using tap water or bottled water to brew

I have brewed all my beers so far with bottled drinking water but want to get cheap and use tap water, What do you think??

Thanks

Tap water for me... Beer turns out great! Just let the faucet run for a bit first.
I do use bottle water if I need to top off though.

I use tap water through a PUR filter.

homebrewer_99 said:

I use tap water through a PUR filter.

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I have read a ton of books and online forums on brewing water. What I have learned is if you like the taste of your tap water, you can brew with it. I do however suggest the PUR filter or similar. You may want to use a PUR filter with the carbon filter. They make a three stage filter with the carbon added. This will remove most unwanted chemicals such as chlorine.

kb9vzh said:

I have read a ton of books and online forums on brewing water. What I have learned is if you like the taste of your tap water, you can brew with it. I do however suggest the PUR filter or similar. You may want to use a PUR filter with the carbon filter. They make a three stage filter with the carbon added. This will remove most unwanted chemicals such as chlorine.

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That's the one...

I don't even bother to filter my water. It tastes good right out of the tap.

But I do use campden tablets to remove the chlorine. One half a tablet is all I need to treat all my brew water for a typical 5 gal batch of beer.

My water is a bit hard and alkaline, so the only time I use bottled water is when I need to reduce the mineral content of my tap water. I dilute half my brew water with de-ionized (RO) water, but only for really light beers.

mine tastes good right out teh tap, too i usez it

kb9vzh said:

What I have learned is if you like the taste of your tap water, you can brew with it.

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This is absolutely true if you're brewing extract beers. However, the same cannot be said when brewing all grain beers, where the waters' ion concentrations and grain choice will determine mash pH.

johnsma22 said:

This is absolutely true if you're brewing extract beers. However, the same cannot be said when brewing all grain beers, where the waters' ion concentrations and grain choice will determine mash pH.

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Yes, this is a very good point. You definitely need to pay attention to more than just taste when brewing AG. Water chemistry (namely mineral content) also becomes important. However, you can still brew with tap water, provided that you are aware of any adjustments that need to be made. Alternatively 5.2 stabilizer will allow one to make almost any brew (except only the lightest and darkest of beers) with most good tap water.

I'm located in a small community right on the edge of Detroit (waters great from Detroit as it is, and no thats not sarcasm ), our city has its own system and sends out a water report every so often. Our water seems to be a pretty good make up according to some of the local brewers so I am going to starting to use tap water I think. Thus far I have used about 25gallons of spring water. Yesterday when I brewed my hefeweizen I used tap for the wort and chilled spring in the fermenter.

Spring water is $0.66/gallon, I'm sure tap water is fine but for no more than bottled water costs I'm going to just spend $4 extra and get some good spring water.

It doesn't make sense to me to spend $$ on premium hops and grains and whatnot and then get cheap on the main ingredient.

Mutilated1 said:

It doesn't make sense to me to spend $$ on premium hops and grains and whatnot and then get cheap on the main ingredient.

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Well said -- if you have low quality tap water, you couldn't be more correct!

Well our tap water is pretty decent to drink. I drink it and it doesn't taste "bad" or anything. We have some of the best tap water in the state actually if the roadsigns when you enter town are to be believed. But if you're trying to make a really good beer, it just seems to me like an extra 3-4 bucks spent on good spring water is money well spent. Even if the tap water doesn't taste bad, its probably not going to taste as good as bottled spring water - and besides the water for a 5 gallon batch of beer costs less than a 6 pack of cheap beer, so I just don't see the point in not using bottled spring water.

If your tap water is really good, then using bottled water might make no difference. Why don't you try an experiment sometime -- brew back to back versions of the same recipe -- one with bottled water, one with tap water. Then do a blind taste test to see if you can tell the difference. If you can, then it confirms your belief that you should spend the extra for bottled water. If you can't, then you can feel comfortable using your tap water.

Who knows -- maybe you will actually like your tap water BETTER! It is possible.

Before we get all warm and fuzzy about "spring water" take a look at this.

johnsma22 said:

Before we get all warm and fuzzy about "spring water" take a look at this.

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Coke and Pepsi are going to change their water labels.

It would be interesting to watch how much sales drop off.

FlyGuy said:

If your tap water is really good, then using bottled water might make no difference. Why don't you try an experiment sometime -- brew back to back versions of the same recipe -- one with bottled water, one with tap water. Then do a blind taste test to see if you can tell the difference. If you can, then it confirms your belief that you should spend the extra for bottled water. If you can't, then you can feel comfortable using your tap water.

Who knows -- maybe you will actually like your tap water BETTER! It is possible.

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Well you never can tell, the worst that could happen is that you'd have an extra 5 gallons of beer to drink that you don't like quite as much as the other. Wouldn't that be shame ?

Mutilated1 said:

Well you never can tell, the worst that could happen is that you'd have an extra 5 gallons of beer to drink that you don't like quite as much as the other. Wouldn't that be shame ?

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Not if it is the one made by your spring water! LOL

FlyGuy said:

Not if it is the one made by your spring water! LOL

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LOL - good point - ha ha ha

Ok you convinced me - next time I have 2 fermenters empty at the same time I'll give it a try and we'll see. I don't expect I'll be able to tell the difference in all honesty, but I don't think I'll switch to tap water either.

Mutilated1 said:

LOL - good point - ha ha ha

Ok you convinced me - next time I have 2 fermenters empty at the same time I'll give it a try and we'll see. I don't expect I'll be able to tell the difference in all honesty, but I don't think I'll switch to tap water either.

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LOL -- Actually, I would be really curious to hear how that turns out! Regardless, at the end of the day if both methods make good beer, definitely go with the one that you feel most comfortable with!

This sort of discussion seems to come up from time to time on this site as well as in a number of areas where the result or product is somewhat subjective.

There were good points made, that the different mineral contents of the various waters could have an effect on mash chemistry and thereby taste.

As FlyGuy suggested, the true test would be a duplication of the same beer with both types of water. Actually a double blind test, where neither the person administering the test, nor the test "subject" knows which beer contained which water, is the technique considered to be the "Gold Standard" in the scientific/medical fields.

A single individual's perception of a single sample is unfortunately not really valid. It has been shown time and again that perception is easily influenced, by one's own or others biases.

This is kind of like the thread on the artificial wine aging device created by the Japanese firm, that would allow wine to be marketed almost immediately after fermentation. There were howls of indignation and a story of being thrown out of an Italian vintner's premises. Why? Because this somehow robbed the wine of its soul or some such nonsense.

Modern science and engineering have given us homebrewers a plethora of tools and techniques to help us make great beer.

I, for one, want to use as many of those tools as possible and not simply take the word of someone who "thinks" something is better, without proper experimentation.

Just my two cents.

raceskier said:

The true test would be a duplication of the same beer with both types of water. Actually a double blind test, where neither the person administering the test, nor the test "subject" knows which beer contained which water, is the technique considered to be the "Gold Standard" in the scientific/medical fields.

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Not to nitpick (well, OK, I *am* nitpicking), but I think the person administering the test needs to know which beer is which. Otherwise, who will judge the outcome?

As long as the taster can't anticipate which beer they have in hand, it is an unbiased test. A 'double blind' test doesn't really increase the validity.

Actually, a triangle test is the best one. In a blind fashion, the taster gets two glasses that have the same beer, and one that has a different beer. If the taster can't identify which two glasses have the same beer, then there is no taste difference. I think I got this idea from a Jamil podcast.

But I completely agree that the test must be made unbiased. Also, I think the principal tester should be the one who brewed the beer -- they are trying to please themselves, after all!!!!

raceskier said:

...Just my two cents.

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Dang!! Now you're broke again...

How did your tap water batch turn out? I live in the city and am very curious.

Been drinking filtered, or the (35 cent a gallon five stage filter supermarket water dispenser) for about as long as I've been brewing.
Supposedly I live in one of the best area's for tap water (Seattle)

The few times I've tasted the cold tap, because a friend would say there is nothing wrong with it, I couldnt get past the chlorine & fluoride taste and smell...I dont see how this could do anything other than detract from the finished brew.

I guess my question, is there anyone else that is used to drinking filtered water, notice how any cold tap faucet tastes similar to a swimming pool ?