using my tap Water for Partial Mash portion of Stout recipe

I was reading John Palmer's "How to Brew" section on water and a basic means to approximate water types using water quality reports.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html

According to my Water District report, my tap water is good for darker beer (no surprise) although it could use barely a little bicarbonate to go for a really dark beer.

I'm mashing a portion of my grains and using LME for the balance in a 5 gallon batch of Oatmeal Stout. Is it worth using the tap water, in which case I'd still need to get out the chlorine? Or just go with purified water from the market?

Thanks in advance. Even if these are minute tweaks I just want to brew good beer.

If chlorine or chloramine is an issue, I'd probably either let my water sit out overnight (chlorine) or treat with campden (chloramine).

do you normally use your tap water for extract brews with good results? If you do, then you can use it for this partial mash.

Actually I've only used bottled water to date because I've been learning the process. The Oatmeal Stout is my first recipe and will also be my first PM. Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew but it wouldn't be the first time.

I like to jump right in it. When I got into triathlon I didn't wait to long to do a half-ironman, in case you want to know what kind of maniac I am.

If you have chlorine you can just let the water sit over night. As hoop says. I just started using 100% RO water.


Check out the stickie Primer in the brew science section, well worth the read.

Be very careful in using recommendations for alkalinity and bicarbonate concentrations from the Palmer nomograph or spreadsheet. They tend to recommend far too much alkalinity for good mashing performance.

Thanks. Maybe I'll use my tap water with no additions, for the mash. I reckon it can't hurt. The ph is about 6.2. I have a water softener but i can get it from a hose bib before the softener.

I will leave it out overnight though. I don't taste chlorine but I know it's there.

BTW: My wife bought me quaker rolled oats but not the quick oats. I know they're essentially the same but the quick oats are cut up to expose more surface and cook quicker. Should I pick up quick oats or with a 60 minute mash plus sparge will I get about the same amount of fermentables from regular rolled oats vs "quick" rolled oats?

johnbrain said:

Thanks. Maybe I'll use my tap water with no additions, for the mash. I reckon it can't hurt. The ph is about 6.2. I have a water softener but i can get it from a hose bib before the softener.

I will leave it out overnight though. I don't taste chlorine but I know it's there.

BTW: My wife bought me quaker rolled oats but not the quick oats. I know they're essentially the same but the quick oats are cut up to expose more surface and cook quicker. Should I pick up quick oats or with a 60 minute mash plus sparge will I get about the same amount of fermentables from regular rolled oats vs "quick" rolled oats?

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If they are regular oats, you have to cook them first or do a cereal mash. I'd just cook them (make oatmeal with them) and then add them to the mash.

They're quaker old fashioned oats. According to their website they're prepared the same a quick oats except they're not chopped up.

From the Quaker Oat site:
Quaker® Old Fashioned Oats are whole oats that are rolled to flatten them. They contain all parts of the oat grain including the bran, endosperm and germ portion. Quick Quaker® Oats are made the same way but are simply cut into slightly smaller pieces so they cook faster.

So either neither needs to be cooked prior to mashing, OR even quick oats do. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty although it sounds like it doesn't hurt even if not required.