Problem: New Water Filter Aerating Brewing Water

[L_A_Brewing]

Just put together a water filter to remove particulate and chlorine from my house tap water. The filter system has three filters connected by 1/4 inch plastic tubing. I am currently using the following filters in the following order:

Pentek P5 - spun polypropylene
Pentek P250A - carbon and 0.5micron filter

The problem I am encountering is the water exiting the filter is highly aerated. I have been reading up on low oxygen brewing and have been making a conscious effort (without going to extremes) to reduce the amount of oxygen ingress during my brewing process.

Has anyone experienced this? Any suggestions for resolving the issue?View attachment IMG_0327.jpg

 

[schematix]

Are you pre boiling your water for the low oxygen benefits? If so the bubbles you’re seeing in the filters won’t matter because it’ll be boiled out. If you’re not pre boiling, it won’t make a difference either because tap water is already O2 saturated.

You shouldn’t be seeing a lot of bubbles though. Have you checked all your fittings and seals are tight?

 

[LarMoeCur]

You have air in the filters housings. There should be red or black buttons right on the top cap. Starting with the filter housing where the water first enters. Turn the water on push the first button in until water comes out. Then move to the next. Don't turn the water on full blast. Just a light flow is all that is necessary.

 

[IslandLizard]

For 100% guaranteed chlorine removal I'd use Campden or K-Meta. Works in seconds.

 

[Francus]

For 100% guaranteed chlorine removal I'd use Campden or K-Meta. Works in seconds.

I've read it takes a bit more than seconds. That said I can't remember the exact figure. I just toss in a crushed campden tablet in the water as I heat it to strike temp. Then I put in another one as I heat the sparge water. They say one tablet is good for 20 gallons, but that over doing it won't hurt anything. That said, I wouldn't toss in 10 of the things if one would do.

I have been using them for a decade. I started when the city started putting chloramines in the water. My filter did fine with chlorine but wouldn't get out all the chloramines. Campden was the answer and it clears out both. I don't filter anymore.

 

[L_A_Brewing]

I appreciate the replays, I have also been tossing campden tablets into my brews up until this point, but I was curious if I would get a change in the finished beer using the filter instead. @LarMoeCur, these filter housings don't have purge valves like you describe. I may have to fabricate something or adapt some fittings inline. Thanks for the tip.

Something I did notice was the PH of the water dropped from around 7.4 to about 6.4 and my resulting mash PH for a Belgian double dropped to around 4.9 which seemed to give me a little bump in mash efficiency. Seemed to be a nice little side bar at the time, but I am still worried that brewing water was absolutely saturated with oxygen and will result in oxidation off flavors.

I have been brewing for some time, but I have only started dappling with my source water for the past year or so. Likewise with the low oxygen brewing. I may try the filter again and pre-boil my brewing water just to see how things turn out.