Brita water...

[Brownalemikie]

I've been filtering my Florida tap water through a Brita pitcher since I started brewing last July. The 3 beer styles I brew taste great. Just curious if anybody else uses Brita water.

 

[schematix]

Sounds tedious... that's like a gallon every 30 mintues? Plus their filters are expensive. My $99 RO system gives nearly pure water at 3G/hr whenever i need it.

 

[Murphys_Law]

I bought one and it took too long to "make" water. I buy RO from my local grocery for 39 cents a gallon (WalMart is cheaper).

 

[Brownalemikie]

Sounds tedious... that's like a gallon every 30 mintues? Plus their filters are expensive. My $99 RO system gives nearly pure water at 3G/hr whenever i need it.

Not really....it takes 25 minutes to filter 3 gallons for a 2 1/2 gallon batch. This gives me time to weigh out the grains and hops and set up my brew area while filtering water. As far as cost, a Brita filter is good for 300 gallons and I buy packs of 3 for $18.

Btw, I have thought about buying a RO system.....that's why I started this thread.

 

[alexnova]

I use mine to supplement distilled and/or metabite-treated tap water.

 

[MrAverageGuy]

If filtering using a Brita filter works for you, then it's all good. If you were super-concerned about mineral content and making adjustments (sounds like you don't need to be if it tastes good), it would be hard to know where you're starting from without using RO or distilled water. Been thinking about RO - right now I buy distilled at $0.88/gal from Wal-Mart and adjust minerals to style using Bru'n Water...also doing 2.5 gallong BIAB batches.

 

[schematix]

I used to filter my brewing water nice and slow with active charcoal filters and it helped a little bit, but it doesn't change the ions, which can be a problem. Better than nothing i guess.

But on a whim i made a batch using bottled distilled water plus minerals, and the resulting beer showed me that there was enough of a weird flavor from tap water that RO was the way to go (distilled is overkill).

I've put thousands of gallons through my RO, both for brewing and now my house drinking water. The things are so cheap that to me it's not worth hauling jugs of RO around from walmart, or paying that much for it.

I have my $99 RO mounted on the wall in the basement. The night before i brew i turn it on and about 8 hours later i have what i need (usually about 25 gallons).