really noobie question

I keep seeing the term "RO Water" in some of the recipes I've been researching.

What is RO Water?

It's an abbreviation for "reverse osmosis" water.

"reverse osmosis" - uses pressure to force pure water through a membrane, leaving minerals behind.

and most RO systems pass thru a charcoal filter first, then the RO membrane. there might even be a DI filter at the end...which stands for De-Ionization.

if you worked in a chemistry lab, all your water would be RO/DI filtered, and thus 'inert' and pure for all your testing and cleaning needs.

Ah. Good to know.

I imagine that really won't affect the recipe much either way?
And distilled water could be used in its place?

RO water and distilled water are chemically the same, as far as we're concerned. you shouldn't need to use distilled water for your beer unless your water is AWFUL. those of us who have really bad water usually filter, and then maybe mix some distilled or spring water in. your local water supplier should have the info you need about whats in your water. start there.

DaleJ said:

Ah. Good to know.

I imagine that really won't affect the recipe much either way?
And distilled water could be used in its place?

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Yea pretty much, I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially if your buying the distilled water, I'm sure that it'll be properly distilled and therefore have no dissolved ions in it.

It's funny, this makes me think of how every time I go into the chem lab at university I sooo feel like swiping a whole lot of stuff, like the super accurate electronic scales, test tubes and conical flasks for yeast and most of all the deionised water that the've got, cos I really spend too much on distilled bottled water - I'm so used to water being free :cross:

JeanLucD said:

- I'm so used to water being free :cross:

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Ah, the good old days.


So far I've only used bottled spring water. We're on a well and it has a rather high iron and copper content. From what I understood that was a bad combination with brewing.

I'm working on installing a Whirlpool central water filtration system. Hopefully after that I can go back to free water.

and here I thought it was Run Off Water............DOH!

I was told ( and follow this advise ) that if you like the taste of your water, use it.

I've always used spring water. 64 cents a gallon from the shelves, not those machines.