Is the water used important?

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Hefeweizengeliebter

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from what info I have read from the couple of basic brewing guides...

it says not to use chlorinated water, well all tap water here is chlorinated
is there anyway around this
or should I just go to Kroger and get myself a 5 gallon jug of spring water?
 
If you pre-boil your water (about 30 mins), it will drive the chlorine off.

Spring water is usually a pretty good bet, especially with extract brews.
 
I use 2.5 gallons of tap water for my boil and 3 gallons of bottled spring water to top off. It works well for me.
 
question- my friend has well water, and it has a rotten eggey smell /taste to it. if i boil it, will this release some of the stuff that makes it smell?

i used bottled water for my first batch, but dont want to again. is running tap water or the well water though a britta a good idea?
 
question- my friend has well water, and it has a rotten eggey smell /taste to it. if i boil it, will this release some of the stuff that makes it smell?

i used bottled water for my first batch, but dont want to again. is running tap water or the well water though a britta a good idea?

That is a good question..... I also have a Britta water purifier installed on our faucet, will purified water work just as good as bottled spring water?
 
Britta's work well on on conditioning water for beer but if you are starting with well water you definitely need to boil. There is no chlorine in well water to assist with microbes.
 
Britta's work well on on conditioning water for beer but if you are starting with well water you definitely need to boil. There is no chlorine in well water to assist with microbes.

I was thinking about trying a water filter for my nasty well water (drink RO water and brew with spring or 'drinking' water) and seeing how it brews. Glad you brought up the microbs dontman. I think I'll just keep using the spring/drinking water for the time being. Thanks
 
Water is by far the largest component of your beer - either by volume or by weight. The mineral content of your brewing water as well as the pH have a huge impact on the taste of the product you produce. Here in Portland, OR we have been having quite a discussion over some time about the local water used for brewing. We watch for the water bureau analysis to get information about the mineral and anion content to determine what, if any, adjustments to make.

Specific to your question about chlorine and chlorimine we recently received this in an exchange with the water bureau after we noticed a sudden change in "chlorine taste" in the water.

Water Treatment
Water is first disinfected with chlorine, entering the
system at about 2 parts per million. At the end of the
disinfection process, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and
ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) are added to the
water. Sodium hydroxide (at a dose of 3.5 to 5.0
ppm) is added to raise the pH slightly (approximately
1 pH unit). This helps prevent corrosion of household
plumbing and lowers the amount of lead and copper
that can leach into the water. Ammonium hydroxide
(aqueous ammonia) is added (at a dose of about 0.35
ppm as NH3-N) to form a long-lasting chloramine
disinfectant residual. Chlorine and ammonia are used
in a ratio by weight of approximately 4.5 to 1.

Chlorine can be boiled off and filtered out with a charcoal filter. Chloramine cannot removed be easily with a filter and cannot be boiled off. To remove it you are advised to use campden (Potassium_metabisulfite I believe). As noted in an earlier post, the amount used is dependent upon how much is in your specific water. In our water, 1/2 tablet will treat 5 gallons of the local water.

In all cases, less adjustment is better and proceed with caution. Adding salts will affect not only the pH (which is critical for the mash) but also the taste. I am not a chemist and cannot advise you on adjustments. The best advice I can give you is to think about the effect on pH first and taste second. Again, proceed with some caution. If in doubt, use bottled water.

Regards
 
Generally, chlorine is bad. It can cause medicinal/Band-Aid off flavors. However, if you've had good results thus far, there's no reason to change anything.
 
In general, I do not like the taste of chlorine which is why I do not disinfect with bleach. Good/bad are relative. To me it is about the taste so I try to eliminate what I consider a bad taste. Hope that helps.
 
Generally, chlorine is bad. It can cause medicinal/Band-Aid off flavors. However, if you've had good results thus far, there's no reason to change anything.

I haven't had any off flavors (but then again I'm in the mountains in Arizona and pretty clean water); but I was wondering if chlorine hurts efficiency of if it's just a taste thing...

:off:btw Yuri - THX for your Longhammer recipe! It came out great!!
 
Glad that recipe worked for you - I still haven't gotten around to brewing it!

Chlorine isn't particularly detrimental to the mash (other than potentially altering the pH a bit), but it can inhibit yeast growth. An alternative to pre-boiling is charcoal filtering.
 
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