Reverse Osmosis/Deionized Water

I've read that when one is using extracts or partial grain/mini-mash styles, topping up with RO/DI or distilled water is fine because the extracts have all the minerals present in proper ratios. Is this accurate or off base?

Well, extracts have been mashed, but you still have to boil hops as to which your water profile will contribute to the flavor. So RO or distilled water will have a different flavor than your tap water. Personally I would use Spring Water if you are using bottled water, but I don't know how much it will really change your brew.

Be careful with messing around with the minerals when brewing extracts. You are correct, Pelikan, that extracts have minerals in them, but there is no "proper ratio." There are only different water profiles, and you don't know what you have with that extract.

I never had any problem throwing a little Burton salts in an extract batch when I wanted something along those lines, but don't make any grand adjustments. You don't know where your starting point is.


TL

I didn't plan on adjusting anything. Our water is grossly hard, and we have a Reverse Osmosis/Deionizing machine, which puts out water at about 4ppm, as opposed to the 250+ ppm of our tap. I read in the Joy of Home Brewing that extracts will generally have all the minerals required, so that using RO water (without any additions) is not a problem.

Another way of looking at it is this: if you were using extracts (mini-mash), would you use 250ppm + water, or reverse osmosis? I'm genuinely curious, not a rhetorical question.

I would use the RO water and then make minor mineral additions.


TL

Hey Texlaw, what about dilluting his tap water with the RO water? Would that make it softer? Or am I off base?

Warped04 said:

Hey Texlaw, what about dilluting his tap water with the RO water? Would that make it softer? Or am I off base?

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It would make it softer, but I don't know what's in there to begin with. What I think I'm going to do next time around, is use about 2 teaspoons of Burton salts, and a Servomyces tablet. In addition to the stuff already present in the extracts, I think I'll be about where I should be with that.

What is your kH and gH? over 200 seems like its Very hard water. Do you get mineral deposits if you don't dry off fast enough when you get out of the shower??

Also remember, RO,DI water is almost oxygenless (dissolved) and has only a few minerals if any left in it. The best bet is to just do a RO purify if you don't want scrubbed clean water (nominally <20ppm impurities for RO & DI'd water). Aeration is essential if you do RO,DI. I learned that in my fish tanking days.

RedIrocZ-28 said:

What is your kH and gH?

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I have no idea what kH and gH are. I just have a very basic TDS meter. We had a water softening system that **** the bed on us a few months back. Consequently, I got an RO/DI system for gardening, cleaning, drinking, and other such nonsense.

over 200 seems like its Very hard water. Do you get mineral deposits if you don't dry off fast enough when you get out of the shower??

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No, nothing like that. The TDS would have to be something around 800 - 1000 to start seeing visible deposits, at least to my knowledge. Our water is right around 200, which is the beginning of hard water. 200 isn't out of control, but for most stuff beyond washing dishes and making Kool-Aid, some type of filtration is required. When I was in college, I lived in this crappy old house, and the TDS there was nearly 700 PPM, and I still wasn't running into major problems on a day to day basis...certainly wouldn't have used that water for anything but bathing and washing dishes, but nevertheless.

Also remember, RO,DI water is almost oxygenless (dissolved) and has only a few minerals if any left in it.

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An advantage of RO is that it really steeps stuff well, because there aren't minerals present to impede osmosis. For the most part, there are probably enough minerals in the extract component to get the job done, but in the future I'm going to use about 2 tsp of Burton's salts. The brew that's in the primary now -- an oatmeal stout -- was made with RO water and no additions, besides the obvious stuff imparted by the grains and extract. Fermentation is proceeding fine by all accounts, so I suppose I'll just have to wait another 7 or so weeks to find out if it's a turd (or a gem).

I was thinking that your hardness was over 200 which is really hard water. You are obviously using a different measuring system than I am accustomed to in the fish tanking world. kH is carbonate hardness and gH is General hardness for reference.

I would offer more input but its bed time. Carry on.

The mineral deposits part was a joke by the way lol