Chlorine

CornyKegs 728
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joebagodonuts

joebagodonuts

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Quick newbie question:
How do I get the chlorine out of my water? Do I have to buy a filter? Can I just boil it off or let it sit? What does everyone else do?

Thanks in advance
 
I let my water sit in the kettle overnight. The chlorine will evaporate. If your water has chloramine instead, like me, use campden tablets. 1 tablet treats 20 gallons of water.
 
Thanks.
I've been reading some of the posts about chlorine and I'm confused because I've never heard of chloramine before.
I'm going to do some research to see if I can find out what they put in my water.
 
Joebagodonuts, let us know what you find out about chloramine.

I also just read in, I believe, Chapter 15 of How to Brew by John Palmer's online edition (or Brewing Techniques) that chlorine can be taken care of by exposing the water to direct sunlight for 10 minutes. Seems like a cheap and easy insurance policy after using campden tablets to rid your water of chloramine.
 
DrawTap88 said:
Seems like a cheap and easy insurance policy after using campden tablets to rid your water of chloramine.
Click to expand...

I believe you'll have one or the other. Public utilities are replacing chlorine with chloramine because it is more stable, hence requiring campden to remove it. Chlorine will just evaporate if the water is left exposed.

You can usually obtain a water report from your city/town if on a public system ( a lot are available on the internet ). If not, you can obtain a water report from wards labs for a small fee.
 
Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia, which is more stable and easier to work with than gaseous chlorine. It is more persistent in the water. A plus for the general health, but an annoyance for brewers.
 
Thanks to all.
It looks like if I want to brew today I have to go pick up some bottles of spring water. I won't be able to get these tablets quickly. I'm 40 minutes from my LHBS and on a Friday in the summer it might take me 2 hours.
So - spring water it is.
- I learned something else on HomeBrewTalk today!
 
Is this really a necessary step, or is this more for people with poor water quality which necessitates the use of chlorine/chloramine? I don't even go thru this much trouble for my reef tank. I suppose I could use my RO/DI unit, but that'll just lessen the life of my filters.

I've done a few brews and don't notice any band-aid flavors, even in the brew i screwed up.

I don't know if my municipal uses chlorine or chloramine, but we do have excellent water quality here.
 
impur said:
Is this really a necessary step, or is this more for people with poor water quality which necessitates the use of chlorine/chloramine? I don't even go thru this much trouble for my reef tank. I suppose I could use my RO/DI unit, but that'll just lessen the life of my filters.

I've done a few brews and don't notice any band-aid flavors, even in the brew i screwed up.

I don't know if my municipal uses chlorine or chloramine, but we do have excellent water quality here.
Click to expand...

If you do all-grain then yes. If you do extract it's not as big an issue. I never treated my water for years when I was doing extract. Never had a problem. My first all-grain batch I did not treat. And I had a very weird off-flavor. I asked some guys at our brew-club and they mentioned the campden tablets and have been using them ever since without ever getting that off- flavor again.
 
Special Hops said:
If you do all-grain then yes. If you do extract it's not as big an issue. I never treated my water for years when I was doing extract. Never had a problem. My first all-grain batch I did not treat. And I had a very weird off-flavor. I asked some guys at our brew-club and they mentioned the campden tablets and have been using them ever since without ever getting that off- flavor again.
Click to expand...

I used campden for the first time yesterday. Here is to hoping it works good. I was getting tired of filling up on RO and mixing it with spring water. RO was cheap though, 1.75 for 5 gallons and the spring water got me a few #7 bottles.
 
I asked the guy at my LHBS and he said he doesn't use them nor do we need to here in my town. I also asked 3 or 4 guys in the local brew club and none of them use the tablets either. So i brewed without!! Tasted fantastic! Call me a rebel :p
 
I run a beverage line from my refrigerator's water outlet straight into the kettle.
The fridge filter takes out the chlorine and all the other impurities. I'm not sure if there are issues with this approach, but it's quick and effective as far as I can tell.
 

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