Artesian Well Water

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jalgayer

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All -

There is an artesian well that has fresh water and a hand pump... unlimited free artesian water - that is 2 minutes from my house.

I am considering using it for my batch of Pliny the Elder this weekend.

Am I crazy?

What should I consider before I do this? Tests? Etc?

Thanks
 
Without sending it to ward labs - is there certain things I can do or look for (smell for) etc to be sure (or reasonably sure) its a go to use?

Is there any general problems that come from artesian well water?

I know this is probably not something that TONS of people are familiar with so I am hoping to get any help that I can
 
If people drink it, personally I would try it. I have no insight as to it's makeup or effect on brewing however, I have never tested our water and don't see a need to.

A side note, if you have to pump it, it is not strictly artesian.
Another side note, Olympia beer used to claim the use of artesian water for brewing.
 
The entire city of memphis gets its water from an artesian aquifer beneath the city. Its great water.
-Jefe-
 
dude, what a coincidence. I have an artesian well 4 minutes from my place. I brewed with it for this first time this weekend. I tasted the water on the way home from work the other day and it tastes great. there were people there filling up those big water cooler jugs. I brewed my american brown and and apa and I'm stoked to see how it turns out. I've already done those beers with store bought spring water so I should be able to tell if there's a discernable difference. I didn't treat it, fyi. go for it bro
 
dude, what a coincidence. I have an artesian well 4 minutes from my place. I brewed with it for this first time this weekend. I tasted the water on the way home from work the other day and it tastes great. there were people there filling up those big water cooler jugs. I brewed my american brown and and apa and I'm stoked to see how it turns out. I've already done those beers with store bought spring water so I should be able to tell if there's a discernable difference. I didn't treat it, fyi. go for it bro

Be sure to keep us up to date and I will do the same
 
will do. brewed both batches on saturday so it'll be a little while but I'll try to remember to post the update.
 
I would say if it's good to drink untreated it's good to brew with. You are not going to have the chemicals that come with city water like chlorine. And besides, if it were contaminated you boil for an hour so that kills of anything anyways. go for it.
 
Many times these are owned by the municipality. Look for a sign or something on the well. If a government is providing water, they test it. Call the authority in charge and ask for a copy of their drinking water tests for the well.
 
If it tastes good then it's probably fine to use. However, for the styles on the extreme ends of the spectrum, the water content can affect the quality. I'd have it tested to see what in it. I mean the test only costs $16.50! Ward Lab.
 
Went to the Artesian Well today...
There were 3 people there getting their fill. It is right by a stream/river and the water flows constantly out of a pipe that is coming out of the ground. I talked to two of the people there that were filling a LOT of containers and they said that the water is frequently tested by the county and "never" has any problems. They swear by this water.

I tasted, smelled and examined and it was some of the best tasting water I have ever had. Excellent mouth feel etc. Just great water.

I am VERY excited to use this to brew my Pliny the Elder with it this weekend and I will certainly report back.
 
probably. Water has to be pretty crappy to make bad beer or mashing impossible.

Really unless well water is packed with sulfur or some other god awful flavor or smell or so acid that you can't mash with it the odds are you can make good beer with it.

I've always used my well water in the various places I've lived and never bothered to even take a pH strip to it.
If it tastes OK it's probably fine.

The water composition question really inheres when you are trying to replicate some "style" of beer that's brewed in a place with a unique water. So, for those who enter "style" contests it's important, but otherwise I think it's all a lot of bother for nothing.
 
UPDATE!!!
I racked both beers (american brown and pale ale) to their secondaries last night and gave a taste. A few observations:

1.) Seemed to be a lot more material in the fermentors. Proteins coagulated right up. Used the same processes/equipment/recipes as when I brewed these with bottled spring water. The beer is pretty clear.
2.) The mouthfeel is deffinitely better. FGs ended up within .002 of their spring water counter parts but it just feels more substantial. I like it.
3.) The flavor is also the same as the previous iterations but there is just more of it. Hard to explain. Like it was cranked to 11. Doesn't taste as "green" as I would expect at this point.

All in all, so far I'm really happy with it. I'm going to let things settle a bit more in the secondary and rack to cornies in 1-2 weeks then carb up. I'll let you know how the final product turns out.
 
If anyone is a fan of Shorts, their brews are all being made with a northern Michigan artesian well water. Their beers all come out amazing. I don't believe they treat theirs at all. They acutually brought a couple kegs of just the water to a summer fest to stay hydrated, and as rediculous as it sounds.. It was some of the cleanist tasting water I've ever had.
 
the biggest thing to be aware of with artesian wells or any well that can be hand pumped is the level of nitrates in the water. If you have very high nitrates in the water and a lot of it is consumed red blood cells will not be able to pick up an anaquate amount of oxygen. In children this is called blue baby syndrome because babys can get a blue tint to their skin if the mother is drinking to much or it is used to make formula. The nitrates affect these wells the most because nitrogen is a leachable element in the soil profile and when heavy irrigation or rain fall occurs it soaks into the soil and moves verticaly through the soil profile down into the aquifer taking along with it anything that is soluable. My suggestiong is to purchase a nitrate test for ground water at a local farm and garden store and run a simple test. You could also contact a local extension agent for penn state or what ever university runs the extension program in your state.
 
Not to throw a wet blanket on all this, but some of the worst tasting water I have ever drunk came from an artesian well.

Artesian means that the aquifer is under pressure and the water will come to the surface without pumping. It has nothing to do with the taste and quality of the water.

In college, I spent a summer working as a soil physics technician at the South Dakota Irrigation Research farm near Redfield, SD. We had an artesian well on the farm. The water was tested regularly and deemed suitable for human consumption. Having said that, the water had a lot of dissolved Hydrogen Sulfide and Magnesium Salts among other things. As a result after drinking the artesian well water your mouth tasted like you had just eaten a hard boiled egg that had sat at room temperature too long. That was the dissolved hydrogen sulfide. And the dissolved magnesium salts acted much like milk of magnesia.

The water was very hard and they needed to replace the well casing every 3 or 4 years.

You got used to it in a couple of weeks. If you drank the water regualrly, you were, well, regular. The visiting professors used to bring their own water to drink. We would casually stroll over to the artesian well and drink our fill just to be manly and show them up. Well I was young.

But if the water tastes good and is certified safe to drink, it should be good to make beer.
 
Hey -

Yeah the water tastes very, very good. It is tested often by the city. Anytime I am there, I run into 3-4 people that are stocking up on it and have been drinking it for years and years.

I made the pliny clone with it 4 weeks or so ago and its just into the bottles now. I tasted at transfer and tasted great. Well see how it works out in the long run.
 
mate you are doing the right thing by giving that a go. The used to brew beer because the water was unsafe to drink basically. That and it just plain cool to have water thats not from a tap or bottle :rockin:
 
I also think it gives it some hometown connection. We don't have Indiana hops (aside from home grown), Indiana malts, etc. so I thought it was a cool way to say this is a real Indiana beer. Tap water tastes like tap water most anywhere. Little more character, you know?
 
yeah mate I fully understand. it just gives the beer a story and as you say a hometown connection. You can always say, "I bring in the finest ingredients from all four corners of the earth and mix it with pure local water to create Indiana's greatest brew..." or something along those lines :D
 
I just have to take a 5min drive to my parents house and fill a few containers from their well water. EXCELLENT water. Screw city water for big batches. Mr Beer didn't suffer from city water, however I will use some nice well water for 5 gal batches.
 
My water is pumped from the Florida aquifer, same one that Coca Cola get their Dasani bottled water from. Plant is 3 miles from my house! They also bottle under 42 other brand names including Publix. Local well driller says our local water is some of the best in the state.
 
The quality of water can't be assessed by saying "city," "well," "artesian," "spring" or any other simple one-word descriptor. Only a comprehensive test can determine the quality of the water. Easy to test for minerals, such as iron, calcium, magnesium, sulfur. Harder to test for microorganisms. Far more difficult to test for complex organic molecules like pesticides or herbicides.
Our "shallow" well (about 90 feet, pump at 65 feet) has good, perfectly drinkable water. However, it's loaded with calcium and iron, so it's no good for things like some cooking, coffee, and certainly not brewing. I employ the RO (reverse osmosis) water from the machine at the grocery store, and have very good results with my beer.

Fresh water is the crisis that will come to completely eclipse oil, and soon.
 
I drank 2 pints of each beer last night. Great stuff. like I said in an earlier post, tastes like their spring water counterparts but with more flavor and more body. I'm very happy with it. Not saying this is super water or anything but,
A: It's FREE
B: I like it
I used it to brew my IIPA on saturday and will brewing a hefe with it this weekend. Curious to see how it works with the different styles. I've got a porter, stout, and roggenbier on deck so we'll see how they go.
 
I have an artesian well that came with my property. When I bought the property 4 years ago, when the plumber was fixing a pump, he measured the natural pressure coming off of the well and it was at 20 pounds. Sometimes when electricity goes out, we still have running water in the house, which is kind of cool.

Anyways, I have been brewing now here for 3 years (first started with extracts and now only do grain), and all my beers comes out fantastic. There are no chemicals in this type of water (no chlorine/flourine/whatever else they put in there). I drink it also and never had any problems, it does go through a filter system in the pump house.

It definitely makes the beer not just good, but great! A lot of my friends who also brew, just use city water and its not the same, they come and get free water from my well.

Do a small 5 gallon test batch and see :- )

kodiakbrewing.com - a home brewer
 
jalgayer, how did this go... realize this is a pretty old thread, but i dont live far away and i actually grew up right down the road from this well. I remember as a kid riding our bikes to the well and this water always tasted great, very refreshing.
 
We have our first three batches fermenting now, kegging in three days. All water came from the artesian wells scattered throughout Olympia, where "It's the Water" used in Olympia Beer. They're still brewing the original recipe at Well 80, an brew pub with its brewhouse located directly over one of the wells. It comes from the glaciers of Mt. Rainier, same as our tap water.
 
There was an artesian well in Humble, Texas when I was a kid. We went to a dentist in Humble and drove past it, and I was always fascinated by it. I live in Minnesota now. A few years ago when I was in Texas I drove to Humble to see if I could find the artesian well that I kinda remembered where it was but not really. I found it. It's still there, and still running water, but upon closer inspection, it's now a fountain disguised as the original wellhead and just recirculates the same water. The EPA made the city cap the well because the highly-mineralized water was flowing into Lake Houston.

https://www.hkatexas.com/2013/10/lambrechts-artesian-well-humble-50-historical-marker/
 
I recently brewed several recipes using the water from a local artesian well. It worked out fine and the beer tasted good, not really any different from my home well water. But then I didn't have two of the same recipe beers to compare, one with artesian well water and one with my home well water. That's an experiment for another time I guess.
 
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