Can I use my tap water? (low ppm)

[TravelingLight]

Newbie here. Stupid question to boot. I'm wondering if I can use my tap water for brewing? It's relatively low ppm, for city tap water at least (around 100 ppm last I checked it). I use it in my hydroponic garden no problem. Just wondering if I can brew with it or I should go get distilled. TIA.

 

[mabrungard]

You should be able to brew with it, but you should try and find out what the ionic content in the water is.

 

[TravelingLight]

You should be able to brew with it, but you should try and find out what the ionic content in the water is.

Thanks for the heads up. In the event I can find out the ionic content, what is an acceptable range/limit? Thanks.

 

[specharka]

There are different ions...
Mg, Ca, SO4, Na, Cl, HCO3 are the big ones that are of paramount interest. If your water tastes good, your beer probably will too. The difficulty is when water treatment (chloramines) or water softening (salts) systems are in place to make the water palatable.

 

[TravelingLight]

There are different ions...
Mg, Ca, SO4, Na, Cl, HCO3 are the big ones that are of paramount interest. If your water tastes good, your beer probably will too. The difficulty is when water treatment (chloramines) or water softening (salts) systems are in place to make the water palatable.

Great point. As far as salts and chloramines go, couldn't I let the water sit out for 24 hours to burn off the chlorine, etc? Or, rather than leaving the water out and open for other nasties to infiltrate, couldn't I just throw an air stone in there and aerate the water for an hour or so to burn it off? Sorry if that sounds stupid/asinine, I'm pulling tricks of the trade from my hydroponic growing knowledge. Thanks.

 

[SEndorf]

Low TDS are hopeful. In the absence of a water report, as a bare minimum I would find someone with a spa or swimming pool that has a decent titration kit and check the alkalinity. You don't want to use softened water.

 

[Kampenken]

You may be able to find a water report for your location (assuming municipal water) via a web search, including here on HBT. Then you can go to Brewer's Friend water calculator and calculate additions you may need for what you're brewing. I'm quite new at water adj so take all that with a grain of .... salt. Also there is Ward Labs or possibly your LBHS will offer water reports and finally water test kits are also available.

 

[doug293cz]

Great point. As far as salts and chloramines go, couldn't I let the water sit out for 24 hours to burn off the chlorine, etc? Or, rather than leaving the water out and open for other nasties to infiltrate, couldn't I just throw an air stone in there and aerate the water for an hour or so to burn it off? Sorry if that sounds stupid/asinine, I'm pulling tricks of the trade from my hydroponic growing knowledge. Thanks.

Sitting open will allow chlorine to dissipate, but chloramine does not dissipate. Best insurance is a half a campden tablet per 10 gal of water. It gets rid of chlorine and chloramine almost instantly.

Brew on

 

[FreddyMar3]

One quick note about chlorine and chloramine... just letting your water sit out will eventually get rid of chlorine but it will take MUCH longer to get rid of chloramines (they're much more stable). You're better of just mixing in some k-meta (AKA campden AKA potassium metabisulfite) It'll dissipate both as ammonia gas in just minutes.

 

[jeffersonjames]

A good rule of thumb is - if your water taste good at room temp, then it will taste good in beer. Another note is to not use tap water if it has to go through a salt based water softener system. With that said I always buy 5, 1 gallon jugs of spring water. Its pre-measured, cheap and super easy to work with.

 

[FreddyMar3]

A good rule of thumb is - if your water taste good at room temp, then it will taste good in beer.

The caveat here is chlorophenols (created during the brewing process by chloromine that is still present in the water) are perceptible at 2-3 ppb while chloramine's threshold is about 1-5 ppm. Thus, your water could taste fine but still cause off flavors.


Chlorine taste threshold is ab 20 ppm.

 

[mabrungard]

Oh boy, plenty of disinformation in this thread.

The ONLY truth is: If the water tastes bad, the beer will taste bad. However, there is absolutely no truth to the contention that good tasting water is going to produce good beer. Please put that out of your thoughts.

Spring water might be suitable for brewing if you know what's in it and know how to treat it properly. Using spring water (or any other water) without understanding if it needs to be treated and how to do so, is not a guarantee for brewing success. All brewing requires acid and if your grist isn't providing it, your beer probably isn't going to be very admirable. Treatment does not have to be complicated or precise, but you should understand that some simple steps can make a big difference in your beers. The article on water treatment in the Nov/Dec 2015 Zymurgy magazine is focused on really simple treatment steps that can help make a difference in your beers.

 

[Finlandbrews]

Can anybody give me comments and tips for my water profile in order to make Ipas and stouts? And how would it be for making lagers? Anything To worry about?

Please see numbers in the third column. My alkalinity is around 30 ppm.

View attachment 1448313790178.jpg

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[Rhumbline]

Here's a crazy idea. Rather than ask a bunch of Internet strangers, brew a simple extract batch. Pay attention to things like sanitation and temp control, and see how the beer turns out?

It's really hard to screw up a beer.

 

[doug293cz]

Here's a crazy idea. Rather than ask a bunch of Internet strangers, brew a simple extract batch. Pay attention to things like sanitation and temp control, and see how the beer turns out?

It's really hard to screw up a beer.

That might work if the OP is planning only to do extract brewing. If they intend to get into all grain (or partial mash), then an extract batch won't tell them what they need to know about water usability.

It's actually quite easy to screw up a beer so that it isn't what you intended or hoped for. It is difficult to screw up bad enough that you don't get some kind of beer.

Brew on

 

[talos4]

In my humble opinion, you're over thinking it.

When it comes to brewing I'm currently a BIAB brewer, I've done many 3V brews and extracts. I do subscribe to the mantra that if my tap water from the city tastes good I can brew good tasting beer.

I've used city tap water and well water with no treatments, reports, lab analysis etc. Hell, I even used river water camping one summer. (Northwoods Camp Stout) I believe I make some pretty good brews and many others think so too.

I've also used the same tap and well water to distill a few spirits with outstanding results.

If a bunch of monks hundreds of years ago brewed beer in a monastary with river water and open fermenters I can use my city water. AND, so can you.

 

[deanktenor]

For what it's worth, I only brew with water from the tap. For the first couple times I bought gallons of spring water and it just became an annoyance. I haven't noticed a difference.

 

[SEndorf]

anecdotal evidence = luck of the draw.
Your tap water is apparently suitable for brewing. Not everyone shares these circumstances.
The comparison to ancient and rudimentary brewing with no regard for water composition (from the monks) "being good enough for them" is flawed. The primary purpose of medieval monastic brewing was to counteract the disease ridden water supply. I'm fairly confident that if you could down a pint of their 8th century swill, you would have a different viewpoint. Over time, drinkability changed as they became more knowledgeable of science and methods.

 

[Rhumbline]

anecdotal evidence = luck of the draw.
...QUOTE]

Hence my advice to try it and see, rather than the endless handwringing over some real or imagined threat.

Just brew a friggin' beer already! the only reason I suggested an extract kit was to eliminate as many variables as possible.

 

[TravelingLight]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I didn't mean for this thread to go down the rabbit hole so to speak. I've got a bit of OCD when it comes to new hobbies (not diagnosed or anything, just like **** done right) and I admittedly often times get bogged down in the minutiae of things. I'm finishing up my kegerator project then I'm brewing. Extract. Just got to figure out what I want to do. Not doing a kit, gonna put together my own extract brew. On to research now...

ETA: Guess I now know I can't use dirty words on here. My bad.

 

[UndeadFred]

This is for AG mashing.. it doesn't matter as much for extract where if it tastes good it is good is 90% right....

Your options on water are the following:

Send in for a lab report, get the lab report, and adjust using something like the Bru'N'Water spreadsheet. --- This might work for you with the low TDS, especially if your pH is essentially neutral.

Go out and get RO water and build up using known formulas/recipes or the spreadsheet.

Mix tap and RO to get a lower baseline and go from there with the spreadsheet. If you want to know what is in your water to do this $40 for the report on it.

Treat for Cl/Chloramine if on city water, dilute to under 100 PPM TDS with RO and give 'er a shot. Darker beers like will likely be successful at this point, particularly if you do a small test run with pH...

I've actually been doing AG's like step four for awhile doing about 1/3 tap to RO/DI and it worked well for several beers.. it wasn't so great on a light lager though.

I was guessing my water was still in the 300 PPM range and I was exactly right when I get a TDS meter. So I was lucky. It was an educated guess though because I knew some of the numbers when I bought the house from the county safety test.

The question you have to ask yourself is if at $40 for the Ward Labs test (by the time you turn it completely around with shipping it will be close to this) or at $1.85 / 5 gallons for RO, just starting from there.

For me on a well, with 300 PPM TDS, probably it'd be a PITA and I'd have to mix RO in anyway.. so it's easy, I'm just going to use RO from now on.. for you with 100 PPM.. eh, maybe....

If it were me I'd try a darker beer with your water just treated for Cl first.. If you want to do light beers and lagers, all the above does apply...

Fred

 

[Iseneye]

Since this is the beginners' forum:

-your water should be fine to make beer - probably even good beer once you know what you're doing (assuming all grain).

-you can (in my opinion you will) improve your beer via controlling mash pH and flavour ions. My beers went from good to stellar with acid adjustments. My unadjusted beers would have had pH of around 6.8-6.9 at room temperature which is detrimental to great beer.

Head to the brew science forum before you get into the water side because whatever question you can think of will probably have been answered already.