purified, distilled, spring, or other?

What type of water do you all use? We have hard water here in Cleveland and where I brew is at the end of a line and we frequently get sediment and orr colored water. the local grocery store there has a reverse osmosis machine that dispenses gallons of pure water for $.25 a gallon.

I was wondering if this is OK to use for brewing/winemaking since all the minerals have been stripped. I know yeast need some nutrients. Would it be better to just add some yeast nutrient back into the water to make it all good?

I use my hose water run through a activated charcoal whole house filter. However, I have very soft water to begin with.

Is there something else (flavor) in your water that makes it not suitable for brewing if put through a simple filter?

Don't use RO water... that's a brewing no-no.

Just thought pure water would be best. I don't have a simple filter right now, so it's either pay for bottled water $$$ or pay the $.25 a gallon for the RO water. Wondering if it's possible to just use yeast nutrient to make up for what was lost.

if it's 25 cents for a gallon of purified water, I would use it!


One thing I do know is that Distilled water on it's own is not good drink on a regular basis. The reason for this is because it is flat-out water, with no minerals in it at all. So when it enters your body, it tends to find equilibrium and pulls the minerals for your body to do so.

I have been curious about this for a while. Maybe distilled water would be GREAT for absorbing everything out of the grains!

I'll try this next time as I put my grains in (don't shutter) boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes: I will put my grains in distilled water to extract (hopefully) more from the grains. And the rest will be regular purified water.

I would use the cleanest water you can. It's only $1.25 and you wont have any of those, "is my beer tasting how it should? What if i used that purified water.." thoughts.

I thought I read that RO water wasn't recommended for all grain brewing, but fine for extract. I could be wrong about that.

I use 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled spring water (not RO water) for my all grain brewing. We have a water softener so I think that'd be bad, and I'm not using yucky hose water.

Well I've done a search and most everything talked about having to add minerals to the water to suit a particular style. The problem is that nothing explains why we would really need to add water back in. I'm not imitating some English ale here.

If there could be a problem I guess I am glad I brewed this past weekend with 3 gallons RO and 5 gallons distilled/spring in each batch. That would provide at least some "character"

I was planning on doing another batch this weekend (honey wheat) and am not sure now as I have 10 gallons sitting here. I am also starting a wine kit and have 5 gallons of RO available and now am unsure.

MikeInCtown said:

Wondering if it's possible to just use yeast nutrient to make up for what was lost.

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Nope. If you are brewing all grain, you need the minerals in water to allow the enzymes to properly convert the starches to sugars.

All you need to do though, is add a pack of brewing salts, or perhaps Five Star's 5.2. You could also use have tap water, and half RO water from the store to cut down the hardness of your water (this actually may be the best bet). In any case, you are going to need to test your pH before and during your mash.

MikeInCtown said:

Well I've done a search and most everything talked about having to add minerals to the water to suit a particular style. The problem is that nothing explains why we would really need to add water back in. I'm not imitating some English ale here.

If there could be a problem I guess I am glad I brewed this past weekend with 3 gallons RO and 5 gallons distilled/spring in each batch. That would provide at least some "character"

I was planning on doing another batch this weekend (honey wheat) and am not sure now as I have 10 gallons sitting here. I am also starting a wine kit and have 5 gallons of RO available and now am unsure.

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Mike,
You are fine using RO water for extract or wine kits. Those extracts and concentrate have the water removed from them and so retain enough minerals that extra is not needed.
However as mentioned for AG brewing RO water is too soft for proper buffering of the mash. This will result in a mash ph outside the correct range for conversion and can result in off flavors.
Cleveland water is only moderately hard and is not all that bad for brewing. You just need to remove the chlorine. Running the water slowly through an activated charcoal filter is the best method. An alternative is to fill a bucket with sufficient water for your brewing the night before and add a Campden tablet to the water. This will react with the Chlorine and Chloramine(sp) and remove it from the liquid.

Craig

You know, I thought about going the reverse osmosis route since its $0.25 a galloon and really convenient, but brewing salt isn't dirt cheap. It would add a couple bucks per batch if using RO water. 13 bucks a pound divided by 4 batches or so.
5.2 pH Stabilizer

I have a filter in my fridge for dispensing water but its so sloooooooow.