tap water vs spring water

My tap water is highly chlorinated. i know that the levels of chlorine in my water is not good. I also know that spending 9 bucks on 6 gallons of spring water and 2 to 3 gallons of distilled water just isn't going to work. If i were to use my tap water for the wort in my brewing pot will the chlorine be boiled off enough that i don't have to worry about the flavoring or the potential yeast killing effects of it? Also, can i use my tap water for with my iodophor for the sanitization process of my equipment? will the little droplets of chlorinated water that i can't shake off be bad? I of course would still use 2 to 3 gallons of spring water to fill my bucket to the 5 gallon mark. I just have to find away to not add 9 bucks to each batch of brew. I don't even want to think about AG brewing without another option for obtaining my water.

devaspawn said:

My tap water is highly chlorinated. i know that the levels of chlorine in my water is not good. I also know that spending 9 bucks on 6 gallons of spring water and 2 to 3 gallons of distilled water just isn't going to work. If i were to use my tap water for the wort in my brewing pot will the chlorine be boiled off enough that i don't have to worry about the flavoring or the potential yeast killing effects of it? Also, can i use my tap water for with my iodophor for the sanitization process of my equipment? will the little droplets of chlorinated water that i can't shake off be bad? I of course would still use 2 to 3 gallons of spring water to fill my bucket to the 5 gallon mark. I just have to find away to not add 9 bucks to each batch of brew. I don't even want to think about AG brewing without another option for obtaining my water.

Click to expand...

I would use 1 Campden Tablet to treat the water used in brewing. One crushed campden tablet will get rid of chlorine and chloramine for 10 gallons of water.

A little bit of chlorine won't hurt things. I use untreated tap water all the time in my sanitation mixture.

I do all grain and partial mash brews but I only have a 16qt kettle so I boil 2.75 gallons for 20min and chill it then do the rest of my wort with 2.75 gallons also. therefore giving 5.5 gallon batch standard...now to remove chlorine you have to boil your water for a minimum of 20 min. my tap water is also highly chlorinated. my priming water for making the priming solution I also boil. now for cleaning the rest of your equipment just use bleach and rinse with tap water. the effects, of rinsing with tap water I have found to be minimal.

fwiw, walmart and my local grocery store sell spring water for .63 a gallon.

I go to the store and buy spring water. the tap water in my area tastes like s***t

I buy spring water as well.
Not only do we have hard water, it can very by the day. Our city has 2 treatment stations, and they switch back and forth randomly.

I used to use bottled water but now I just fill a couple of carboys full of tap water and disolve a crushed campden tablet in them. After about 5 minutes the treated tap water taste just like the bottled water. Saves me a few bucks and one less trip to the store and the beer comes out just fine.
AP

I used spring water from walmart when they put it on sale its like $0.50 a gallon. I have a big brita filter thing I use if I cant make it to the store.

I'm a fan of spring water. I know some people have good luck with tap water, but I'd rather not take the chance, given spring water only runs me an extra 3-4 dollars (our local stores sell it for 63 cents per gallon).

I've heard folks say that their boiled tap water works fine. As for me, I purchase spring water because my tap water is so heavily chlorinated, like yours is. The water I purchase is fairly cheap- as another poster suggested, I would consider buying water from Walmart. I am not willing to take a chance with my screwed up tap water throwing off the flavor of my brews.

I think i am going to try the boil method first and then the campden tab on my next one. i'd rather know for sure that i am not wasting my money on spring water. what are the effects if the chlorination doesn't get taken out. is it a taste thing and what should i be tasting for if it is?

how do you know it's "heavily chlorinted"? i mean, is it the taste or smell? mine seems to be fine, tastes ok, doesn't smell- i'm just tryin to figure if it's gonna make that big a difference. just brewed first batch at current location, but never seemed to notice any off flavors at my old house, and the water there seemed about the same as here.

I'm just sitting here looking at the water report you left at my place. Your water is treated with hypochlorite. I'm not sure if that changes what you have to do to remove it. Maybe someone here knows.

Otherwise, the report does not include any hardness data, which would also help you figure how to treat your water.

BTW: I could bring you some water from my well for you next brewday. just let me know!

Arneba28 said:

to remove chlorine you have to boil your water for a minimum of 20 min.

Click to expand...

Boiling will remove chlorine but not chloramines, which many municipalities also use as a water disinfectant and which will also cause off-flavors in beer. Campden tabs are the way to go. And cheaper than boiling.

http://byo.com/mrwizard/1211.html
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/disinfection/chloramine/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine

So campden's it is. I am brewing another batch this weekend so i won't get to my LHBS before then. I will just buy water this weekend. Thanks for the offer Hagen but i will probably be brewing or done brewing before you get here. Thanks also for the info on my local water. :cross: i forgot i left that over there. Thanks for all the info folks.

Oh yeah...

I can tell it's heavily chlorinated cause you can smell the chlorine really strongly when you turn the tap on. also the water is real cloudy for about 10 seconds or so and then it clears up.

devaspawn said:

My tap water is highly chlorinated. i know that the levels of chlorine in my water is not good. I also know that spending 9 bucks on 6 gallons of spring water and 2 to 3 gallons of distilled water just isn't going to work. If i were to use my tap water for the wort in my brewing pot will the chlorine be boiled off enough that i don't have to worry about the flavoring or the potential yeast killing effects of it? Also, can i use my tap water for with my iodophor for the sanitization process of my equipment? will the little droplets of chlorinated water that i can't shake off be bad? I of course would still use 2 to 3 gallons of spring water to fill my bucket to the 5 gallon mark. I just have to find away to not add 9 bucks to each batch of brew. I don't even want to think about AG brewing without another option for obtaining my water.

Click to expand...

Very important question! You can safely use chlorinated tap water to brew with because the chlorine will boil off during the 60 min boil. I have well water and it has an extremely high iron content which you can actually taste in the water. I used to get tap water from my Mom's house when I was brewing even my all grain beers or buy spring water. I got tired of lugging all that water all the time and bought a filtraition system. I use a 5 micron whole house filter before the water tank. That removes a lot of the large particles from the water. I then use a pur water filter at the sink. The pur filter removes chlorine and filters very fine that it eliminates the iron taste. I even top off the fermenters with this water and do not have any problems. Keep in mind this is a home well system with out a chlorinator or UV light for bacteria. The Pur filter at the sink does a great job. This water produces some very fine tasting german lagers, which would be the first beers to show any signs of bacterial infection or any off flavors. This saves me the hassle of buying and lugging all that water home.

The chlorine should boil off. But then I've only done three batches, and those were with well water.

Why not invest in a Pur or Brita to generally clean up what you drink and brew with? Personally I always hated the chlorine taste of city water anyway...

+1 for spring water - the muni water here is nearly unpalatable.

I Brew AG, and I used to buy 15 gallons of Spring Water for every Brew Day.

I now have an All House Filtration system that I hook up to my Water Tank (we have a well), and it works wonderfully. Also, changing water was one of the factors for me when my Efficiency shot up from 62% to 79%.

For extract brewing, technically you should be using DISTILLED water, not tap or spring. The extract manufacturing process drives off the water from the wort, but the salts, minerals, and trace elements remain in the extract. The only way to get back to the original wort recipe is to use pure water (i.e. distilled). Using spring water or tap water adds even more salts, minerals, and trace elements. You can still make good beer with tap water, spring water, etc. but you are introducing a whole set of variables that should be controlled for the style you are making.

Here in North Jersey there is a natural spring in the state park running from a pipe 24/7. This is where I get all my drinking water. Does this still have to be boiled? I would think for AG brewing it would not work right? I am new to this, and would like to learn more.

I use tap water. My first brew was bottled store water (short money), but the rest have all been tap water. I haven't had any problems, but then again our water is clean and doesn't have any off tastes or smells.

SamJessin said:

Here in North Jersey there is a natural spring in the state park running from a pipe 24/7. This is where I get all my drinking water. Does this still have to be boiled? I would think for AG brewing it would not work right? I am new to this, and would like to learn more.

Click to expand...

Water from a New Jersey State Park. Ech.

lol jk, i'm sure it's fine. We used to get water from a natural spring on the side of the road in NH at our lake house, before we drilled a well.

It was some of the best water I have ever tasted.

Also, I don't think that Weihenstephaner had access to Wal-Mart bottled water a thousand years ago.