water for home brew beers

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pmzjr69

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For 5 gallon beer brewing, Do I need to to boil all of the water before start brewing? I do partial mash with some gallons in fermentation bucket to pitch yeast.
 
For extract brewing I had success adding Brita filtered water in the boil kettle as per the instructions and then topping off the fermenter to 5 gallons using more filtered water.

I have read some posts where they boil the amount needed and cool it. At least the top off portion but I think that is unnecessary unless you have bad water.

Others brew with bottled spring water.
 
Depends on your water quality. I use city water from the faucet and have never had a problem. I've heard some people need to boil if they use well water that might have some bacteria in it.

If you're talking about boiling it for the actual brewing, that's not necessary for extract brewing. Most recipes will call for 1-3 gallons of water. After brewing you can top off the wort to 5 gallons (using cold water will help cool the wort faster too).

Hope this helps!
 
Of the water taste good you are fine. No need to boil BEFORE mini mashing. HOWEVER. Using RO or distiller water and then building the water to a style is just another tiny thing you can do to make better beer.

Brew science forum Primer stickie is great
 
Im switching to using only pre-boiled and chilled top off water. We have excellent water on long island, however I just had a dunkel come out less than perfect with a bitey chloriney aftertaste that I just cant chalk up to anything but the water.
 
I just did my second batch of extract. I used 2.5 gallons of tap water, boiled, comes from a huge aquafir (underground well water) in n. idaho. Then finished the 5 gallon batch off with bottled spring water. Last batch I used all bottled spring water. I think my tap water is pretty good but I can get spring water for .88 cents a gallon. I'm thinking the boil will kill everything in the tap water and then use the bottled spring water to bring the batch up to your 5 gallons. I'm new to this so please correct me if wrong.
 
We have an aquafir where I am also, its not only about sterilizing the water, its also about boiling off any mineral compounds that already exist in the water naturally, or added by your water company
 
We have an aquafir where I am also, its not only about sterilizing the water, its also about boiling off any mineral compounds that already exist in the water naturally, or added by your water company

The only reasoned I boiled this water was to get rid of any chlorine and that's why I boiled my tap water for the brew. I believe you want some minerals in your brew water thats why I used spring water for topping off. Trust me the tap water up here is excellent.
 
Of the water taste good you are fine. No need to boil BEFORE mini mashing. HOWEVER. Using RO or distiller water and then building the water to a style is just another tiny thing you can do to make better beer.

Brew science forum Primer stickie is great

what is RO water?
 
its also about boiling off any mineral compounds that already exist in the water naturally, or added by your water company

You can't boil off minerals. In fact, you'll end up boiling off water and concentrating the levels of minerals in the water.

what is RO water?

Rererse Osmosis water. It's the stuff that comes out of vending machines for $0.25 per gallon. It's what I brew with exclusively (with salts or acid added to the mash as necessary). It typically has next to zero mineral content, and is thus considered to be "soft" water.
 
The only reasoned I boiled this water was to get rid of any chlorine and that's why I boiled my tap water for the brew. I believe you want some minerals in your brew water thats why I used spring water for topping off. Trust me the tap water up here is excellent.

Hey Post Falls. Using the same aquifer here. Got 2 batches in so far using straight tap water (letting it sit for a little to outgas the Cl). No problems yet.
 
If your well,tap,etc water is mineralized,I'd just use bottled spring water. That's what I have to use around here in the hot weather months. Cold weather months,tap is fine here. But spring water is a lot softer than mineralized well(or ground) water is. You can get spring water at the grocery stor fairly cheap. It works great in my ales.
 
Depends on your water quality. I use city water from the faucet and have never had a problem. I've heard some people need to boil if they use well water that might have some bacteria in it.

If you're talking about boiling it for the actual brewing, that's not necessary for extract brewing. Most recipes will call for 1-3 gallons of water. After brewing you can top off the wort to 5 gallons (using cold water will help cool the wort faster too).

Hope this helps!

BLT-

Here is my town water report. everything same for 2011.

http://www.graftonwaterdistrict.org/pdf/on_tap_spring_2011.pdf

seems I dont need to modify the tap water if I filtered with Brita water and boil 7 gallons. then cool down until brew time.
 
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