How do I save money on filtered water?!

Hey guys,
So I have been brewing for about 2 months now and after 5 batches of extract I have switched to AG. One of the best things I like about AG is the price! I'm making a American Amber Ale tonight and everything cost me $18 for a 6 gallon batch! That is until I need to get the water. I live in Tampa and our tap water isn't to hard but I can taste the chemicals and chlorine in it, so I refuse to use this in my beer. I was curious to know what routes people have gone to save money on water, as opposed to spending $2 for 2.5 gallons every time and needing 8.5 gallons (at least) per batch. That's an extra $6-7 a batch x 4-5 batches a month x 12 months a yr! Rather spend that $300 on something else (like a shotgun!). I am renting right now, but plan to stay in the area for atleast 2-3 more years so I am open to a easy, permanent fixture. So let the idea's flow guys. Thanks.

PS - I have a large Brita Crafe, would this be fine for small extra ammounts of water? Maybe 2 gallons? Seem like a lot to fill up 8-9 gallons with this thing

You can go really cheap and just use campdon tablets or spend a little and get a carbon filter.

A carbon filter with housing from Mcmaster is about $30

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-water-filtration-devices/=gksvqa

Do I install this under the sink? Would this eliminate the chlorine and any other chemicals/bacteria that would produce off flavors? I ask about bacteria just incase I need to top off the wort if it comes out to low.

My tap water here in PA also has chloramine added and give a bit of a medicinal flavor to the water; I just crush up a campden tablet and about half of it to my brew water and it has worked great...no off flavors from the water in my beer. The bottle of campden tablets will last me years and cost under $5.

I may be in a small minority, but i found a natural spring near my home and since changing my beer has great.

i use a house filter, in line from my hose to my HLT/MLT for filling. Works pretty good. Pieced it together at Lowes. After two brews, it paid for itself in what I was paying at the grocery store for "spring water".

I live in NW Florida on the coast and our water here is really high in salt due to leaching from the Gulf.... living on the water is great... this is just one downside.


My Walmart has a Culligan machine and I bought some 3 and 5 gallon bottles that I take in when I grocery shop and fill em up at the Culligan machine. They charge .27 cents per gallon.

Don't waste money buying the gallon jugs of water they charge $1 for.... spend the money upfront on some of the refillable 5 gallon bottles and fill them up at the water machine. Your local Walmart should have this machine.


Or you could get a RO machine to remove salts from the water.... but the cheaper ones are slow and waste a lot of water. I have one but I stopped using it after I flooded a bathroom twice by forgetting about the jug filling up

My fiance's dad has a condo on Navarre Beach that we use a few times a year, I LOVE the Emerald Coast!

Rapt0rBrown said:

I may be in a small minority, but i found a natural spring near my home and since changing my beer has great.

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THIS!

There are so many natural springs around you just need to find them...get a local hiking guide or talk to your environmental services...there was a great spring in my town I never knew about for almost 20 years. Its right along a side road and easy to load containers into my car, completely safe! The name brand bottled spring water companies are doing the same thing, they just show you fancy commercials of isolated and heavenly looking sites, but its the same thing. I've been to a few of the towns and places in Maine that Poland Springs gets it water and believe me, if you saw the sites, it would change your mind on how pure and isolated these springs are. I'm not saying that bottled water isn't worth it, but its a fantastic study of marketing.

You could also put your water in the bottom of shopping cart when you food shop and "forget" to pay for it...but we would never do that now...would we

You could use one of these undersink filter setups... I actually have one under my kitchen sink and it does a great job of filtering my drinking, brewing, cooking water. You could try the filter setup from the DIY BYO issue, but I suspect that you need to filter out more than a single, small, filter can handle.

I use these until the water no longer flows well (about 1 year each). I screw them right on to the outside spigot.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-Water-Filter-2-Pack/14504322

shelly belly - does that hook up to your hose on the outside of your house? Granted it would just be for water pre-boil, aren't you worried about the critters (both microbial and reptilian) that live in your hose outside? Don't want lizard and frog leg beer.

Go to publix and buy a 5 gallon jug or two. Next brew day take the empty jugs to a public with a reverse Osmosis machine and file it for 1.75 per 5 gallons.

SwampassJ said:

Go to publix and buy a 5 gallon jug or two. Next brew day take the empty jugs to a public with a reverse Osmosis machine and file it for 1.75 per 5 gallons.

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This is the way to go. Using RO water is a good way to have a clean slate so to speak with which to build water depending on the style your brewing. I have a few better bottles for fermenting so I just fill those up the night before brew day for about $1.50 for 5 gallons. If your tap water is not that hard campden tablets and a carbon filter should pretty much take care of it.

My suggestion would be to get your water tested so you know what you have to work with. Turns out my water is perfect base water to brew with. So I just run it through a carbon whole house filter and then I build my water profile based on the brewing style.

flananuts said:

My suggestion would be to get your water tested so you know what you have to work with. Turns out my water is perfect base water to brew with. So I just run it through a carbon whole house filter and then I build my water profile based on the brewing style.

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He's in Tampa . I think drinking water from the pool would taste better. Only city where the water tastes worse than my city water tastes.

SwampassJ said:

Go to publix and buy a 5 gallon jug or two. Next brew day take the empty jugs to a public with a reverse Osmosis machine and file it for 1.75 per 5 gallons.

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This. RO water is great. I have an RO system in my house, but I still go to the store and re-fill 5 gallon jugs because the system in my house only has a 3 gallon tank (I think), and the filters are expensive.

Chris7687 said:

shelly belly - does that hook up to your hose on the outside of your house? Granted it would just be for water pre-boil, aren't you worried about the critters (both microbial and reptilian) that live in your hose outside? Don't want lizard and frog leg beer.

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Yes, it has garden hose fittings. I install it on brew day. At the end of the session, I drain it, dry it and seal it up until the next brewday.