first bath of beer- water questions

I have a few questions about water (sanitation of water used in particular)

I will be brewing an extract kit with specialty grains.

1. I need about 2.5 gallons to create the wort, and probably about 3 gallons (just to be on the safe side) for diluting the wort in the fermenter. Correct?

2. About the water used for diluting- Do I need to boil the water if it's tap water? Do I need to boil the water if it's water from the store (in jugs)? Any recommendations? If I boil the water earlier in the day and let it cool, will it be clean still, or do I need to put that water in an ice bath after the wort too? Overall- how do I do this? lol

Thanks

1. That sounds about right, you should boil as much as you can depending on how large your pot is.
2. You shouldn't have to boil the water that you dilute with either from the tap or bottled water from the store. I prefer to dilute with bottled water from the store but several times I have used plain tap water and the beer has turned out fine ( I have never boiled any top off water that I have used). I believe that most other folks would probably agree. Good Luck.

Personally all my brewing water is bought from a water "vending machine" at the store but that is only because my water smells like a swimming pool. If your water smells fine and you don't get sick from drinking it, it is totally acceptable (and common among many brewers) to use your plain tap water for top off. When the yeast are first starting to work they are pretty strong and can take of themselves in the beginning. Just don't use a really dirty pot or bowl to pour the water in with...

The instruction for the kits say a minimum of 2.5 gallons but if you can do more say 4-5 you'll get better hop utilization during the boil (more solution for the hop delicious-ness to get into).

With regards to the water, similar to HopHound, I don't boil my top off water when/if I top off...

This post got me excited when i first saw "bath of beer" hehe

H-ost said:

This post got me excited when i first saw "bath of beer" hehe

Click to expand...

hahahha. Yeahhhh I meant batch of beer. Whoops! bath of beer wouldn't be so bad...

Perhaps I should say that I live in a small city. I don't know much about Richmond, VA water other than the fact that the pipes under my apartment are iron and are very very old.

arringtonbp said:

Perhaps I should say that I live in a small city. I don't know much about Richmond, VA water other than the fact that the pipes under my apartment are iron and are very very old.

Click to expand...

If you can't taste it now you wont taste it later. Buuuut if you are that unsure/worried about it, I would just go buy it. My water is 35c a gallon from the machine, I'm sure that is plenty more expensive than out of my faucet but its only a few bucks every brew.

Most everything I've read up to this post was use spring water from the store. Costs the same around a buck for a gallon. If I use tap I boil it if it's going to be 10% or more of the top off. While tap water shouldn't kill your yeasties, chorline and yeasties aren't the best of friends. A little bit won't hurt, 50% might. It all comes down to how it tastes when it's done.

Honestly I would just buy as much store bought water as you will need for the whole batch. It's only about a dollar a gallon so really no big deal. Be sure you don't get distilled water though, as it is missing some of things that yeast need. I've been going with the spring water. Always keep in mind that the taste of the water will ultimately be a part of the taste of the beer. I don't know how you plan on chilling your wort but if you're doing the old sink bath method I'd go ahead and pick up two 20 lb bags of ice as well. One bag will be melted before the wort is totally chilled. I have found two bags in the sink and stirring gets my wort below 80 in just over 20 minutes.

I am not worried about taste as much as I'm worried about sanitation. I need a successful beer off of this lol. I did take 4 tupperware containers and froze water in them to make a bunch of big ice cubes. I'm going to put these around the wort in my sinks. Will that be enough to cool it in 20 mins?

Water that's bought in jugs (spring water, etc...) - is it sterile/free of any contaminants? It probably should be boiled right?

arringtonbp said:

I am not worried about taste as much as I'm worried about sanitation. I need a successful beer off of this lol. I did take 4 tupperware containers and froze water in them to make a bunch of big ice cubes. I'm going to put these around the wort in my sinks. Will that be enough to cool it in 20 mins?

Water that's bought in jugs (spring water, etc...) - is it sterile/free of any contaminants? It probably should be boiled right?

Click to expand...

While I appreciate and even applaud your caution with sanitation, you can relax about this one thing. If your tap water tastes and smells good to you, use it. If you want to be cautious about chlorine, let the water sit out on the counter or in a clean container for a day before brewing.

Of all the things that are likely to contaminate or screw up your beer, this is not in the top 50. Maybe not the top 100.

H-ost said:

This post got me excited when i first saw "bath of beer" hehe

Click to expand...

me too.

funkapottomous said:

me too.

Click to expand...

Nice!

arringtonbp said:

I am not worried about taste as much as I'm worried about sanitation. I need a successful beer off of this lol. I did take 4 tupperware containers and froze water in them to make a bunch of big ice cubes. I'm going to put these around the wort in my sinks. Will that be enough to cool it in 20 mins?

Water that's bought in jugs (spring water, etc...) - is it sterile/free of any contaminants? It probably should be boiled right?

Click to expand...

My understanding is that store bought water like that is adequately sterile, but you may want a second opinion. That's what I have been using and have had no issues. As far as the ice, I get two 20 lb bags, but probably have 8 lb left in the sink after cool down. I really think you need about 25 lbs of ice to get your wort chilled without having it all melt. Of course, you'll want to er on the safe side in my opinion. You won't be happy if you end up with a sink full of lukewarm water and wort that's still 95 degrees.