Bottled Water

I don't like the taste of my tap water, so I plan on using a couple gallons of bottled water for my beers. Is there anything that I should know about the water profiles of the waters I should use? Also, is there anything that should be added.

FYI-I'll be boiling 2.5 gallons and adding the other 2.5 gallons of cold water to my primary fermenter.

If your tap water has a chlorine taste that you don't like you could boil the water to remove it. Then use that for your top off water. That's one option.

If you get bottled water that works fine too. Some people will say you should boil it but I've never had an infection and I've never boiled my tap water or bottled water. You can also chill your top-off water to help cool down your wort when you mix it.

No need to add anything. Just dump it in.

If you're using bottled water, use spring water and never distilled water.

If you are doing an extract batch, any bottled water will work. If all-grain, you need spring water.

Good to know. Are there any additives I should be watching out for on the labels of the bottled water?

Agreed with all the above. Use bottled spring water.

Unless , of course, you are going advanced all-grain and you feel like messing with water profiles using various additions - chalk, gypsum, etc. See the -TH - spreadsheet thread. Then, you could use distilled/RO water.

Dave

I would actually recommend 1/2 spring water and 1/2 distilled especially if you're going for a delicate lighter beer. You don't really need to compound the minerals in the extract with the minerals in spring water.

This will be my first brew in about 10 years. Didn't know what I was doing then. Only have half a clue now. (But looking to learn more). Just about the only thing I can say for sure is that I'm not a fan of the taste of the stuff that comes out of the kitchen sink. So, in other words...No. I'm not going all grain or crazy about creating some style of water from a country/city half way around the world. Just want to make a good beer this time around.

Also, I will be making NB's Honey Koelsch extract kit. A few weeks from now I'll be making a NB Belgian Dubbel extract kit that a friend wants to try. Bobby M, does it matter which water gets boiled for the lighter beer (Koelsch)? Would you advise using the same method for the Dubbel?

glad to see someone else brought this up recently. i HATE the taste of my tapwater. did my first batch a couple weeks ago using the water that comes from my sink...and before i even finished fermenting, i was kicking myself for not spending 5 bucks on a few gallons of spring water...

i presume it does matter, right? i mean, that's why New York pizza and bagels are the best in the world, and that's just dough. (and before you Chicago people chime in, NYC pizza and bagels ARE the best in the world...confirmed!)

It probably doesn't matter if you use the spring or distilled water in the boil or top up. If there's any advantage, maybe boil the distilled because it won't precipitate out any minerals.

For a darker beer like a Dubbel, you can use like 4 gallons spring, 2 gallons distilled.

FWIW, for the bottled water I get: The Spring Water is slightly less alkaline than the Drinking Water (140 ppm Bicarb vs. 190ppm), the other stuff is about the same (and fairly low).

DrawTap88 said:

I don't like the taste of my tap water, so I plan on using a couple gallons of bottled water for my beers. Is there anything that I should know about the water profiles of the waters I should use? Also, is there anything that should be added.

FYI-I'll be boiling 2.5 gallons and adding the other 2.5 gallons of cold water to my primary fermenter.

Click to expand...

I'm kinda surprised you don't like Chicago water, it's some of the best in the country (if you get rid of the chlorine) and very good for brewing. In fact, it's used by a few different distilleries as well without treatment, as well as some local micros... But to each his own, I reckon