Removing chloride from my tap water

[firebird400]

I have been reading tons about RO water, thiosulfate, Ultra high lime alluminate, air scrubbing and ascorbic acid to name a few and my head is starting to spin.

The thing is that I just need a clear answer to the question "Does reverse osmosis remove chloride" I am not talking about chlorine just so that is clear.
When looking at RO water filters systems for sale they all state "clean water" and "pure water" and so on. How ever when I look at scholarly articles or search directly for "removing chloride from water" I get all these different methods and no mention of reverse osmosis. That lets me think that RO does not remove it.

My local water is very clean and safe in every way, it just has 88 ppm chloride.

I distilled water for my last Bohemian Pils and I don´t ever want to go through that much work for a batch again.

 

[ajdelange]

I have been reading tons about RO water, thiosulfate, Ultra high lime alluminate, air scrubbing and ascorbic acid to name a few and my head is starting to spin.

The thing is that I just need a clear answer to the question "Does reverse osmosis remove chloride"

Yes, it does.

I am not talking about chlorine just so that is clear.

The methods you have researched are for removing chlorine so perhaps there is still some confusion on this.

I distilled water for my last Bohemian Pils and I don´t ever want to go through that much work for a batch again.

It is true that PU and Budvar are brewed with much lower levels of chloride but chloride tends to improve body, mouthfeel, 'roundness', sweetness etc. IOW most people find it a good thing to elevate chloride within reason. I guess I can appreciate that 88 ppm might just be too much of a good thing for you and if it is dilution with RO or pure RO augmented with a bit of calcium chloride are cerrtainly reasonable means for getting to a lower chloride level.

 

[firebird400]

I have found that this much chlorite results in a heavy malty beer. Removing it through distilling gives a crisp fresh beer.
I will reduce the already small amount of crystal malt in my bo pils recipe because I can taste it in the beer. So there is no need to worry about the beer being thin og harch from a lack of chlorite, it can be added in the grain bill.

 

[ajdelange]

I have found that this much chlorite results in a heavy malty beer.

That is consistent with the cmplaints of people who enjoy beers best with low chloride. There still seems to be some confusion over the names of the species.

Cl(0): Cl2 Chlorine gas
Cl(-I): Cl-1 Chloride ion
Cl(+III): ClO2-2 Chlorite ion

Numbers in parentheses are oxidation states of chlorine

Removing it through distilling gives a crisp fresh beer.

I'd probably find it thin but peoples' tastes are different and what is important is that you get what you like. RO will remove chloride and do that.

I will reduce the already small amount of crystal malt in my bo pils recipe because I can taste it in the beer.

Chloride does tend to enhance the things you go to crystal malt for. But only change one variable at a time i.e. if you lower chloride by dilution w/ RO keep the crystal and see if the chloride reduction solves the problem adequately.

So there is no need to worry about the beer being thin og harch from a lack of chlorite, it can be added in the grain bill.

It's not really, as I understand it anyway, crystal malt or chloride ion but rather a situation where the chloride brings out the characteristics of colored malts but it does this for the base malts too.

 

[firebird400]

The beer did not end up thin at all.
I entered it in BJCP competition a few weeks back.
The only complaints mentioned were that it was a bit heavy on the body and one judge mentioned too much malt for the style. Half the judges said they loved it and wanted more.
It scored 88/100
It was in the "open" category with RIS and barleywines and everything else that was not either an IPA or Saison/wild yeast type of beer.