Distilled water, oops

I have a 5 gallon stout in its secondary and I used all Distilled water. I am not sure why I did, and have realized this was a mistake. It is ready to bottle, but I was wondering if there is anything I could do at this step to correct the error.

Any tips? or should I bottle it up tomorrow and see how it turns out?

Sean

Well, no there's nothing you can do about it now except bottle it and drink it.

Was it an extract kit? Extract (both DME and LME) contain a lot of the minerals from the mash, so using distilled ain't such a big deal.

Like they say, Chill Out, Don't Sweat, Drink A Beer. Oh, and Welcome to HBT!

Seanbmc said:

I have a 5 gallon stout in its secondary and I used all Distilled water. I am not sure why I did, and have realized this was a mistake. It is ready to bottle, but I was wondering if there is anything I could do at this step to correct the error.

Any tips? or should I bottle it up tomorrow and see how it turns out?

Sean

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If its an extract beer, than distilled is better than tap water. All the minerals you need are in your extract. Next time I would just use RO drinking water with your extract kits

How's it taste?
You might be worrying for nothing.

It was an extract kit, so hopefully it has the minerals it needs. I am planning on pulling it out today and bottling it. I picked up the tap-a-draft system so im excited to try that out. Ill taste it and see.

Would I run into more problems if I did a kit that just has LME?

I suspect it will be fine. I do extract w/ grains and partial mash brewing. My tapwater is not so good. I use bottled spring water to mash or steep (if extract), and distilled for the remainder of water to reach my boil volume.

Assuming you had some steeping grains in the kit, and you steeped these in distilled water, I still think it's gonna be ok.

Bottle it, let it condition appropriately, and enjoy.

Would it be worth it to add some regular water in the primary if it does not taste right? Or is it too late?

Unless your doing all grain, simple rule is if it tastes good, then its good for brewing.

Seanbmc said:

Would it be worth it to add some regular water in the primary if it does not taste right? Or is it too late?

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Don't do this. It won't help and could have negative effects. I think it is fine as is, but if you absolutely feel the need to do anything, you could add some gypsum and/or calcium chloride. These will impact the hop/malt flavors. However, I would not really seriously consider adding anything.

Snafu said:

Unless your doing all grain, simple rule is if it tastes good, then its good for brewing.

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Unless its full of chlorine

flabyboy said:

Snafu said:

Unless your doing all grain, simple rule is if it tastes good, then its good for brewing.

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Unless its full of chlorine

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If it's full of chlorine it probably doesn't taste good.

Well, if it were full of chlorine, I doubt I'd call it good to begin with

It's amazing the tastes you get used to when you drink it everyday