Brewing with tap water -- from the HOT faucet

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Should you brew with tap water from the HOT faucet?

  • Sure, why not!

  • Never!

  • Welllllllll, that depends....


Results are only viewable after voting.

FlyGuy

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Chime in with your opinion and your thoughts: should you brew with hot tap water or not? It's tempting since you can shave some time heating your mash and sparge water up to temp, but I know some will cringe at the thought of lead contamination or something.
 
You shouldn't drink water from the hot water tank. It can have all kinds of nasty bacteria and chemicals and whatnot.
 
Don't use hot tap water if you use a carbon filter. And you should filter tap water if it has chlorine so....don't use hot tap water.
 
I don't. I've always heard that sediment collects in the hot water heater from the element etc..

Could be propaganda but I don't take the chance..

Same pricipal as boiling water to have the hardness precipitate out. Minerals and metals in the water will collect because of the heating element, making the water from all but the newest water heaters contain high levels of minerals, making a much harder water profile from the hot faucet.

Also, as King said, you want to carbon filter your tap water for chlorine and chloramines, and you can't run hot water through carbon filters.
 
I have a well and a water softener. I get my brewing water from the outside spigot. It is hard and cold. No chlorine, and no iron.
 
Actually, you can remove chlorine or chloramine from your water with campden tablets. I think the need to filter would only be true if you had other things in your water that you wanted to remove.
 
I do it all the time with no problems. I'm not worried about the minerals and such of the hot water heater after it has already traveled miles in pipes to get there.

Mike
 
I voted never, but that is based on my situation.

Extremely hard water in this area. So hard it eats the anode rods in water heaters within a year or two and gives an odd smell to the water of sulfur. Common practice by plumbers to remove rod whenever possible and run without. Add to that the minerals collected in the hot water heater from the heating process in a hard water environment and that's two strikes.

Since the well water is so hard, we have a water softener. This is hooked up to my hot and cold water except I have a non-softened cold run to the kitchen sink and my brew sink. Brewing with hot softened (salted) water doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

So I use cold and never hot. YMMV but I find that my cold (58*F) water warms up within 10 minutes on the burner.
 
I voted never, but that is based on my situation.

Extremely hard water in this area. So hard it eats the anode rods in water heaters within a year or two and gives an odd smell to the water of sulfur. Common practice by plumbers to remove rod whenever possible and run without. Add to that the minerals collected in the hot water heater from the heating process in a hard water environment and that's two strikes.

Since the well water is so hard, we have a water softener. This is hooked up to my hot and cold water except I have a non-softened cold run to the kitchen sink and my brew sink. Brewing with hot softened (salted) water doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

So I use cold and never hot. YMMV but I find that my cold (58*F) water warms up within 10 minutes on the burner.

Certain Pilsners like soft water.
 
I said weeellll.......

If you have a softener, then your hot water is prolly soft, and I don't use soft water. In my new digs, I have no softener, so I go for the hot water tap.
 
I said weeellll.......

If you have a softener, then your hot water is prolly soft, and I don't use soft water. In my new digs, I have no softener, so I go for the hot water tap.

Well soft water is not an issue, it is water that has gone through a water softener (which adds way too much sodium to the water).

You should add brewing salts to soft water though to match the style you are brewing.

I don't think you should use water from the water heater since I do like to use a carbon filter, but I think if you are doing extract that it would be just fine as long as you put a little potassium metisulfate in to knock out the chlorine/chloramine.
 
I am currently using my hot water tap mainly due to the time saving benefit.
The sediment from the hot water tank is partially filtered by the grainbed when mashing I believe.
I am currently researching a point of use tankless electric water heater for brewing. Does anyone have such a system that they could recommend?

Cheers
BeerCanuck
 
I have been eyeing those up, too. They would actually get around most of the problems that people are mentioning here (i.e., you could get around sediment concerns and you could filter the water before heating).
 
The hot tap should usually not be used for drinking purposes because it leeches metals from your plumbing into your water. In new houses, this won't be much of a problem, but in old houses you could get higher amounts of lead and other bad things.
 
I said weeellll.......

If you have a softener, then your hot water is prolly soft, and I don't use soft water. In my new digs, I have no softener, so I go for the hot water tap.

I don't know how true this is...but, I heard that a proper soft water system should NOT be hooked into the hot water tank due to the fact of the salt?? Again...this may be BS?
 
I brew with water right out of the hot tap with no flavor problems at all. Saves a good forty minutes off my brew-day too, since it starts out at 120º out of the tap.
 
I never use hot tap water for my brew; on the other hand, i do use hot tap water for my one step sanitizer. Would anyone consider that a problem?
 
I never use hot tap water for my brew; on the other hand, i do use hot tap water for my one step sanitizer. Would anyone consider that a problem?

I don't think so. Acid sanitizers like Star-San should not be mixed with hard water but I think one step is going to work fine regardless of the water pH.
 
Actually, you can remove chlorine or chloramine from your water with campden tablets. I think the need to filter would only be true if you had other things in your water that you wanted to remove.

What else would a carbon filter take out of your water.
 
Don't use hot tap water if you use a carbon filter. And you should filter tap water if it has chlorine so....don't use hot tap water.

I was going to ask why, but googled it instead...

"• Hot water should never be run through an activated carbon filter because hot water can release trapped contaminants into the water stream. When considering Activated Carbon Filters, the consumer should rather choose Point of Entry systems (using only cold water) instead of Point of Use Filter systems (water can get hot). "

according to this site...
Water Filter Comparison - Treatment with Activated Carbon Filters

This kind of backs up my personal experience, I've been using hot water through my filter, and had a batch with a plasticy/phenolic odor/flavor after about 10 batches, (the filter should have been good for much longer) changed the filter and the last couple have been good. I'll be filling the hlt with cold from now on...
 
I've been using hot water through my filter, and had a batch with a plasticy/phenolic odor/flavor after about 10 batches, (the filter should have been good for much longer) changed the filter and the last couple have been good. I'll be filling the hlt with cold from now on...

I can't speak for all carbon filters, but where I work we filter and demineralize a lot of water. We limit ourselves to a maximum temperature of 130F, because higher temperatures can cause damage to the filter media. The filter resins we use are composed of plastic and elevated temps cause them to start breaking down and lose their function. That may be the cause of the odor/flavor. But it also may not have any merit, they may be different types of resin.
 
I've done a couple of different things.
When I first started brewing, I was boiling the water for 45 minutes to drive off the chlorine/fluoride.
Then I got a Pur water filter (carbon filter). When that clogged up and broke (I have VERY hard water). I started using a local brand of spring water (mt olympus).

After all of that, I have gone back to pouring HOT tap water into my brew kettle and boiling for about 45 minutes. This seems to make the best tasting beer and I have fewer off flavors than I got with either the carbon filter OR the spring water.
 
Organic contaminants, particularly those that make water taste and smell bad. That's where much of the market for activated carbon filtration systems come from.

Organic contaminants, particularly those that make water taste and smell bad. That's where much of the market for activated carbon filtration systems come from.

OK… If its drinking water VOC’s could be an issue but are Organic Compounds a big concern to the ordinary home brewer.

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As an example of how hot water affects dissolved minerals (hardness). My cold water tap has ~250ppm dissolved minerals. My hot water tap is close to 500. :eek:
 
OK… If its drinking water VOC’s could be an issue but are Organic Compounds a big concern to the ordinary home brewer.

1 of 1

I guess it depends on how good or how bad their water tastes. I know I wouldn't brew with water from the tap if it tasted bad, unless I could improve it with a filter.
 
Great, now I'm worried. I used hot tap water for the last couple of batches. So far they taste fine. I have well water with a white filter on all water going into a water softener that has those plastic beads. The cold water then has a charcoal filter and the hot doesn't. I don't really see how salt can be an issue with the type of softener I have, the salt brine is only used to clean the beads and then it's rinsed away.
 
I have been useing hot water thru an inline filter for about a year now. I replace the filter after 5-8 brews and I have not had any problems with the beer nor have I grown a third arm.
 
It's not that your going to make some nasty chemical by putting hot water through an activated carbon filter, but you really reduce it's effectiveness by doing so.
 
I just recently quit using hot water so I haven't noticed a difference yet. I thought one day how full the tanks get with calcium and other minerals and that couldn't be good for my beer.
 
You shouldn't drink water from the hot water tank. It can have all kinds of nasty bacteria and chemicals and whatnot.

The same thing is true of cold water.

Bottom line, you are going to boil it. So as long as the trace elements and pH levels are OK....go for it.

I reality, nothing kills all bacteria and there are some that can survive freezing temperatures and boiling temperatures. Just don't take your water from Old Faithful or other hot springs.
 
If you maintain your hot water heater, you shouldn't have a bunch of build up. Just flushing it now and then will keep the crap out and add years to the service life.

I've brewed with cold and hot water with no difference in taste noted. Also most of the time you used hot water, you have to let it run to get hot. This flushes most of the water in the pipes from the heater to the faucet out before it gets hot.

Mike
 
I voted yes. Commercial micro breweries are doing this now, they have special water heaters that can heat to 180 F and hold it there. Any filtering is done before it enters the water heater. Home water heaters can not be adjusted that high due to design and safety concerns.

If you are really worried then send a water sample from your water heater to Ward Labs for analysis.
 
Same pricipal as boiling water to have the hardness precipitate out. Minerals and metals in the water will collect because of the heating element, making the water from all but the newest water heaters contain high levels of minerals, making a much harder water profile from the hot faucet.

This is the common wisdom, but it doesn't seem to make sense to me. If the minerals come out of the water to collect in the tank, then the water would then have LESS minerals that when it entered the tank. And if minerals collecting in the tank end up coming out in the water, then in a short time there would be no excess minerals in the tank.

It just doesn't make sense that water from the hot water tank would have more minerals than the water going in, unless it was somehow leaching minerals out of the metal of the tank itself.
 
I've always used hot water. It just saves time mashing and sparging. I had always figured on bacteria, but then knew the boil would take care of that. But the increased hardness of the water, now that I never thought about. I've got a ph meter at home, and first things first, I'm going to test the cold and hot water ph. If there's mineral build up in the tank, I should be able to detect it, right? Hard water is more alkaline?

For what it's worth:

Cold water faucet: 8.10
Hot water Faucet: 7.76

Both were tested at room temperature. Water tank is about 10 years old. London's water comes from either Lake Erie or Lake Huron and is considered "moderately hard."
 
My brewing experience is pretty much close to zero, so I usually spend my time just reading posts, never replying. However, as an avid fish keeper, water chemistry is something I can chime in on.

Coming from that perspective there is one fast and firm rule - never guess always test!

I just wanted to clear up some terminology. pH, Alkalinity, and Hardness are all three completely different things. High pH has no scientific correlation to alkalinity or hardness and vice-versa. pH is a measure of the hydrogen concentration. Alkalinity is a measure of the ability of the water to store excess hydrogen in a bonded form that can free itself when free hydrogen is absorbed elsewhere. Alkalinity is best thought of as a measure of the ability to resist a drop in pH. Hardness is a measure of the concentration of dissolved mineral ions.

"Hard water" is associated with the Hardness measurement. Hard water can independently have a high or low alkalinity, and can independently have a high or low pH. By definition the three things are not related. So measuring pH will not tell you anything about water hardness. You would need a separate test to measure hardness.

Another important note is that boiling will not reduce the hardness of water. The minerals will not evaporate out. The carbonates in the water can evaporate, but only by an amount equal to the ratio of water that evaporates, which is pretty much zero. The alkalinity of boiled water can decrease (and therefore so can the pH) but once cooled it will go back to what it was before assuming the original measurement was taken correctly and no other minerals were introduced as a result of the boiling process.

Lastly, in the presence of an ion source (easily found already existing in the water, or in the pipes that carry water, or even in a well), higher temperatures can lead to harder water as more mineral ions are "picked up".

One more lastly. Lastly, due to the delivery system of tap water it has increased susceptibility to dissolved gases. As a result any water parameter (pH, Alkalinity, Hardness) should be measured after the water has been outgassed, usually after suggested time of an hour. Otherwise the measurement may not be accurate. Give it a try. You will probably see at least one, if not all, of the parameters change if you measure out of the tap vs. an hour later.
 
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