5.2 Stabilizer and RO water

I am stuck using RO bottled water. Will this help out? I use Culligan water and can find no data on it at all.

Any other advice to help get my water to where it needs to be?

I got a low 60ish Eff on the last brew I did, I really want to try and get this up.

Thanks

Tim

I was in you same spot, give up the 5.2. and Down load John Palmers spread sheet and learn how to get your Residual Alkalinity in order for the color of the beer your are trying to do. There is no use for 5.2 with RO water. Add your minerals back to the mash and BK and you will make great beer and do not listen to people who say do not use RO water, or at least my first place ribbons and medals tell me I can brew award winning beers with RO.

Do I just assume that my starting point 0, and build my water from there?

I will look at palmer right after I type this
Thanks

tim

I wouldn't mess with a water without a report

RO is pretty much pure water. I tried brewing with straight RO (plus 5.2) and my efficiency sucked. +1 on adding calcium carbonate, epsom salts, calcium chloride, etc. to match a 'target' water style.

Or, you can buy bottles of spring water. It's more expensive but easier to do.

What's "RO" water?

reverse osmosis
Reverse Osmosis

SC_Ryan said:

I wouldn't mess with a water without a report

Click to expand...

RO water have pretty much nothing in it, most of use it as with no trace minerals.

Starting with RO water, you can build almost any water profile you wish. It can be as simple as adding a teaspoonful of Burton salts or as complex as buying individual chemicals and weighting out by the milligram.

pH5.2 isn't a substitute for the right minerals, although just using it will help.

My local water is very close to distilled and I use pH5.2 for both mash & sparge.

RO water SHOULD be pretty much pure, but if the RO filter is spent, or the ground water is really hard, it may not be fully 'stripped' like RO DI water is normally.

you could take an 8oz sample to a fish store/aquarium store, and ask them to test your pH, General Hardness, and Carbonate Hardness...but call in advance first. those are all normal test kits for home aquariums and many stores will test your water for you.

Can/do you use RO water as is, without any additions?

Just RO water without calcium additions will be problematic for mashing. I create different water profiles for my RO system by using various salts, a gram scale & this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/ez-water-calculator-3-0-a-261001/

ultravista said:

Can/do you use RO water as is, without any additions?

Click to expand...

I tasted an American Pale Ale that was brewed with just distilled water and no mineral additions. The end product was clean and without any infection. The aroma was adequate, but the flavor was empty. No real pop to the malt or hop flavors or bittering.

Adequate calcium is probably important for more than yeast performance based on the result above. But supposedly, calcium has no real flavor impact. The other significant flavor components, sulfate and chloride were not present, so it seems fairly clear that appropriate levels of those ions are beneficial. "appropriate" is highly subjective and each brewer would likely have to determine their preferences for those levels in the styles they brew.

So, you can brew effectively with straight RO. But the beer may not be that inspiring.

It looks like I will be better off with spring water then.

Are you sure your efficiency problems are water related?

Probably not efficiency but off-flavors due to the municipal water source.

Looking at it strictly from a pH standpoint you should have less of a need for 5.2 using RO water (which should be right at 7) than tap water. Most public water utilities are putting out somewhere in the area of 8.5 in order to avoid excessive corrosion in their distribution systems.