Glacier - Drinking Water

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Haputanlas

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Hey Guys,

I couldn't find any threads where anyone used this water for their brew day. However, I just bought 10 gallons to use for my brew day tomorrow and just looked up the water specifics from their website.

The website states the following:

"Glacier Water’s sophisticated vending machines operate like mini bottled water plants. Inside the compact
machine, the water is carbon and micron filtered, passed through a reverse osmosis membrane, then filtered
and UV-treated. And all of Glacier Water’s more than 17,000 machines are serviced by Glacier Water
technicians to ensure consistent quality standards and hassle-free operation"

Since this was supposed to be normal drinking water, I thought it was going to be a mineral water. However, the site mentions reverse osmosis. Do you think they are putting more minerals back into the water? Or am I going to have to go pick up some water treatments?




glacier-logo.jpg
 
I'd be interested to hear if anyone's used this before also. I have one of these machines right next to my house, and it's very convenient to fill up a 5G jug of it. It does mention RO in the fact sheet... but does that mean it's completely void of any minerals? Is all RO created equally or would I have to send some of this away to be tested to get accurate readings?
 
I use one of those machines all of the time. I don't know if it's 'Glacier' or not but its reverse osmosis and touts all of the same ideas. My beer turns out great without any treatments.
 
I want to see someone brew with REAL glacier water: silty and muddy!
 
Geer, do you do AG brewing? I've read all over the place that RO water will not work well for mashing because it needs Calcium to convert the amylase enzymes... Have you had any efficiency issues when using the RO water?
 
Prolific-

I am All Grain and have about 30 batches under my belt. By no means am I as experienced as Revvy or Yooper and I hope I don't get flamed for only providing anecdotal evidence.

I did have efficiency problems on my first few batches but I chalked that up to being a newb as I am at a pretty consistent 75% now. My Mashing and sparging techiniques have improved greatly thanks to much reading on this board.

Also, I understand the concern with not having enough minerals in the water profile to help with fermentation. I offset that with building healthy yeast starters. I tend to slightly over pitch. I haven't experimented with water additives yet and have very good tasting beer. While I'll admit I haven't cloned anything perfectly, the beers still taste great.

Take my advice with a grain of salt (no pun intended) but do your homework and decide what risks you are willing to make with your beer. You can always try a side by side if you are into experimenting. Do a small mash of RO water and treated water and see if you can tell the difference. In my experience RO water has worked out perfectly and provided me with many great tasting brew.

-Steve
 
I use Glacier. It's RO water with an extra UV sanitizer step. I've never used it in a mash straight, however. I always add trace minerals to match the composition of water from a particular locale. But it's as easy as adding a gram or two of chalk/gypsum/salt/baking soda/epsom salt to the crushed grain prior to mashing.
 
Its AJ's advice, not Yooper's. Its good advice though. Simple additions of either gypsum or calcium chloride to RO water is going to produce better beer most of the time. That calcium is important for the fermentation performance and clarification. Do add minerals back if you're using RO water.

I have not seen inside those RO vending machines, but they seem to be big enough that they could use commercial 2.5-inch diameter cartridges that can be purchased with a variety of membrane options. Most RO membranes produce similar water quality. You can see a typical profile for RO water in Bru'n Water.

But an option that some large scale breweries go to is Nano-filtration. Nano is one step less stringent than RO and it lets a little more of the ions through the membrane. The water quality is a little less pristine than RO. But we brewers don't really want to remove everything, just the excessive mineral content. Nano-filtration is more efficient than RO and that equates to big energy and water savings to the breweries.
 
I have used this water for every brew so far. Everytime it has turned out delicious. Also, my most recent batch was my first AG so i haven't tried it yet but I'm not worried. I do put gypsum in all of my brews but that is jsut because its one of those things I am "supposed" to do, Only recently have i actually found out what it is intended for heh.
 
Thanks, I've been looking at that thread for a while, so I'm going to do some similar additions and see how things go this weekend.
 
Just to revisit this thread, I've used this water for each of my beers since this post (6 or 7).

It's RO water that needs salt additions. However, my brews have all turned out fantastic since I've been using it.
 
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