Two quick questions

Hi, im a beginner at the whole brewing thing (my first batch is in the primary) as i was making the batch two questions came to mind. first, i never read anywhere whether or not i needed to boil my tap water to sterilize it before adding it to my 2 gallon concentrated wort. do i need to do this? also, when it comes to tansfering the wort to the primary, is it ok to pour it through a collander and a fine strainer as apposed to siphoning it? my roomate poured the wort as i helt the very pourous collander and my other roomate held the fine strainer under the collander so the wort got filtered twice (rough then fine). we only did this because the siphon kept clogging. as long as the strainers were sterilized i should be ok right? this went very quick without the pains of siphoning.

pouring through a strainer will work fine and have the added benefit of aereating your wort wich is very important for active fermentation. Yes sterelizing them (and anything that is going to come in contact with your post boil wort for that matter) is very important. as far as your added top off water is concerned. some do, some don't. personally when I was doing extract brews or partial boils I would only use fresh spring water and never boiled it. I'm sure someone will chime in with something more deffinative.

cheers

Yer fine.

Others may offer alternatives to what you did, but there is no right answer.
Make sure you understand the benefits and liablilites of a method and decide how it best benefits your beer and brewing capability.

Typically I use bottled water for my top-off because I am too lazy to boil it, I also pour through a strainer. Sounds like everything you did is fine.

I always top off with straight tap water (not boiled) and have never had a problem. My city does have pretty good water though. If you don't drink the tap water straight from the faucet because it tastes funny, don't put it into your beer.

The only thing I really worry about when using tap water to top up with was chlorine or chlorimines in the water. It could create an off flavor in your beer. I solved that by using a crushed campton tablet to treat 20 gallons of brewing water.

I used a strainer to transfer...no worries.

As far as water, I bought 1 gallon jugs of distellied water from the store (87 cents each). This allowed me to put three of the gallons in the freezer at the start of the brew and by the time I added them to the boiled wort (after a 15 minute cold water bath) the super cold water brought my wort temp down to almost exactly 75 degrees every time.

Tap water...? You should be fine.

I think it is a good idea to boil your tap water so you can eliminate the chlorine. I either use bottled water or I filter my tap water.

san antonio has crappy water. after i boiled it there was a film of crap on top that i had to ladle off. oh well, maybe ill start using distilled water

Distilled is not good. Your yeast need the O2. Spring water or drinking water is better.

I don't think you should use distilled.....doesn't have anything in it and tastes wierd. If you're using it plus salts then thats cool but otherwise...

Try to find one of those water vending machine things....you know what I mean? There is one within walking distance from my house and it's $1 for 5 gal of good filtered RO all of that water

as far as the strainer......no dude you screwed up....ok jk

I use a colender and put a strainer inside of it bc the strainer fits perfectly and the colender has handles that hold it on the bucket

good to know about the distilled. wouldnt you want to put the strainer underneath the collander as to filter out the large chunks with the collander and the smaller chunks with the strainer.

also, i posted this question on another forum but didnt get a reply. is unflavored pectin a good addative to help clarify the beer?

i guess.....but if the strainer is in the colender then it'll catch both....plus in my case the strainer fits in perfectly and the handles hold it on the edge of the bucket

do you mean pectin enzyme? bc pectin is what you don't want...but it's primarily for when your adding fruit to beer or for wine

you can use irish moss in the last 15min of the boil to help clear it



honestly though I wouldn't worry too much about clarity......if your just starting out then worry more about making good TASTING beer and clarity can come later...

I've done 7batches now and I'm still working on making good beer!

good luck and welcome to the forum.....lots of good info on here!

ok point taken. i tasted the wort yesterday and it tasted pretty good. cant wait for it to be drinkable. im gonna transfer it to the secondary tomorrow.

why? you don't really need to..

What kinda beer is it and when did you brew it?