew with it. Otherwise, use spring water. If you ever move to AG, you'll almost definitely want to move away from distilled.

running extracts is best with distilled water because the minerals for brewing are already in there from the manufacture of the wort. using spring or tap water will add minerals that might adversely affect your beers flavor.:rockin:

Forgive my noobness rearing it's ugly head here, but I thought that it was bad to brew with distilled water. I was told to use spring water or drinking water, but never distilled water.

Here's a good, short article about better extract brewing:

http://byo.com/feature/1369.html

IMHO, distilled water isn't worth it. Use water that tastes good. Just don't use overly hard water. That's all.

Kubed said:

Forgive my noobness rearing it's ugly head here, but I thought that it was bad to brew with distilled water. I was told to use spring water or drinking water, but never distilled water.

Click to expand...

When mashing, distilled water is a no-no. The question here is whether extract adds enough minerals to distilled water to facilitate good fermentation and good flavor. Generally, the answer is probably yes, so it'd be ok (or maybe even recommended) to use distilled water when using extract as the only source of malt-derived fermentables.

If the end product is a very light flavored, light colored beer, distilled water might be somewhat beneficial, but soft spring water or soft water from the tap will probably not be all that detrimental. Certainly, distilled water is unnecessary when brewing darker or more bitter beers that tend to benefit from slightly harder water.

Have you tried brewing with your domestic water? I would start there - or ask some local home brewers about their experiences in your local area.

I have very alkaline well water - lots of bicarbonate. It works fine for extract beers. For pale all grain beers, I dilute with distilled water to reduce the alkalinity. All grain stouts are ok with my well water.

Distilled water is useful to dilute the amount of minerals in your water. This can be extremely important when attempting to make delicate pilsners et al or when adding significant amounts of gypsum. Gypsum can create noticeably harsh tastes if your base water has high levels of sulfur. In this case you would want to dilute with distilled.

For the vast, vast majority of water supplies in the USA, you won't ever have to worry about it though. There is almost no situation I can think of when you should use 100% distilled water. 20-25% distilled or even up to 50% distilled. Maybe.

Distilled water is unnecessary in most areas and a bad idea for mashing. Same for RO water.

I need it to cut heavily carbonated water for pale ales. Makes a huge difference. Don't get the harsh hop bitterness. Bicarbonate(?) levels are upwards of 355ppm out the tap along with high overall alkalinity. Tap water works well with stouts and other dark beers.

I agree with Brett. On most styles I just use tap water. However, when I make Czech pils type beers or other delicate beers I go 50/50 distilled/tap water. I have relatively hard water and the 50/50 mix puts me very close to Pilsen's water profile.

I think I read in the last issue of BYO that distilled is better for extracts since the minerals are already in the malt. Using tap water (as I do) can double up on the minerals and adversely affect the flavor.

Using distilled water allows you to add the minerals to duplicate another towns brewing water if you are to brew their style.

I use PUR filtered tap water...

You buy distilled water, that is a waste of money, I brew with water straight out of my garden hose.... and I bet I am not the only person that does that.

+1 on not using distilled water. Use it to dilute, but not straight (and never straight for AG). Yuri got it dead on - you need some of the minerals that are in water (ie., magnesium for yeast health) and others are just good for certain styles.

if your tap water sucks and you want to get all sciencey then you can spend a lot of money on a reverse osmosis setup and then do a lot of reading about minerals in water and how they relate to brewing and then you can adjust your RO water with stuff like gypsum and MgSO4 (epsom) and calcium chloride. you could also buy a couple filters, like a charcoal filter (brita, or pur) if it tastes nasty, and maybe a 5 micron filter if you have well water. if you have a municipal water supply you can ask them about all the nasties in your water and how to filter it.