About to brew for the first time..a couple of questions....

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fotomatt1

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I'm just about done acquiring all the equipment I need to brew for the first time. I've set up a fermentation chamber with a used wine fridge and a Johnson Controls A419. I bought a pretty comprehensive kit from my LHBS along with a partial grain recipe for a nut brown ale. I also got a 24 quart aluminum pot from a local restaurant supply shop. My wort chiller arrives tomorow and I'm ready to go!

My only question is this. Since I'm doing a partial boil and then topping off to 5 gallons in the fermentor, do I need to boil the water I'm topping off with ahead of time? Or....should I just get some 2.5 gallon jugs of poland spring? What's everyone's view on this? I'm looking forward to brewing this Sunday..just hope I don't make any huge mistakes!
 
When I do extract or PM's I just add the top off water no need to boil it first. Since you are going with bottled water should be good to go.
 
Spring water is fine. Go ahead and boil it if you're super paranoid, but I haven't had any infection problems yet topping off with bottled water. It sounds like you're far better set up than I was for my first brew... I'm sure you'll do great!
 
You don't HAVE to boil it unless you have really crappy water, like water from TJ (tijuana) etc..

Just use some filtered water or bottled water to top off.

I've used just water out of the sink here in Los Angeles and had no problems.
 
fotomatt1 said:
I'm just about done acquiring all the equipment I need to brew for the first time. I've set up a fermentation chamber with a used wine fridge and a Johnson Controls A419. I bought a pretty comprehensive kit from my LHBS along with a partial grain recipe for a nut brown ale. I also got a 24 quart aluminum pot from a local restaurant supply shop. My wort chiller arrives tomorow and I'm ready to go!

My only question is this. Since I'm doing a partial boil and then topping off to 5 gallons in the fermentor, do I need to boil the water I'm topping off with ahead of time? Or....should I just get some 2.5 gallon jugs of poland spring? What's everyone's view on this? I'm looking forward to brewing this Sunday..just hope I don't make any huge mistakes!
Click to expand...

You will be ok with just adding the spring water. Some people boil to be safe, but I wouldn't worry about it. I only ever use filtered water, and I do full boils, but on the few I did that were partial boils, I didn't bother boiling the water.
 
I am still partial boiling myself, and I use a PUR water filter. I wash and sanitize my gallon water jugs, fill'em up with the PUR filtered water and chill'em in the fridge for a day or two before brew day, I have had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Good Luck on your first brew, and let us know how it turned out!:mug:
 

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