Best Water to Use

May some like a dumb question, but have any of you experimented with different brands of filtered water to use in your beer? Any observations about what different brands do as far as flavor goes?

I used many different types of bottle spring water and they all seemed fine. Now I use RO water which is much cheaper and I build it up for the style of beer I am brewing.

I'm a novice brewer so I can't pretend to be an expert, but I would recommend avoiding bottled water with added minerals and, depending on where you live, tap water is probably a no-no as well, unless you run it through a filter. A bunch of zero's on the nutrition facts label of a bottle of water is a good sign.

HOOTER said:

I'm a novice brewer so I can't pretend to be an expert, but I would recommend avoiding bottled water with added minerals and, depending on where you live, tap water is probably a no-no as well, unless you run it through a filter. A bunch of zero's on the nutrition facts label of a bottle of water is a good sign.

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Unfilitered tap water works great for me, and many other folks on this board. And you want water with some minerals in it (although I don't know about added minerals). Avoid distilled water if possible, becase the distilation process removes pretty much all of the minerals.

Ooompa Loompa said:

Unfilitered tap water works great for me, and many other folks on this board. And you want water with some minerals in it (although I don't know about added minerals). Avoid distilled water if possible, becase the distilation process removes pretty much all of the minerals.

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Tap water varies from one city to the next. Here in Spokane the tap water is fantastic. The guy at the home brew shop where I buy my stuff said he uses unfiltered tap water and has no complaints. Just a few hundred miles to the west, in the Seattle area, the tap water tastes like crap, IMO. I would never use it to brew beer, much less drink. As far as minerals go, some bottled water has minerals added to "enhance flavor". I just don't see how this could be beneficial in beer, but I'm just a beginner and have a ton to learn.

I use my tap water if I'm going to boil it, otherwise I tend to go with any spring water or drinking water. The tap water here isn't bad, and boiling should get rid of the nasties.