Do I really need to boil all my water?

[skidude]

I sanitize anything that touches the beer, and I obviously boil a gallon or three of the water when I make the wort, but I just use cold tap water to make up the rest in the fermenter. I have a well, and the water is untreated, so I assumed it was sanitary enough to not need boiling.

I read a lot when I started brewing a few years ago and pre-boiling the additional water was never mentioned, but then I got out of it for a couple years, and now that I am getting back into brewing again I am reading more and I come across it sometimes. Is it actually necessary?

 

[bobbrews]

Do a full wort boil and you won't have to worry about it.

 

[jdauria]

Necessary? No. Safer? Yes. Before moving to all grain and full volume boils, I filled with tap or bottled water without boiling, but knew I was risking infection. It doesn't hurt though to just boil some water the day before and then chill it.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

If you're talking about 'top up' water, I'd definitely boil it first. There's no 'need' to, but it's definitely the safe way to go. You never know what lives in your faucet or household plumbing, and my guess would be you wouldn't want to find out the hard way.

 

[bknifefight]

Our tap water tastes bad so Ive always used bottled spring water from Walmart. When doing partial boils and extract on the stovetop, I never preboiled the top off water. I think most people will tell you, as long as there isnt a public safety warning about boiling your tap water before drinking (assuming you have city water and not a well), it will be fine.

 

[inturnldemize]

I boil the wort for sure, sanitize everything but the remaining water needed to fill the 5 gallons up, I use tap water. I don't boil the tap water. I guess you can say 'i'm taking a chance', but it really doesn't worry me (and I worry alot). If the tap water in your area is safe to drink, then it's good enough for your beer!

 

[kanddr]

I have always just used bottled spring water like bknifefight suggested. Throw it in the fridge to cool down and it works well and I've never head a problem doing that.

 

[shawnbou]

Technically, it's a risk to use unboiled top-up water. But I did it for 2 years without a single infection.

If you can, do it. If you can't, it's not the end of the world, but you are taking a risk and should take all other precautions to keep things sanitary.

 

[Shooter]

I still do an occasional partial stove top batch. While I've never used tap water, I do top up with bottled water.

 

[kevstev]

My friend did this without issue. Seems silly to me though- we go crazy about sanitation, being sure to fill our airlocks with sanitizer or vodka, cleaning and sanitizing every hose and surface thoroughly. To then just throw the dice and see what comes out of your tap seems crazy risky after all the previous work.

 

[strongarm]

9 brews for me and I never boiled my top off water. Haven't had an issue yet

 

[Peppers16]

I don't really have the experience to comment decisively but this definitely seems like one of those 'hobbyist' quirks that gets blown out of proportion a bit in the pursuit of perfection. I'd imagine if your tap water is safe for human consumption, it's sufficiently microbe-free for your yeast to take over, particularly if you do a starter.
Let's not forget people used water probably infected with cholera and wild yeast back in the past, and the mere presence of alcohol in the drink made beer one of the safest things to drink!

P.S. I have, however, heard boiling and cooling evaporates chlorine and whatnot and can improve bad tasting tap-water?

 

[jmprdood]

Homebrewers have gotten more paranoid as the years go by. I've been doing this a long time and use tap water all the time to top up and brew. If your water is good to drink, it is good to brew. Now if you are a chemist and want perfect water...cheers and go for it.

But for most of the homebrew crowd that is looking to brew great beer, your tap works fine.

Cheers!

 

[SFbrewdoc]

I agree with not having to boil top-off water. Keep in mind that all of the equipment, including the fermenter itself, has been "sanitized" and not "sterilized." The goal is simply to minimize any bacterial or wild yeast present and give the yeast you pitch in the wort free reign to do its thing without competition. When using tap water you most likely aren't adding a significant number of additional microbes, and as long as you pitch enough yeast it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jmprdood]

Welcome to the forum doc!

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

I never boiled my tap water that I used for topping off (and still don't). My tap water is chloramine-free and very low in chlorine so I use it right from the tap.

I imagine if someone really was paranoid about microbes they could preboil their top off water. But I actually drink the water that comes out of my faucet and so does my family. If my water was bad enough to contaminate my beer, I imagine that I shouldn't be drinking it.

 

[BrewByLos]

I bought a $30 filtrete carbon water filter for my kitchen tap. No issues in my brews with top off water. I figure if your water is good enough to drink it is good enough to top off with.

 

[ajf]

Technically, it's a risk to use unboiled top-up water. But I did it for 2 years without a single infection.

If you can, do it. If you can't, it's not the end of the world, but you are taking a risk and should take all other precautions to keep things sanitary.

I did it for 20 years, and during that time, I got one infected batch. However, the infection was not caused by the top off water, it was introduced at bottling time.

-a.

 

[Maverick1965]

I have a 2 gal Brita filter and a 3 gal plastic water bottle I got from KMart for about 30 bucks. I plan ahead and run all my top off water thru that and cool it in the fridge prior to using since I dont have a wort cooler yet. Im only two brews old, lol, but I have not had any complaints on the bottles Ive handed out to friends and when I drink the water from the Brita, it is definitely a cleaner, almost nothing flavor. To me, if the water is neutral in flavor, then the ingredients of your recipe have the opportunity to shine!

 

[YeastHerder]

Just because a water source is safe to drink doesn't mean its free of microbes that could compete with your yeast. The fact that so many people don't have problems using unboiled tap water is good to hear though.

I'm still going to err on the side of caution and pre-boil top off water. If for nothing else, just consistency across my method.

If I remember correctly, the reason brewing fixes nasty problems, like cholera, is that the water gets boiled in the process of brewing. It just wasn't until Pasteur came along that we understood why.

 

[Draken]

Just because a water source is safe to drink doesn't mean its free of microbes that could compete with your yeast. The fact that so many people don't have problems using unboiled tap water is good to hear though.

I'm still going to err on the side of caution and pre-boil top off water. If for nothing else, just consistency across my method.

If I remember correctly, the reason brewing fixes nasty problems, like cholera, is that the water gets boiled in the process of brewing. It just wasn't until Pasteur came along that we understood why.

My concern is not really the water, it's the tap itself. If you don't frequently clean your tap things will start growing on it. Mold being the most common. If your clean your kitchen sink and constantly run super hot water through it.. Not as much of a concern. If your getting the water from the guest bathroom or some place that doesn't see much use or cleaning.. Boil that stuff.

 

[matt-tastic]

I use the filtered water from my fridge spigot, but haven't bothered with boiling. You may consider a filter of some sort with well water, as I remember getting "grey" water from ours at times growing up. You shouldn't need to boil (underwater aquifers are fairly clean, unless you have a business nearby that pollutes), but keep an eye on how clean the water coming out is.

Of course, since it's your house, you probably know how good the water is. If you think it is a risk, then boil by all means. If you're comfortable with the state of the water, then don't bother. Often the water quality is what gives a certain regional beer its flavor, and boiling/filtering may lose that for you!

In the end, the only way you'll know if by doing it and seeing the outcome

 

[johnclark]

Tasting the outcome. It's all about the cool down and fermentation, everything before the boil at this level is trivial.

 

[SmoothSmoke]

Is their still a need to boil store bought distilled bottled water?

 

[idahobrew]

Is their still a need to boil store bought distilled bottled water?

I wouldn't used distilled water only, you want some minerals in your water. I'm with the crowd that says if your water is good to drink out of the tap it's good to brew with, just use a campden tablet to remove chlorine, chloramine, will also kill some bacteria and wild yeast. If you want to use bottled water spring water from walmart is 88 cents a gallon and is uv sterilized I believe.

 

[Yooper]

Is their still a need to boil store bought distilled bottled water?

No.

Of course, I don't think it's necessary to boil tap water, either, so what do I know?!?!

Seriously, bottled distilled water would be purified and cleanly packaged so it would be fine.

My tap water doesn't contain chloramines- that's the real issue with tap water in my opinion. It's a sort of chlorine that is added that doesn't boil off and can cause some flavor issues with the beer in the end, called chlorophenols. Avoiding those by using distilled or reverse osmosis water is a good thing to do, since chloramines won't boil off anyway.

 

[Peppers16]

Just because a water source is safe to drink doesn't mean its free of microbes that could compete with your yeast. The fact that so many people don't have problems using unboiled tap water is good to hear though.

...

If I remember correctly, the reason brewing fixes nasty problems, like cholera, is that the water gets boiled in the process of brewing. It just wasn't until Pasteur came along that we understood why.

I think you are actually right. I was really just trying to put things in perspective: I've never drank a medieval beer but I imagine most were drinkable
despite some ghastly sanitation.

Obviously if you want to be cautious, do so. But as I understand it; established surface-colonies are the main treat to yeast, rather than stray cells in the air and water which will take ages to multiply anyway. Once your fermentation has started the yeast mostly takes care of things until bottling at which point you want to be paranoid again.

 

[Shooter]

Seriously, bottled distilled water would be purified and cleanly packaged so it would be fine.

My tap water doesn't contain chloramines- that's the real issue with tap water in my opinion. It's a sort of chlorine that is added that doesn't boil off and can cause some flavor issues with the beer in the end, called chlorophenols. Avoiding those by using distilled or reverse osmosis water is a good thing to do, since chloramines won't boil off anyway.

Agree on both points, I never worry about any bottled water. The main reason I would be concerned about my tap water would be the chloramine in it.

When I do a full boil outside I usually just use tap water treated with Campden. On the rare occasion I do a partial, I tend to just buy a couple of the 2 1/2 gallon jugs of spring or distilled.

 

[befus]

Homebrewers have gotten more paranoid as the years go by. I've been doing this a long time and use tap water all the time to top up and brew. If your water is good to drink, it is good to brew.

But for most of the homebrew crowd that is looking to brew great beer, your tap works fine.

Cheers!

Kinda sorta. My tap water tastes ok, but makes horrible beer. It has a lot of chlorine and other chemicals. I now use campden tabs to get it out. Maybe a few ounces would be no problem, but if a gallon or more I use bottled or previously boiled water to top off. Just my $.02.

 

[CBXBob]

My well is only 50 ft deep, I am in a good water area, no heavy industry near, and even though it is clear, and doesn't smell bad,or leave bad deposits on my fixtures, I don't drink it, because the well is shallow and could contain "bugs". So I buy spring water from the market for drinking and my coffee. I choose spring over distilled because I believe some minerals are good for me. I use my well water for the boil, if there are any "bugs" the boil kills em, and top up with the bottled water. That I know is sterile, but still has the minerals.
And from what I've learned here, believe the quality of the water is secondary to temperature control of fermentation when is comes to the quality of your brew, unless there are extremes in you water, like sulfur, or chlorine.
My 2 cents

 

[grem135]

I added a filtered water tap to my kitchen sink when I remodeled. I figured that was good enough.

from what I read here I'm happy with it.

 

[Arctic-Stranger]

This has been quite interesting, since I have been boiling water to add to the wort, and I usually come up short.

One question; can you use the cool tap water to cool the wort down? (We have some pretty cold water up here in Alaska.)