Pure Faucet filter for Homebrew?

Just picked up one of these clip in faucet adapters from Costco. It was $30.

I used bottled water on my first batch, but I can see that getting expensive quick. I hate drinking water from the tap as it tastes terrible to me, so I figure I would not want it in my beer either. For drinking water I generally use a Pure pitcher in the refrigerator and it cleans it up ok.

I really want to go R/O eventually for drinking water, but I read that our hard water can really be great for brewing, so perhaps the Pure is better?

I'm hoping to just pop it on and off the garage sink when making brews. Anyone else doing this?

I use a pure water filter for all my brews and I'm happy with it. You can probably get 200 or so gallons out of the filter before you need to replace. I think the refills are $15-20.

I just moved to a house with a well, before I used the tap water without issue. The well water scares me. I am thinking of doing the pure filter myself.

I do the same, only I use the other brand! The only problem I have is that after 3 batches it seems to clog up and now takes an hour to filter 10 gallons of strike and sparge water.

I'm cheap and will be using it at least once more before buying another cartridge.

billf2112 said:

I just moved to a house with a well, before I used the tap water without issue. The well water scares me. I am thinking of doing the pure filter myself.

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No need to be scared, just have a water sample tested. It will probably have less chemicals in it than tap water.

If the filter has plastic fittings, it could eventually start popping off the faucet. You could also consider getting an in-line filter.

I used to be the process engineer for the inline PUR filters. Fun job, although I could never quite come home with clean clothes

The inline filter will work great for extract brewing. It will not reduce hardness, but will remove/reduce chlorine, lead, mercury, and many volatile organics. The monitor will shut off flow between 100-120 gallons, but you may see chlorine reduction up to 200 or so. The gravity pitchers do soften the water some as it has ion exchange resin.

Neither style will alter your alkalinity, so if you are using them for all grain brewing it might not give you what you need. I typically use a combination of store bought RO water, hard tap water (for Ca and Mg), and PUR filtered soft tap water to get my mash conditions right.

I am currently doing research to figure out whats best for Chicago water but I have been using a Watts countertop filter for over two years now and it works great! Filters more than the other, more common brands and the filters are only $10-$15 and last much longer, up to 2,000 gallon is what I read somewhere. We change ours twice a year. I will never go back to pur or brita.

i have 2 5 gallon plastic water jugs with lids. i just clean them then run down to the local walmarts and fill them up at the culligan water filler. it costs about about $2.60 for 10 gallons. the water tastes much better than what comes out of my tap at home.

I use a PUR filter as well. Never had any chlorine/chloramine flavor problems from it. The only time I use RO water is for very light beers and even then I cut it with a portion of PUR filtered water to put some minerals back in.

Great information, solbes. Thanks.

flanneltrees804 - there's an entire thread (in the IL section I think) solely for Chicago water. We have good brewing water. Most do small additions (1-3g CaCl2, CaSO4, or acid depending on style). I've never had to dilute.

ok then I'll go ahead and give it a shot. Hopefully the plastic fittings hold up for a while since I would need to add and remove the filter often. I guess if I get $30 gallons it just saved me $30

I hear stories about those water fill stations, such as homeless putting in coins then drinking out of them when thirsty. Who knows what kinda crap is in those. Of course your going to boil the water anyways!

I'd love to get an under sink filter, either a fancy regular filter that leaves minerals, or RO filter. My problem is that my sink is cast iron...so Drilling is an issue. Not that I care a ton about our sink, our kitchen is in dire need of a remodel anyway. I guess I could hook one up to the garage laundry sink easy enough, but that seems rather silly, although thats where I plan to snap the pur filter on and off. We have the large gravity fed pure filter, the one with the huge filter canisters and that makes our water taste pretty good, but I have read they work better than the faucet attached ones.

I'm pretty sure the fittings are metal, not plastic. But its been 8-9 years since I worked there.

If you are going to disconnect your PUR filter for more than a week at a time, you might want to put it in the fridge to keep it from growing something inside. Or take out the filter so it can dry out (this will reset your flow monitor). They are really meant to be used fairly regularly on a kitchen faucet.

Our local grocery stores have RO water refills for $.39/gallon. They change filter elements monthly and have UV sterilization, so I know its good to use.

solbes said:

I'm pretty sure the fittings are metal, not plastic. But its been 8-9 years since I worked there.

If you are going to disconnect your PUR filter for more than a week at a time, you might want to put it in the fridge to keep it from growing something inside. Or take out the filter so it can dry out (this will reset your flow monitor). They are really meant to be used fairly regularly on a kitchen faucet.

Our local grocery stores have RO water refills for $.39/gallon. They change filter elements monthly and have UV sterilization, so I know its good to use.

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Yea I would have to disconnect it as it can't attach to my kitchen faucet and I certainly need to laundry sink for other tasks. Would you suggest I return it then and stick to the pitcher? The gravity fed pitcher will take a very long time to produce 4 or 5 gallons though.

Nah I would just take out the filter element and store dry or put the whole thing in the fridge in between uses. Either would be fine. And quite a bit faster than the pitcher.

solbes said:

I'm pretty sure the fittings are metal, not plastic. But its been 8-9 years since I worked there.

If you are going to disconnect your PUR filter for more than a week at a time, you might want to put it in the fridge to keep it from growing something inside. Or take out the filter so it can dry out (this will reset your flow monitor). They are really meant to be used fairly regularly on a kitchen faucet.

Our local grocery stores have RO water refills for $.39/gallon. They change filter elements monthly and have UV sterilization, so I know its good to use.

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There's a Water Store down the street that dispenses inside for $1.75 for 5 gallons. It's RO water and they have a huge bunch of equipment behind some glass in the building. They also have a 24 hour fill outside but I'm not sure my carboy would fit in that unit. I noticed a lot of people stopping there as I was returning my unused parts for a stir-plate at radio shack next door.

Would I be better off just using that place?

Also could I consider water from that place sanitized or would I need to boil it if I wanted to use it to top off my brew after cooling.

I sanitize my water bottles before I go. The water machine has a UV light before it goes into the bottle. Ive always thought this was good enough. I've never boiled the top off water and I haven't had a problem yet. ( knock on wood ).

So maybe I would be better off buying some 1 gallon carboys or something to help me measure the amount of water.

Only made one beer so far,and I used bottled water so it was easy to measure out but now I'm not so sure what will be the best practice.