Question On Water Filter

[Newtobrewing85]

Hey,

So I’m going to attempt my first IPA and All Grain this weekend. Would it be better to buy gallon jugs of store water, if so which kind. I work for a grocery store and we have the fill stations as well but you need the 5 gallon jug to start I guess and they’re $12 a 5 gallon jug, analysis below. They’re Eldorado springs water and I don’t think that’s good for beer. Or would I be okay with just using my in-line cold water Brita filter, it’s a level 4 so I guess it filters pretty much everything. Trying to get this all settled today because we’re in for 2-3’ of snow this weekend so I can’t exactly leave my house for water in a challenger


TIA
Analysis

 

[Coookies58]

I’m partial to buying RO or distilled water from the store and building up from there. That said, I brew 2.5 gallon batches and it only takes 4 gallons.
definitely don’t want spring water, which can have a lot of minerals and stuff you don’t want. I’d be worried about chlorine from the tap water, but not sure if you have that. Campden tablets can fix that. It sure if the Brita gets it all.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Regular chlorine in tap water will dissapate if the water is left standing in an open container overnight. Chloramine requires the campden tablets, or a pinch of KMBS or NaMBS to remove it. I typically use the KMBS as I have several bags of it lying around from wine making.
Check your municipality water profile to see if your tapwater is good for brewing. Mine is almost distilled so its good to use, but if you have a lot of minerality it might be problematic.
You could also check with some local water fountain suppliers - you could probably get RO water by the 5gal jug from them for a decent price. They might even deliver!

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Local water quality report.

https://www.frederickco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/532/Town-of-Frederick-Water-Quality-Report?bidId=

 

[Newtobrewing85]

I’m partial to buying RO or distilled water from the store and building up from there. That said, I brew 2.5 gallon batches and it only takes 4 gallons.
definitely don’t want spring water, which can have a lot of minerals and stuff you don’t want. I’d be worried about chlorine from the tap water, but not sure if you have that. Campden tablets can fix that. It sure if the Brita gets it all.

That was my thought, thanks. Last time I bought in the 1 gallon jugs, distilled I think. I can do that again but another $10 every time I brew will add up. Wanted to try the 5 gallon jugs but I needed the jug to start and I’m trying to be cheap lol.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Regular chlorine in tap water will dissapate if the water is left standing in an open container overnight. Chloramine requires the campden tablets, or a pinch of KMBS or NaMBS to remove it. I typically use the KMBS as I have several bags of it lying around from wine making.
Check your municipality water profile to see if your tapwater is good for brewing. Mine is almost distilled so its good to use, but if you have a lot of minerality it might be problematic.
You could also check with some local water fountain suppliers - you could probably get RO water by the 5gal jug from them for a decent price. They might even deliver!

Okay so let it sit from maybe tonight to Saturday or just go ahead and buy the bottled. I can check around on the 5 gallons, the storm is coming fast so now I’m trying to figure it out lol. I thought I could go Saturday morning but no. 500hp and 8-12” of snow don’t mix.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Local water quality report.

Hmm. Not quite what you're looking for. You might have to call that phone number for the supplier from the lake source.
Here's what mine looks like, maybe it'll help you with your questions.
Also, might seem like a big step for a new brewer, but if you can read the information over at Brunwater.com it might help you a bit.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Hmm. Not quite what you're looking for. You might have to call that phone number for the supplier from the lake source.
Here's what mine looks like, maybe it'll help you with your questions.
Also, might seem like a big step for a new brewer, but if you can read the information over at Brunwater.com it might help you a bit.

Hmm I’ll Google again! Thanks! I’ll check that out, there’s a lot to learn lol.

Edit: that’s all they have for a report.

 

[TennBrewer]

What I expect from a water report is whether it is hard or soft as determined by the amount of minerals in the water, the pH is also handy to have. If you use distilled or RO water, that is usually pretty soft water and you may need to add a small amount of Calcium and maybe some Sulfate (Calcium Sulphate, CaSO4 is usually available at your LHBS, Calcium Chloride, CaCl2 is also used). If your water is hard, know this if your plumbing leaves a white chalky substance or you need a water softener. Soft water is good for lagers and other malt-forward beers, harder water is better for bitter, pale ales, especially IPA's. If you go ahead and just use the bottled water, it'll be ok, just not ideal.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Edit: that’s all they have for a report.

Maybe stick with the RO water for now? Or more fun yet, do side-by-side brews with one batch using RO water and another using your tap water and see what you think! You can also send your water off for analysis. There are labs all over that do this.
Honestly, I brewed and enjoyed beer for 20 years in various places before I ever started looking at the water much.

Good Luck!
Chris

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Maybe stick with the RO water for now? Or more fun yet, do side-by-side brews with one batch using RO water and another using your tap water and see what you think! You can also send your water off for analysis. There are labs all over that do this.
Honestly, I brewed and enjoyed beer for 20 years in various places before I ever started looking at the water much.

Good Luck!
Chris

I don’t want to get crazy I just want to make sure I’m using good enough water to not screw up my beer! Everyone is buying all the water and I meant to grab purified but it was out and I went to another store and grabbed distilled, no idea why.

As far as I know you definitely can’t use that.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

What I expect from a water report is whether it is hard or soft as determined by the amount of minerals in the water, the pH is also handy to have. If you use distilled or RO water, that is usually pretty soft water and you may need to add a small amount of Calcium and maybe some Sulfate (Calcium Sulphate, CaSO4 is usually available at your LHBS, Calcium Chloride, CaCl2 is also used). If your water is hard, know this if your plumbing leaves a white chalky substance or you need a water softener. Soft water is good for lagers and other malt-forward beers, harder water is better for bitter, pale ales, especially IPA's. If you go ahead and just use the bottled water, it'll be ok, just not ideal.

Can you use distilled? I thought you weren’t supposed to use it. I bought distilled accidentally, this is the report.

https://www.kroger.com/content/v2/binary/document/info/terms/water-quality_report-1603746386542.pdf

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Also I forgot to add my tap water tastes like crap! Which is why I Brita filter it because it’s just really gross.

 

[Coookies58]

You can brew with distilled water, you just want to add salts to the water. Definitely a bit of calcium. Play with a water calculator.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Maybe melt some of that snow you got coming?

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Just for S & G's I looked around for you. Found this:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri034044/#figurecaption47497992Long read. But if you look at Table 30 and 31 you get some data on minerality and such for the surface and bottom of the Carter Lake Reservoir.
pH 8/7.4
Calcium 9.8/8.8
Magnesium 1.3/1.3
Sodium 2.2/2.2
Bicarbonate ?
Carbonate ?
Sulfate 2.9/2.9
Chloride 0.7/0.6
Potassium 0.7/0.6
Iron 7/4
Nitrate + Nitrite A/A
Fluoride 0.1/01
Total Alkalinity ?
Total Hardness 32/28

I'd say your water is pretty soft. Harder than mine but there is not much minerality. Filter it for off flavors with your Brita and neutralize the chlorine/chloramine. Add minerals as need be - you could use some calcium probably. Rough guess - about 1/2 teaspoon each of calcium chloride and gypsum and epsom (in the mash for a 5gal batch) will get it working. Brunwater will set you correctly for different beer styles though.

 

[jerrylotto]

Collect the snow!

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Collect the snow!

You’re the second person to say this now lol, I took this as a joke the first time. Now I’m genuinely curious.

 

[Coookies58]

Would be interesting to see the water report on that.

 

[jerrylotto]

As long as you are not in an area with heavy air pollution, snow (and rain) is a natural purification process of which it is very easy to take advantage. All you will need to do is filter out particulates (primarily pollen/dust) and treat it more or less like distilled water. This is the composition of "model" rainwater:

 

[Coookies58]

5.5 is pretty low ph. Darn acid rain.

 

[jerrylotto]

Perfect mashing pH

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Just for S & G's I looked around for you. Found this:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri034044/#figurecaption47497992Long read. But if you look at Table 30 and 31 you get some data on minerality and such for the surface and bottom of the Carter Lake Reservoir.
pH 8/7.4
Calcium 9.8/8.8
Magnesium 1.3/1.3
Sodium 2.2/2.2
Bicarbonate ?
Carbonate ?
Sulfate 2.9/2.9
Chloride 0.7/0.6
Potassium 0.7/0.6
Iron 7/4
Nitrate + Nitrite A/A
Fluoride 0.1/01
Total Alkalinity ?
Total Hardness 32/28

I'd say your water is pretty soft. Harder than mine but there is not much minerality. Filter it for off flavors with your Brita and neutralize the chlorine/chloramine. Add minerals as need be - you could use some calcium probably. Rough guess - about 1/2 teaspoon each of calcium chloride and gypsum and epsom (in the mash for a 5gal batch) will get it working. Brunwater will set you correctly for different beer styles though.

Thank you! I didn’t know that site existed, that’s helpful. I have the how to brew book too but trying to read that this week being busy has been a struggle. Being on call makes brewing a struggle when I can only do it on weekends I’m not on call.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

As long as you are not in an area with heavy air pollution, snow (and rain) is a natural purification process of which it is very easy to take advantage. All you will need to do is filter out particulates (primarily pollen/dust) and treat it more or less like distilled water. This is the composition of "model" rainwater:
View attachment 721927

Crazy. Who knew? Lol thanks for the insightful information.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Okay I gave up and just bought spring water from Kroger, it’s on that report I posted a few posts ago. The PH is a bit high, the rest I’m not sure what the values are supposed to be off top of my head. Wondering if I did 4- 4 1/2 gallons of spring water with 1/2-1 gallon of distilled if that would dilute all the values down a touch or if that’s even necessary.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

You're still going to benefit from some mineral additions. I plugged a few numbers into Brunwater quickly before going to work. Calcium/manesium are still rather low for good yeast function in particular, but you can always try it out and see what happens. I'm sure you will still make beer!
It may be hard to make an IPA "pop" with that profile. Now a Czech Pilsner might be alright though.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

You're still going to benefit from some mineral additions. I plugged a few numbers into Brunwater quickly before going to work. Calcium/manesium are still rather low for good yeast function in particular, but you can always try it out and see what happens. I'm sure you will still make beer!
It may be hard to make an IPA "pop" with that profile. Now a Czech Pilsner might be alright though.

Thanks! It was hard finding anything at the stores. Ugh. I guess we will see what happens! Lol

 

[jerrylotto]

I'm brewing a pilsner today. What's with the high HCO3- value? The recipe calls for 235 ppm!

 

[Newtobrewing85]

I'm brewing a pilsner today. What's with the high HCO3- value? The recipe calls for 235 ppm!

Still to new to decipher this lol. What’s HCO3?

Edit: bicarbonate. Is that on the water profile?! I don’t see anything.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Today’s been interesting. Read everything I could and took a bunch of notes and set everything up. Tried to mill the grain, that was trial and error with a new grain mill. It only goes one direction lol so you’re either milling or spillin, the grains into the bucket that is. Settled on like .5-.6 which seemed to crack them but not pulverize them. Filled anvil, forgot to turn on heat, walked away. Came back to a puddle, confused, angry, issue with spigot. Almost threw in the towel, moved spigot to where it stopped leaking, continued. Got the mash done, read 1.034 on my refractometer or 8 on the Brix scale. OG for this is roughly 1.061-1.063 per paperwork but this is pre-boil with roughly 6.2 gallons of water post 1 gallon sparge. Hopefully post boil it’s a little closer to the OG from more beer. It seems to be going okay now, thank god. Adding first hops momentarily for a 60 minute boil.

Posted a photo, does that mill look about right or not enough?

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

I use this water filter to remove chlorine and fluoride, but I live in NYC and have very soft water with extremely low mineral content.

Send some of your tap water to ward labs and get it tested for the mineral composition. Hopefully it's good enough to use as a base water profile and isn't too hard.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/b...CjMiFjGFlQJqhoyGHAjVlK1kvkFURL4hoCQgkQAvD_BwE

 

[Newtobrewing85]

I use this water filter to remove chlorine and fluoride, but I live in NYC and have very soft water with extremely low mineral content.

Send some of your tap water to ward labs and get it tested for the mineral composition. Hopefully it's good enough to use as a base water profile and isn't too hard.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/b...CjMiFjGFlQJqhoyGHAjVlK1kvkFURL4hoCQgkQAvD_BwE

I think I will send it off out of curiosity! I’ll check that out, thanks. The LHBS said you can’t remove chloramine from water with campden tablets, I was under the assumption you could.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Wrong link before here's the right one

https://www.morebeer.com/products/water-filter-kit-10.html

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Today’s been interesting.

Posted a photo, does that mill look about right or not enough?

Looks fine. I think a good rule of thumb is wide enough to just pass a credit card through....

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

The LHBS said you can’t remove chloramine from water with campden tablets, I was under the assumption you could.

LHBS is wrong. In fact you need very little. 1/2 to 1/4 a tab is probably enough, but I usually go with a whole tablet because I can't be bothered splitting it. I use Campden or KMBS powder every brew and I DEFINITELY have chloramine in my tapwater.
I also once used some KMBS to lower the chlorine in my hot tub when I overdid it once. True Story.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Dude, I gotta ask - you live in Colorado. Surely there is a source of clean, pure mountain water nearby?

 

[Newtobrewing85]

LHBS is wrong. In fact you need very little. 1/2 to 1/4 a tab is probably enough, but I usually go with a whole tablet because I can't be bothered splitting it. I use Campden or KMBS powder every brew and I DEFINITELY have chloramine in my tapwater.
I also once used some KMBS to lower the chlorine in my hot tub when I overdid it once. True Story.

Hmm wonder why he said that than. He said they remove chlorine but not chloramine.

 

[Newtobrewing85]

Dude, I gotta ask - you live in Colorado. Surely there is a source of clean, pure mountain water nearby?

Eldorado springs water. There’s probably others, a million beers are made here. I’m new so I haven’t researched all this yet.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Martin Brungard, author of Brunwater has so stated, let alone many other sources.
I have found many LHBS personel to be less informed than I would like to hope.

https://wineandhop.com/blogs/news/1...are a few easy,brew (works only for chlorine)

 

[Coookies58]

That’s a pretty wide mill gap. The foundry has a basket for mashing, do you use a bag with it? I BIAB so take that into consideration, but my mill is set to about .325, which gets me fairly close to flour. This could explain your low conversion. Boiling a gallon off of that isn’t going to get you to 1.060. How did the OG turn out?