Brewing with unboiled tap water?

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aidan

aidan

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Does anyone here brew with unboiled tap water? ie. use water straight from the tap for topping up after partial boil or for mixing up a kit beer.

I did my fourth batch last night and used water straight from the tap. In my previous batch I boiled the water a day in advance in order to have it cooled down. But my first 2 batches I used straight from the tap and I didn't have a problem.

So I'm wondering if it's considered bad practice to use the water straight from the tap or is it acceptable? It is certainly a lot easier and energy efficient not to have to boil it. My water is good quality city water.

And a related point: For those who are using water straight from the tap - do you rinse with water after sanitising? I sanitised my fermentor with iodophor but then rinsed with water as I didn't like the idea of traces of iodophor in my beer (and rinsing with water is quicker than trying to drain it out). I know some people warn about rinsing with water, saying that it is no longer sanitised after you rinse with tap water. But it's the same water I'm adding directly to my wort so it can't make any difference. Thoughts?
 
Personally, I'd be more concerned about boiling a day in advance. When you heat your water, you lose all the chlorine. As it cools over those 24 hours, you risk an infection since you'll not have any free chlorine to kill whatever bugs happen to go swimming.
 
I wouldn't use tap water to top off. It most likely has chlorine in it which will give you off flavors. There is also a chance that it is not sanitary. But the chlorine is probably the biggest issue you'll run into.

I also use iodophor and I do not rinse after sanitizing. I just drain as much of the leftover solution out as possible.
 
From most of my reading the small amount of chlorine usually used in municipal water supplies shouldn't really cause any off flavors. BUT if for some reason its higher than usual, like if they have just added chlorine, then it can cause a problem.

I personally just use a britta filter to remove any chlorine.
 
BigTexun said:
Personally, I'd be more concerned about boiling a day in advance. When you heat your water, you lose all the chlorine. As it cools over those 24 hours, you risk an infection since you'll not have any free chlorine to kill whatever bugs happen to go swimming.
Click to expand...

Well I did store it in sealed sanitised fermenter and put it in fridge to chill so I don't think that's an issue. But it's a considerable amount of prep work plus energy usage so that's why I'm trying to figure out if I'm running any serious risks by just using the water straight from the tap.
 
I always topped off my extract and partial mash brews with tap water after the boil. Never had any sanitation problems or off flavors that I would attribute to that. Of course I live in NYC and the water is considered pretty good.
 
The tap water here tastes like ****e so I spend $6.00 per batch and use bottle spring water. I use tap water for mixing Star San but I wouldn't even try brewing with it here.
 
Used tap water to top off my first brew, no problems here and tastes fine. Also used tap in my current two running brews.


Rev.
 
A bigger issue these days is most municipal water systems add chloromine to drinking water because it lasts longer as a disinfectant than chlorine does. Unlike chlorine it cannot dissipate out by sitting in a container. It needs to be boiled or treated.
 
A question for those people who do use straight tap water: do you ever rinse, post sanitisation, with tap water?
 
aidan said:
A question for those people who do use straight tap water: do you ever rinse, post sanitisation, with tap water?
Click to expand...

I've been known to.

I'm of the belief that if you can drink the water straight from the tap then I wouldn't be too worried about brewing with it like that.

Of course depending on how particular you get about your beer this might not work out for you. However I have found it to work for me.
 
I am a new home brewer with 1 kit batch and I used tap water but it is from a 215 ft deep well with out filters or water softener. The water is great, clear and extremely cold, I have had several friends select it as better than bottled. I am going to all grain is well water going to be a problem?
 
aidan said:
Does anyone here brew with unboiled tap water? ie. use water straight from the tap for topping up after partial boil or for mixing up a kit beer.

I did my fourth batch last night and used water straight from the tap. In my previous batch I boiled the water a day in advance in order to have it cooled down. But my first 2 batches I used straight from the tap and I didn't have a problem.

So I'm wondering if it's considered bad practice to use the water straight from the tap or is it acceptable? It is certainly a lot easier and energy efficient not to have to boil it. My water is good quality city water.

And a related point: For those who are using water straight from the tap - do you rinse with water after sanitising? I sanitised my fermentor with iodophor but then rinsed with water as I didn't like the idea of traces of iodophor in my beer (and rinsing with water is quicker than trying to drain it out). I know some people warn about rinsing with water, saying that it is no longer sanitised after you rinse with tap water. But it's the same water I'm adding directly to my wort so it can't make any difference. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I freeze my tap water and add to hot wort to cool it down without using a wort chiller. This of course only works if you're doing partial boils.
 
I brewed extract for close to 20 years, and topped off each brew with tap water. I also used bleach to sanitize, and would rinse with tap water after sanitizing.
With approximately 200 batches using untreated tap water, I got one infected batch.

-a.
 
Ok, the consensus here so far seems to be that topping up with water straight from the tap is perfectly fine if you have good water. That's good to know as boiling and cooling off is extra work and extra cost. My tap water is good - no chloramine and very low chlorine so I reckon I'll not be boiling/cooling it for future batches.
 
I live in manhattan and we have notoriously awesome water. I never boil or do anything. It goes straight from the tap into the fermenter and tastes great.
 
I use tap water, but I'm on a well, and I have a micron filter plus a UV light filter. I boiled my top off water once and said eff it after that as it was a ton of work, I didn't have a chiller, and it took forever to cool to pitching temps. None of the three of us in the house have ever gotten sick from the water and I've brewed 8 or so batches since then and never had a problem. I'm going to do a water test at some point to see if I need to do any adjustments on the minerals at some point, but for now, the beer's been good.
 
All spring water here, whatever is living in it evidently doesn't live thru the fermentation, or at least my taste buds aren't discerning enough to notice.
 
I always use straight tap water. I've never had any off-flavors or other issues.
 

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