Distilled or tap water?

I've got at least 10 AG batches under my belt... I've always used distilled water... I'm now wanting to get into the water side of my brews... So for starters what should I be using?

Distilled is fine, but expensive. Reverse osmosis water is almost as mineral-free. First and foremost, brewing liquor should be free of chlorine and chloramine.

Check out the sticky.

You might already know this; unless you modified your distilled water it isn't quite perfect for brewing. Here's a thread on how to modify distilled water for brewing purposes:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

If you are using tap, make sure to filter it to remove chlorine if it's city water, or metal tastes from your crumbling house you/I live in. I've used both filtered tap water from my well, and distilled water with calcium/acid malt additions. Haven't really noticed a flavor difference either way, so I figure my water must be decent for brewing.

You can get a water report from a service or from your city. I never bothered. I think a good rule of thumb is if your water makes a fine beer, go with it. If it's a very special beer that costs a lot to make or takes months to mature, go with distilled and give it the treatment.

Memphis has very good tap water, it comes from artesian wells. The chlorine in the water evaporates during the brewing process. I've made the same brew with bottled and tap water, and noticed no difference.

My vote is for tap water (from a well is better). I use my well water - it is hard at 25 grains, makes very very good brew.

Beer need minerals, and unless you are trying to do a specific beer from a strange water supply, use your well. That is, if you drink and like your tap water.

I agree with the tap water. This fear of Cl is way over blown and in fact some is actually required. Also it does boil off very quickly or it's actually used by the yeast. Tap water also contains lots of trace minerals which the yeast need to propagate successfully. I have only ever used tap water and the only problem I have found is that my beers are slightly darker then I would like due to the chemistry, that or I boil it for way to long.

asterix404 said:

This fear of Cl is way over blown and in fact some is actually required. Also it does boil off very quickly or it's actually used by the yeast.

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Elemental chlorine and chloride have very different properties.

I usually use Campden-treated municipal tap water for my beers because I am lazy, but I can definitely tell that there is a flavor difference between it and RO water with salt additions.

Our municipal water here in the teeming metropolis of Marengo, Illinois is actually quite good. I have always used only city tap water in my brews and have found no ill effects.

glenn514

ArcaneXor said:

Elemental chlorine and chloride have very different properties.

I usually use Campden-treated municipal tap water for my beers because I am lazy, but I can definitely tell that there is a flavor difference between it and RO water with salt additions.

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So you are saying R/O taste is better? Or just different?

Why put camden in municipal water?

The campden is to get rid of the chlorine. The RO water based beers I have done taste cleaner and smoother to me than my tap water beers. The difference isn't huge, but noticeable.

CidahMastah said:

So you are saying R/O taste is better? Or just different?

Why put camden in municipal water?

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I have to use campden because my water is treated with chloramines. Also there's a TON of chloride in my water so I cut it with distilled or spring water too just to get that down to a more reasonable level. Poland spring water has very little minerals so if I don't have a way to get distilled I just go with that.

CidahMastah said:

My vote is for tap water (from a well is better). I use my well water - it is hard at 25 grains, makes very very good brew.

Beer need minerals, and unless you are trying to do a specific beer from a strange water supply, use your well. That is, if you drink and like your tap water.

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Simple grains of hardness don't tell the story. Our well water is very hard, but the real problem is that it's loaded with iron and calcium, and is completely unsuitable for brewing. For most beers, unless they specifically require amendments to the water (Burton salts for an ESB, for instance), I just use RO (reverse osmosis) water from the grocery store. Works fine, and at 39 cents a gallon is cheap insurance for what is, after all, the chief ingredient of beer.

Guess I am happy to be on a well with great brewing water. If I had to play with water all the time I would go nuts. Hauling 20 gallons of water per batch, x 2 on the double batch days would just suck badly.

The only time I would consider playing with water is if I was say trying to clone a Stella artois or a Czech pilsner lager that comes from a place with different a water profile needed for the style. I have heard people suggest to cut half your water with distilled to have a profile closer to the water in those areas.

rico567 said:

Simple grains of hardness don't tell the story. Our well water is very hard, but the real problem is that it's loaded with iron and calcium, and is completely unsuitable for brewing. For most beers, unless they specifically require amendments to the water (Burton salts for an ESB, for instance), I just use RO (reverse osmosis) water from the grocery store. Works fine, and at 39 cents a gallon is cheap insurance for what is, after all, the chief ingredient of beer.

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I never implied hardness alone dictated a water's brewability ("beer needs minerals").

Distilled water is basically the opposite of a well water, and I would argue distilled water on its own is not ideal for most brewing. I say the same for R/O water. Both distilled and R/O waters are a starting point to make good brewing water, by adding.... salts, calcium , minerals etc. All of which are usually present in palatable well water.

Calcium is good for brewing. As are Mg, Na, SO4, Cl, and HCO3. R/O water (deionized water) has none of these as I understand it.

Palmer suggests keeping water within these mineral constraints:

Ca: 50 -150
Mg: 10 - 30
HCO3: 0 -250
Na: 0 -150
Cl: 0 - 250
SO4: 50-150

edit: something worth checking out if you haven't read it yet

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15.html

Ok sO thank you everyone for the awesome input... 1 more question... How do I measure whats in my water if I'm using Distilled or RO? I'm sorry I'm just trying to learn all this on my own and I know no one in the Ohio area that I could learnfrom. Hell I haven't even seen another brew set up other then mine and I want to build a totally new 10 - 20 gallon set up this winter.

R/O and Distilled water is sort of like starting from zero - no minerals, no nothing. You can add stuff in and get the profile you are looking for based on that. See palmer's write up in that link.

I typically used distilled, as well, primarily because Phoenix tap water is absolutely horrendous for nearly every application save waste removal.