Question? (What kind of water does everyone use?)

noisy123 said:

Will chlorine add unpleasant flavors during the mash? The reason I ask is that you are going to boil all of the water anyway (if you are doing full boils), won't the nasties boil off then?

On the subject of campden, I have heard (on the internets) that campden will drive off chlorine but not chloramine (which I guess is more commonly used by water municipalities). Can someone enlighten me on this?

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http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/7brew10.txt said:

Water next to Malt is what by course comes here under Consideration as a
Matter of great Importance in Brewing of wholsome fine Malt-liquors, and
is of such Consequence that it concerns every one to know the nature of
the water he Brews with, because it is the Vehicle by which the nutritious
and pleasant Particles of the Malt and Hop are conveyed into our Bodies,
and there becomes a diluter of our Food: Now the more simple and freer
every water is from foreign Particles, the better it will answer those
Ends and Purposes; for, as Dr_.Mead_ observes, some waters are so loaded
with stony Corpuscles, that even the Pipes thro' which they are carried,
in time are incrusted and stopt up by them, and is of that petrifying
nature as to breed the Stone in the Bladder, which many of the _Parisians_
have been instances of, by using this sort of water out of the River
_Seine_. And of this Nature is another at _Rowel_ in _Northamptonshire_,
which in no great distance of time so clogs the Wheel of an overshot Mill
there, that they are forced with, convenient Instruments to cut way for
its Motion; and what makes it still more evident, is the sight of those
incrusted Sides of the Tea-kettles, that the hard Well-waters are the
occasion of, by being often boiled in them: And it is further related by
the same Doctor, that a Gentlewoman afflicted with frequent returns of
violent Colick Pains was cured by the Advice of _Van Helmont_, only by
leaving off drinking Beer brewed with Well-water; It's true, such a fluid
has a greater force and aptness to extract the tincture out of Malt, than
is to be had in the more innocent and soft Liquor of Rivers: But for this
very reason it ought not, unless upon meer necessity, to be made use of;
this Quality being owing to the mineral Particles and alluminous Salts
with which it is impregnated. For these waters thus saturated, will by
their various gravities in circulation, deposit themselves in one part of
the animal Body or other, which has made some prove the goodness of Water
by the lightness of its body in the Water Scales, now sold in several of
the _London_ Shops, in order to avoid the Scorbutick, Colicky,
Hypochondriack, and other ill Effects of the Clayey and other gross
Particles of stagnating Well-waters, and the calculous Concretions of
others; and therefore such waters ought to be mistrusted more than any,
where they are not pure clear and soft or that don't arise from good
Chalks or stony Rocks, that are generally allowed to afford the best of
all the Well sorts.


THE

LONDON and COUNTRY

BREWER

1736

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And it is further related by
the same Doctor, that a Gentlewoman afflicted with frequent returns of
violent Colick Pains was cured by the Advice of _Van Helmont_, only by
leaving off drinking Beer brewed with Well-water;

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pjj2ba said:

No Sh*t. A number of years ago we moved from the Bay Area of California (relatively soft water) to southern Indiana (VERY hard water). Man, both my wife and I were stopped up for a couple of days! Same for eating a lot of antacids (tums), that will stop you up too. To compensate for the extra salts in the water, the colon will draw out more water to keep your salts balanced, resulting in some tough cr*p.

Darker beers were developed to deal with hard water so keep that in mind. Hard water makes hop bitterness harsher so one must adjust accordingly.

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ballbuster said:

I usually hike up to a cold cool spring just above the waterfall outside of Golden Colorado. Carrying the 12 gallons back down the mountain can be hell on my back and knees but it seems to be worth the 30 mile hike. How much does 12 gallons of that pure cold mountain water weigh I wonder?

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comp said:

the city water here in Evansville isn't that hard

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bad coffee said:

Once I go all grain, it will probably be hose water through a 5micron sediment filter.

B

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