Using bottled water for all grain?

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chemman14

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The water in my area is terrible. It smells of chlorine and does not taste very good. I currently use kirkland brand drinking water that says it has minerals added for taste. Could I use this for brewing water?
 
The water in my area is terrible. It smells of chlorine and does not taste very good. I currently use kirkland brand drinking water that says it has minerals added for taste. Could I use this for brewing water?

Yes. The beer will turn out fine.
 
Build yourself an inexpensive water filter. After 2-3 batches where you have to go and either buy or fill your water bottles you will seek easier methods. Since I built my filter, I have been pleased as punch. (I even fill bottles for drinking from my filter)
 
Build yourself an inexpensive water filter. After 2-3 batches where you have to go and either buy or fill your water bottles you will seek easier methods. Since I built my filter, I have been pleased as punch. (I even fill bottles for drinking from my filter)

i just buy it from costco, real easy
 
The problem with bottled drinking water is that it's hard to know what the mineral makeup is. Even if it's moderate, it's not going to be perfect for all styles and you really should know what's in it. I should backup a bit though. I don't think a brand new all grain brewer should worry too much about the water for the first couple batches but If you're using bottled water, I would stick to beers in the 8-12 SRM color range (copper to amber).

The alternative is to start with 100% distilled water and build up a profile based on the style of beer you're making but that's something to play with later after you get your technique down.
 
I would guess it is R/O water with added stuff. Without a water report it is hard to tell what is in it at which concentrations. There is an outside chance you might be able to find a report for it online.

You may want to consider bottled water that is labeled as "spring water." This has not gone through R/O and still has a decent amount of goodies in it. Certainly enough for a light to medium brew.
 
I would guess it is R/O water with added stuff. Without a water report it is hard to tell what is in it at which concentrations. There is an outside chance you might be able to find a report for it online.

You may want to consider bottled water that is labeled as "spring water." This has not gone through R/O and still has a decent amount of goodies in it. Certainly enough for a light to medium brew.

well it says with minerals added for taste so i doubt its stripped of all minerals
 
I use spring water that supposedly comes from Sierra Nevada springs. I'm practically half way there to Sierra Nevada pale ale.
 
I only use R.O. water from the machine at the grocery store (25 cents a gallon) + 1 Tbls. of 5.2 Buffer in the mash. The beer comes out great every time.
 
I only use R.O. water from the machine at the grocery store (25 cents a gallon) + 1 Tbls. of 5.2 Buffer in the mash. The beer comes out great every time.

where can I get this 5.2 buffer? I was un-able to locate it on northern brewer or austin home brew
 
If it's just the chlorine you're concerned about, then just heat up enough water for the mash. You don't even need to boil it, but you can if you want. This will remove all of the chlorine.
 
If it's just the chlorine you're concerned about, then just heat up enough water for the mash. You don't even need to boil it, but you can if you want. This will remove all of the chlorine.

its not just the chlorine, the water doesn't taste very good
 
If it's just the chlorine you're concerned about, then just heat up enough water for the mash. You don't even need to boil it, but you can if you want. This will remove all of the chlorine.

except chloramines (spelling:confused:) they are a PITA to remove i have three kegs over 4 months old that i didn't filter the water beforehand when i moved into a new water supply sitting because they taste phenolic/DMSy if thats even a description i cant even drink them yet. I was able to choke down my house beer but only because it was the first batch after a 3 month hiatus from brewing. i have since switched to a carbon filter from HD and the flavors have mellowed, but still detectable i have been using half RO and half tap since.
 
5.2 PH Stabilizer is a 5 Star product, You can order it from Brewmasters Warehouse. $10.00 for a 1 lb. jar. I use 1 tablespoon in the mash in every beer I make.
 
5.2 will help your mash pH but it doesn't do anything to get Calcium and Magnesium into acceptable ranges nor does it do anything for the Cl:SO4 ratio.

You shouldn't brew all grain beer with pure RO/distilled water.
 
I use spring water that supposedly comes from Sierra Nevada springs. I'm practically half way there to Sierra Nevada pale ale.

Why in the hell are people using spring water? SPRINGS DONT NEED TO BE WATERED!! In fact, the last time I tried to water some springs they rusted up on me and didnt have as much tension as they once did.
What gives? :cross:
 
Before going down the bottled water path (not exactly the best for the environment as it has to be shipped from where ever it comes from).. Have you tried boiling your tap water before-hand to drive of the chlorine, or maybe filtering to get rid of the "bad taste" and chlorine ?
 
Before going down the bottled water path (not exactly the best for the environment as it has to be shipped from where ever it comes from).. Have you tried boiling your tap water before-hand to drive of the chlorine, or maybe filtering to get rid of the "bad taste" and chlorine ?

Again, depending on the type of chlorination done, boiling may not be enough. A large number of municipalities use chloramine, which can only be removed via chemical means (e.g., Campden).
 
FYI, vitamin C also removes chloramines, and it's an antoxidant as well:

http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/chloramine.htm

And I'd be curious to know how many AG brewers really go to the trouble of using Palmer's worksheet. Every guy I ever see on Youtube uses 5.2, and that's it.

I say this as someone who has sweated that worksheet before every batch.

As someone brewing almost exclusively IPA hop-bombs, I'm not sure you'd notice the difference if I used cat piss.
 
My water is harder than you could believe. I boil it and the bottom of the kettle is white with minerals coming out of solution. Killed my dishwasher.

Personally, I use the RO water from the dispenser at the grocery store - $.99 for 2.5 gallons. I figure it's pretty close to distilled, and use TK's worksheet. I love it!

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

Dave
 
You could always contact the bottled water company and ask for an analysis to be mailed to you. If they have both 'Spring' water and 'Drinking' water then ask for both because they'll likely be slightly different. "Distilled' and 'Purified' should be the same thing. The bottled water near me (Zephyrhills) has higher alkalinity in the Drinking water (190 ppm Bicarb) than the Spring water (140 ppm Bicarb).

That should cover beers in 8-16 SRM range, then you can dilute with Distilled for lighter colored beers. Just doing that may let you cover a reasonably wide color range without using any salts.

EDIT: Also, you can help cover darker colored beers by adding the dark grains late in the mash. It's not a perfect solution but at least a step in the right directon.
 
Since I began homebrewing over two years ago, I've used nothing but the RO (reverse osmosis) water from the machine at the grocery store. Our well water is sky-high in iron and calcium. The store water is $1.67 including tax for a 5-gallon refill, and it produces very good, consistent beer. I have used amendments such as Burton salts where required for the style.
 
My LHBS suggests boiling water then letting it cool to drop out all chlorine and hardness or whatever is in our water, or using bottled. The time factor was not worth it for me. My neigborhood grocery, literally, less than 2 blocks away has a water dispenser. It is $1.35 for 5 gallons. Since I did not have a 5 gallon container handy I bought one of the 5 gallon ones pre-packaged inside for about $13. I think a refill is $5-6, but now that I have the plastic bottle I can just refill when I need for $1.35. Another bonus is the H2O vending machine is outside so I can stock up at any hour. Since I am reusing the bottle it is cheap and environmentally responsible. Also the bottle looks very similar to Better Bottles wondering if they could be used for a carboy? Will have to look closer when I brew next. Just finished my MLT a few days ago, maybe first allgrain this weekend.
 
If local water is ran through a filter does it remove all traces of minerals and chlorine and leave the brewer with "distiled water"?
Build yourself an inexpensive water filter. After 2-3 batches where you have to go and either buy or fill your water bottles you will seek easier methods. Since I built my filter, I have been pleased as punch. (I even fill bottles for drinking from my filter)
 
My LHBS suggests boiling water then letting it cool to drop out all chlorine and hardness or whatever is in our water, or using bottled. The time factor was not worth it for me. My neigborhood grocery, literally, less than 2 blocks away has a water dispenser. It is $1.35 for 5 gallons. Since I did not have a 5 gallon container handy I bought one of the 5 gallon ones pre-packaged inside for about $13. I think a refill is $5-6, but now that I have the plastic bottle I can just refill when I need for $1.35. Another bonus is the H2O vending machine is outside so I can stock up at any hour. Since I am reusing the bottle it is cheap and environmentally responsible. Also the bottle looks very similar to Better Bottles wondering if they could be used for a carboy? Will have to look closer when I brew next. Just finished my MLT a few days ago, maybe first allgrain this weekend.

Yeah, I was thinking of possibly going this route as well. Don't you need more than 5 gallons for each batch of beer?
I also called my city and had them send me a water report. I will receive that once I return back to Southern California.
 
As others have said in this thread, boiling does not remove cholramines.

Campden tablets (potassium or sodium metabisulphite) or good ol' vitamin C will remove that.

My LHBS suggests boiling water then letting it cool to drop out all chlorine and hardness or whatever is in our water, or using bottled. The time factor was not worth it for me. My neigborhood grocery, literally, less than 2 blocks away has a water dispenser. It is $1.35 for 5 gallons. Since I did not have a 5 gallon container handy I bought one of the 5 gallon ones pre-packaged inside for about $13. I think a refill is $5-6, but now that I have the plastic bottle I can just refill when I need for $1.35. Another bonus is the H2O vending machine is outside so I can stock up at any hour. Since I am reusing the bottle it is cheap and environmentally responsible. Also the bottle looks very similar to Better Bottles wondering if they could be used for a carboy? Will have to look closer when I brew next. Just finished my MLT a few days ago, maybe first allgrain this weekend.
 
The problem with buying any water besides distilled is that you don't know what's in it. The dispenser might be giving you RO water which is close to distilled. It might be local tap water run through a simple carbon filter which will not do much more than strip organics and undissolved solids (as well as chlorine/chloramine if it's run slowly enough). If I had to buy my water due to KNOWING that my tap water was off the charts too hard, I'd buy an RO system for $100 which would be paid back pretty quickly. The cheapest I've found distilled water is $.88 a gallon at walmart.
 
The problem with buying any water besides distilled is that you don't know what's in it. The dispenser might be giving you RO water which is close to distilled. It might be local tap water run through a simple carbon filter which will not do much more than strip organics and undissolved solids (as well as chlorine/chloramine if it's run slowly enough). If I had to buy my water due to KNOWING that my tap water was off the charts too hard, I'd buy an RO system for $100 which would be paid back pretty quickly. The cheapest I've found distilled water is $.88 a gallon at walmart.

For our extremely hard water, a plain RO system won't work. Have to have a multi-stage system incorporating a resin unit to get out the minerals, which are dissolved, not particulates. A multi-stage aquarium "reef tank" system such as this:

http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1TYPHOONIII/TYPHOON_III_AQUARIUM_RO_DI_75_or_100_GPD.html

....should do the trick (with our water). I've got the plumbing skills, just not sure if I want the capital investment, maintenance and upkeep.
 
For our extremely hard water, a plain RO system won't work. Have to have a multi-stage system incorporating a resin unit to get out the minerals, which are dissolved, not particulates. A multi-stage aquarium "reef tank" system such as this:

http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1TYPHOONIII/TYPHOON_III_AQUARIUM_RO_DI_75_or_100_GPD.html

....should do the trick (with our water). I've got the plumbing skills, just not sure if I want the capital investment, maintenance and upkeep.

I used to run a reef aquarium and had a filtration system similar to that. Two things...first, it's S-L-O-W and one shouldn't expect to be filling up buckets on a whim. The one I used would do (maybe) two gallons an hour and you'd literally waste 3x as much water as you collected. Second, it's expensive, in water and materials. For beer I'd just get RO from the grocery before running something like that. In fact I still have my RO/DI system and I'd never consider bothering with it to produce brew water when I could get RO at the store at $1.95 for 5 gallons.
 
I use RO water for AG brewing and don't notice any thing "off" in my beer. It's possible that a beer judge might be able to find something wrong with it, but I can't. But then again, I don't brew Pilsners. <shrug>
 
Once you have the RO or RO/DI system, you're most of the way there. You can easily run the output into a 15 gallon open head barrel and install a $10 float valve to stop filling when full.

As for long term water cost, the waste is something like 3-5 gallons per 1 gallon RO/DI. You can use the waste water for any non-drinking application like laundry or watering plants. Even if you let it go down the drain you'd use at most, 40 gallons for a 5 gallon batch. I don't know about you, but I pay my water company 20 cents for 40 gallons of water. It's the initial $100-200 for the system that's stopping me right now.
 
I use RO water for AG brewing and don't notice any thing "off" in my beer. It's possible that a beer judge might be able to find something wrong with it, but I can't. But then again, I don't brew Pilsners. <shrug>

I think you have it backwards. RO water is perfect for pilsners with just a pinch of salts. However, if you're brewing porter/stout on 100% RO, no doubt your mash pH is in the 4's.
 
As for long term water cost, the waste is something like 3-5 gallons per 1 gallon RO/DI. You can use the waste water for any non-drinking application like laundry or watering plants.

Now there's where the PITA factor comes in. Am I really going to collect 40 gallons of reusable waste water for every 10 gallons of brew water, and further schlep it all over the house for other purposes? I don't think so. :rolleyes:

Hey, if someone has the time and space to use an RO/DI system to make brewing water, that's great. I was just pointing out that such a setup isn't as straightforward as turning a knob and quickly collecting several gallons of water on brew day. I had to use one for my reef tank and found it a serious pain. For my time, space, and money, I'll pay .40 a gallon for RO from someone else. But then again I'm a lazy sod.
 
I think you have it backwards. RO water is perfect for pilsners with just a pinch of salts. However, if you're brewing porter/stout on 100% RO, no doubt your mash pH is in the 4's.

Oops, I was thinking about the softness of the water there.
 
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