"Resting" Water Before Mash and Sparge

I was just thinking about this earlier today....

Instead of spending the money on 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled water, I have brewed my last few batches using tap water. (I live in Montgomery County, MD) The beer I have brewed thus far is pretty good, but I'm always looking for ways to improve my product.

For my next batch (Chimay Blue clone) I was thinking of filling my 10 gal. pot and letting the water sit for a few days before using it. My rationale is that some of the chlorine and who knows what else may bubble out, thereby making the water more suitable for brewing.

Anyone do this already? Am I wasting my time for minimal benefit?

Thanks!

I don't know the answer to your question, really. I know that some people with hard water pre-boil all of their water and give it time for some of the minerals to drop out of suspension as it cools.

But the best thing you can do to get a handle on your water situation is get a copy of your water utility's water quality report. That will tell you everything you need to know about your water chemistry.

I know that if you let the water sit out that chlorine will dissapate but chloramine will not. You need to find out what your water company uses. I suggest buying a charcoal filter and an rv hose and then you don't have to worry about any of that.

According to BeerTools, my water looks like this:

Washington, DC USA

Ca++ 38
Mg++ 9
Na+ 19
CO3-- 10
SO4- 33
Cl- 0

I guess I'm also wondering what type of beer is best to brew with this water. Anyone know of a good reference for this kind of info?? Sorry I sound like such a noob...

chimchim5040 said:

According to BeerTools, my water looks like this:

Washington, DC USA

Ca++ 38
Mg++ 9
Na+ 19
CO3-- 10
SO4- 33
Cl- 0

I guess I'm also wondering what type of beer is best to brew with this water. Anyone know of a good reference for this kind of info?? Sorry I sound like such a noob...

Click to expand...

Your levels of everything look pretty low--you're probably closer to Pilsen or Munich water than to other famous brewing regions.

Both Palmer How to Brew and Daniels Designing Great Beers have good chapters on water chemistry, including work-sheets/graphs to claculate your estimated mash pH and what beers work best with it.

And you can use campton tablets to remove both chlorine and chlorimine from your tap water. I use tap water all the time.

Does anybody know about the brita filters that attach to the sink?i m not sure what these do to the water if anything at all.

edit nevermind got-r-dun