A question about water

First off, this board is both awesome and overwhelming. I'm going to attempt my first homebrew next week. I live in middle Tennessee and have access to fresh, clean, yummy tasting spring water. The question is do I need to boil the water before I brew (don't have a pot big enough to do a full boil), and how long can the water sit in jugs (at room temp) before you use them. I could probably collect the water the day before brewing. I don't want to leave anything to chance. Oops, one more question, should I sanitize the water jugs with one step or is regular old "clean" good enough. Thanks!

If they are packaged in bottles from the distributer you should be fin to just use them. Bottled water also has excellent shelf life, you could leave them sitting for a year if you like(they generally have an expiration date on the jugs).

Sanitize the jugs? Maybe I'm not fully clear on what you mean. Are you talking about prepackaged water or those machines that fill jugs?

gpogo said:

If they are packaged in bottles from the distributer you should be fin to just use them. Bottled water also has excellent shelf life, you could leave them sitting for a year if you like(they generally have an expiration date on the jugs).

Sanitize the jugs? Maybe I'm not fully clear on what you mean. Are you talking about prepackaged water or those machines that fill jugs?

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Sorry about that, I collect the water myself, from the side of the mountain. It's a natural spring.

Water has an effect on final taste, but for most cases not nearly so much as other things. Without a full analysis from the spring you're using, I'd say just try it and see what you get. If the water tastes good, it will probably make good beer.

I would boil all the water before use-- I wouldn't count on the spring to be sanitary. If you can't boil all on brew day, boil it the day before, cool, and store in pre-sanitized jugs.

Also, if you are mashing you'll need to pay attention to Ph level. Simple solution is to use 5.2 Ph stabilizer, available from many HBS.

Good luck!

If it were me I would boil all the water used if it was untreated and unfiltered.

I don't know if the alcohol in the beer would kill giardia or not. Also there the risk of getting leptospirosis again I don't know what effect alcohol would have here either.

But the main factor that made beer safe to drink while the water supply was not in days of old was due to the fact that it was boiled.

I'd boil it and use it. Hell, lot's of the guys on here BUY spring water for their brewing, and you got the stuff bubbling up in your backyard

There will most certainly be contaminants in any natural water source that will lead to quick spoilage even if you get through primary fermentation successfully.

If you've got a Target nearby, they may still have some turkey fryers on clearance.

If this is an untreated water source, then yes you should absolutely boil that water before using it in your beer.