necessary to pre-boil top off water?

Does any water added post wort boil HAVE to be pre-boiled? For example, I added two gallons of grocery store drinking water to my primary fermenter to top off to 5 gallons. Then I might have to add a few more ounces to top off when I go to secondary.

Is it necessary to pre-boil all of this top off water?

I don't think it's necessary to boil store bought spring water. The last time I brewed I dunked the jug in star san and poured without boiling. I've heard of people freezing the water first and adding the ice to the wort to help cool down.

It's not neccessary, you wont die. I've made an entire 5 gallon batch with 5 gallons tap water. It may give a slight off taste to the beer though, depending on your water and the chemicals in it. Boiling off water only kills bacteria, I don't think it will get rid of the chemical traces that may be in it. If you really want, call your local water supplier and ask about the makeup of the water. If you're just topping it off with a gallon, then you'd hardly notice.

Otherwise, if you really hate tap water, I get two 2.5 gallon spring water jugs from the market for about $5 total. If anything I'll add a little tap water to top it off, but you can stock up on water for pretty cheap, especioally if you buy a re-usable water bucket and fill it up for likr $.89 a gallon at a Wal-Mart or something

Store bought spring water may or may not have contaminates. Only way to be completely certain is to boil, then cool down for use as top off water. I'd say 99 times out of 100 you'll be fine without boiling. But you never know when that one time is going to hit.

I have wondered about this myself. The problem with preboiling water is that it has to cool too. If you are doing extract batches and using an ice bath, its gonna be hard to get that wort down to temp. Last batch I preboiled the night before and planned to stick it in a bucket and let it sit in the fridge. I checked on it about an hour later and the fridge was like 80 degrees! I didn't want to ruin my dads Miller High Life (i won't get into why he loves that stuff so much) that was sitting in the fridge so I took the bucket out and just let it sit with the top on over night.

It was about room temp by the time I pitched the next day... not sure if that helped or hindered. I have also just added water straight from the tap and it turned out fine.

If you have store bought I would just dunk in sanitzer like others have said to be safe

I never did, but I always used store bought water in sealed container. I know that doesn't make it sanitary, but a lot more sanitary than water coming out of the tap.

I never have, and top off with tap water quite often. Bottom line, if there's no boil warning on your water you are fine to use it as it. Now whether you choose not to for chlorine issues is a different story. But sanitiation, you're fine.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

I never did, but I always used store bought water in sealed container. I know that doesn't make it sanitary, but a lot more sanitary than water coming out of the tap.

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Your tap water is contaminated? Your entire town must get sick.

Before I get ridiculed here I will say I have absolutely no facts to go off of here, only hearsay

My old environmental science teacher told us that most water bottle facilities use straight tap water. It has to meet the same potable standards as my our city water. If thats the cause I would think tap water is equal to bottled water

I use store bought water all the time to top off. I never boil it. I've never had a problem.

brettwasbtd said:

Before I get ridiculed here I will say I have absolutely no facts to go off of here, only hearsay

My old environmental science teacher told us that most water bottle facilities use straight tap water. It has to meet the same potable standards as my our city water. If thats the cause I would think tap water is equal to bottled water

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A couple bottled water companies, with plants in Michigan, use City of Ann Arbor, Michigan water, right out of the tap. It's such a joke to think of those fools paying extra for bottled water, when it's the same stuff coming out of the sink in town.

brettwasbtd said:

Before I get ridiculed here I will say I have absolutely no facts to go off of here, only hearsay

My old environmental science teacher told us that most water bottle facilities use straight tap water. It has to meet the same potable standards as my our city water. If thats the cause I would think tap water is equal to bottled water

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Folks in the next town over are tapped into a place called Opal Springs.

They can fill gallon bottles out of their bathtub faucet and sell it as 100% Natural Spring water.

Ah, so it's a good idea to dunk the entire plastic container before pouring? Never thought about that, the water flowing over the lip that's unsanitized. I guess you could just give the lip a few good sprays of star san before pouring, right?

Revvy said:

A couple bottled water companies, with plants in Michigan, use City of Ann Arbor, Michigan water, right out of the tap. It's such a joke to think of those fools paying extra for bottled water, when it's the same stuff coming out of the sink in town.

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Wow, jeez. I figured the packaged "drinking" water I buy from the store is at least filtered/purified to some extent. I guess you never know?

My tap water tastes good and I have never boiled it for top off water. My thought is that by the time I boil several gallons and let it sit around my house long enough to cool down, then brew my beer, I probably risk getting more contaminants in the water then just taking it straight from the tap.

Always used tap water to top off, never boiled and no issues. We have decent tapwater and so this is what works for me.

yeah i like my tap water, so i dont boil it. sometimes pour it in some jugs to cool it down to help chill the wort though.

New to brewing. I was on the fence on this and someone said if your tap water tastes fine its fine to use it in your beer. I live in Utah so all of our water is snow run off and the water tastes great so i didnt see the point in buying bottled water or in boiling it. Few more days and i should be able to taste my masterpieces.

My boil kettle has markings in it and if my volume is low around 20 mins left , ill titrate up to the volume I need over that 20 mins, enough to not disrupt the boil but enough to bring the volume up. maybe titrate isnt the word but you get the point.


But although I have just added straight tap water at the end, nothing bad happened but I may have gotten lucky.

I think a big part depends on the tap water to begin with. If it tastes good (I.E. no taste to begin with, it'll be fine to use. If there's a chlorine or mineral taste or odor, I wouldn't use it, even boiled.
My water here is fine, but I'm still considering getting a small RO machine for brewing and probably my dad's tropical fish. Build the water profile to suit for each usage.