Brewing Pale ale with well water

I'm getting ready to brew a pale ale with my well water.I know it's easy to screw up and my recipe calls for R.O. water treated w/ 1tsp. calcium chloride.I also know that my well water has iron in it.All my brewing water goes thru a PUR carbon filter and the PH is about 6.2.I also use 5.2 stabilizer in my mash water.My question is, can I boil my water and let it sit overnight and rack off the settled matter and have the same results as R.O. water or do I need to buy distilled water? And also should I use the 5.2 along with the calcium chloride?Thanks in advance.

RCCOLA said:

I'm getting ready to brew a pale ale with my well water.I know it's easy to screw up and my recipe calls for R.O. water treated w/ 1tsp. calcium chloride.I also know that my well water has iron in it.All my brewing water goes thru a PUR carbon filter and the PH is about 6.2.I also use 5.2 stabilizer in my mash water.My question is, can I boil my water and let it sit overnight and rack off the settled matter and have the same results as R.O. water or do I need to buy distilled water? And also should I use the 5.2 along with the calcium chloride?Thanks in advance.

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Preboiling water does not equal RO water. Certain calcium compounds may precipitate but it's not going to remove anything else. Iron in brewing water is not a good thing. Unless you have a filter system that you know removes it I would use another source. Also, the pH (small p, big H) of the water is of little consequence. The mash pH is what's important and that is determined by the relationship of the gristbill to the ion content and residual alkalinity of the water. The 5.2? You probably don't need it but this is one of those cases where it wouldn't hurt. Just out of curiosity why does the recipe use calcium chloride? Typically a pale ale recipe would call for calcium sulphate.

BigEd said:

Just out of curiosity why does the recipe use calcium chloride? Typically a pale ale recipe would call for calcium sulphate.

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This is a BYO recipe by Gordon Strong.In the article he states that high sulphate content can lead to harshness in pale,hoppy beers.It has 1tsp. calcium chloride in the mash water and 2tsp. phosphoric acid in the sparge water.