Top Off Water Question

[pawleysplayr]

I generally do BIAB 6 gallon batches and mash/boil the entire volume, however I have an old 15 gallon conical that I plan on using for hard seltzers. Turns out my wife and daughter (and their friends) really like them as a boat drink.

My plan is to add @9 gallons of tap water treated with campden tablets to the fermenter and add the boiled 6 gallons of sugar/yeast nutrients to that.

My question is....are there any significant contamination risks with this approach? I have topped off smaller amounts with this tap water in the past with no real issues.

 

[Sammy86]

To be extra safe I would consider boiling the nine gallons or at least getting it to above 161°, cool it/let it cool and then transfer.

Extra precaution sure, but sometimes better to be safe than sorry.

 

[_BullDog_]

Or by 9 gallons of distilled water from the store.

The boiling route would be my approach since I have a 10 gallon electric kettle… would just take a some extra time

 

[pawleysplayr]

Thanks for the input guys.

I have a insulated "shed" around the back of my garage that stays at 80-84 degF during the summer.
The fermenter will be located there and I will let Lutra do it's thing then settle out for several weeks before splitting into different flavors and bottling. I've had great success and crystal-like clarity with this process in the past.

The boiling itself is easy enough....but the fermenter will be a decent hike from the location where the boiler is.
I will have to transfer to buckets or carboys and then move to fermenter in a couple of trips and will be exposing the sanitized water during that process to potential contaminants.

As I'm typing I realize it's certainly "less" risk of the two options and I will do that this first iteration as I need to get some stock going.

But I think the next batch I will try the tap water with a slightly higher dose of Campden to retard any beasties until the Lutra can run it's race and see what happens.

 

[Sammy86]

But I think the next batch I will try the tap water with a slightly higher dose of Campden to retard any beasties until the Lutra can run it's race and see what happens.

Campden isn't a sanitizer so it's not gonna deter anything unfortunately. You could sanitize the buckets and then add the water to that if you're worried about infection.