1st all grain attempt - Tap or RO water?

About to attempt my first all grain brew day. My last decision is to use RO water or regular tap water? Eventually I'll get more into the water chemistry but looking for opinions on where to start.

RO water for sure if you can. What's your recipe?

If you can get your hands on some Calcium Chloride and Gypsum you can do some very basic salt additions to adjust for the style you're looking for without getting to complicated.

It depends on your tap water. If you have soft water, with no chlorine or chloramine, and you can get the proper mash pH with your tap water, then that would be the ticket!

I don't.

So I use RO water.

If you have RO available, use it. My first all grain beers were very disappointing until I got the water situation resolved. People say it's the last thing you should look into. I would say it should be the first.

If you do use RO, add 5g of Calcium Chloride to the mash water.

If it taste good enough to drink than it's good enough to brew with. I do AG and I have an RO filter bc I also have saltwater fish. But I don't use the RO water. I'll either use tap water or buy gallons of water from SAMs club. I would say for your first AG worry less about your water and more about the process. Getting chemistry down is more or less to mimic a beer style or for competition. Once you are comfortable with doing AG then I would dabble into water chemistry if it's a big deal to you. Just my 2 cents.

Going for a clone of Shock Top. 10lb grain bill with Belgian pilsner malt, flaked wheat and white wheat.

A few days after I'm looking at doing a recipe similar to Bell's Two Hearted.

I just moved into a new apartment and made some of the worst beer ever with just my water and no campden tabs. I started using half RO (strike water) and the other half tap with campden tabs (sparge water). That seemed to help.

At my old apartment when I first started brewing, I used hot water out of my bathtub to brew and made some of the best beer I have ever had. Just depends on your location.

If you don't know the local water chemistry, definitely use RO water. (the local water here tastes good but is useless for brewing anything except stouts)

If you don't have a water report for your tap water, you are just shooting in the dark. Until you know what's in the tap water, you should use RO water. Water chemistry for AG brewing can get rather involved. Fortunately, there is an excellent primer on HBT that can get you well into the ballpark with some basic water salt additions. Those salts are available at your LHBS for a few bucks.

MaxStout said:

If you don't have a water report for your tap water, you are just shooting in the dark. Until you know what's in the tap water, you should use RO water. Water chemistry for AG brewing can get rather involved. Fortunately, there is an excellent primer on HBT that can get you well into the ballpark with some basic water salt additions. Those salts are available at your LHBS for a few bucks.

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Now, that I have my process down (more or less), I am looking more and more into water chemistry. After reading John Palmer's chapter on water, I was a bit overwhelmed, but I stumbled upon the thread you mentioned a few days ago and it really simplified it for me.

RunNakeDnECU said:

If it taste good enough to drink than it's good enough to brew with.

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This advice has undoubtedly led to many, many mediocre beers and frustrated new brewers. Good tasting water can range from very soft to very hard and alkaline, or anywhere in between. No single water is idea for brewing all beers.

If you have access to RO water, there is no reason not to use it. See the "Primer" sticky in the Brew Science forum and eliminate the water complexity variable from your first attempt.