Boiling Brew Water

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hefeweizen

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This is a pretty basic questions but does everyone boil their brew water? Of course the wort water is boiled but does everyone brew the other few gallons that go in the carboy? I have been using bottled water.

Did I miss something pretty basic here?
 
When I did extract brewing, I never boiled my top off water. But I have very good city water without much chlorine and no chloramines. Boiling does drive off chlorine, as well as other possible bacteria and nasties. I never felt it was necessary, though.
 
its a good idea to boil, because then you KNOW its sanitary.

usually bottled water is good to go, and really using tap water is a reasonably safe thing to do. it does increase risk of infection, but its by no means a guarantee to screw up your beer.
 
I use reverse Osmosis water that I make at home. I then add a small amount of sea salt to the water to balance out the minerals. remember the better the water the better the beer
 
I've been using distilled water. Should I be adding salts to it? I keep African Ciclids(fish that require hard high ph water) so I have lots of gh and kh buffers that i could add. Suggestions?
 
YooperBrew said:
When I did extract brewing, I never boiled my top off water. But I have very good city water without much chlorine and no chloramines. Boiling does drive off chlorine, as well as other possible bacteria and nasties. I never felt it was necessary, though.


+1. Staight out of the tap. But I have a well.
 
First I always used bottled water for everything, then realized cost sucked... So I went to Tap water, w/o boiling top off water. Then I had this same question so my last batch I boiled my top off water...

But since I don't use a chiller this was a hastle, so until I get a chiller, I plan on boiling the top off water the night before a brew, stick it in the fridge with th top on and use my other big pot to do my brew. But I will have a chiller withing the next brew or two. So I think I will continue to boil the top off, just to insure everything okay.
 
I boiled my water when doing partial boils, but now I went to full boils, so no issues.
 
I've always boiled my top off water, just to be safe and eliminate any minor chlorine taste/smell. The first batch I made was at a brewshop, as part of a tutorial, and the guy at the shop just added tap water directly to top off, and that batch came out fine, so it might not be that big of a deal.
 
I just use filtered tap water (and a few times unfiltered). If I am brewing something very light then I might go buy spring water from the store.
 
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