Water

[ckelly999]

Greetings all,

I'm brewing this weekend and I need a bit of advice.

I live in Florida; the water here is awful, even bottled (since they are sourced locally). I don't like the aftertaste at all. I used to be able to get bottled water from Maine, but none of the local stores carry it anymore.

My local supermarket has several bottled waters (from Florida): there's Spring Water (nope), Drinking Water (charcoal filtered), Purified Water (reverse osmosis), and Distilled Water (only if I'm desperate).

For a German Hefeweizen which water should I use, if I only have the Drinking Water or the Purified Water to choose from? Or, should I modify the Distilled with any additives (really trying to avoid this)?

Thanks in advance for all responses, PROST!!

Chris Kelly

 

[cjonesga]

What did you end up using? I always use drinking water.

 

[Takuie]

Spring or drinking water is fine.

 

[TopherM]

I use Florida tap water filtered through an RV cartridge filter, and have never had any problems. The only real drawbacks to Florida water is the high cloramine content, which is easily filtered out, and the hard water, which actually has great mineral content for most beer styles, especially hoppy styles (though it never bothered me either way).

Most of the gallon jugs of water you list above are very mineral deficient, so you kinda trading one issue for another.

If you are serious about nailing water chemistry, go grab this book:

https://cvweb.fnfis.com/dynamic/MIP_Pages/client_view.shtml

Otherwise, just get yourself a decent water filter for you Florida tap water and you are 85% of the way there. Here's the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IX87S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Good luck!

 

[Yooper]

I haven't been in a grocery store in Florida in a long, long time, but do they have those big "water machines" near you? I've seen them in stores, and in places like Wal-Mart.

They should have reverse osmosis water (RO water), and that is ideal for brewing, giving you a pure water to start with.

 

[ckelly999]

What did you end up using? I always use drinking water.

I used 3 gal of Drinking Water and 3 gal Purified Water. Beer came out great.

 

[ckelly999]

Otherwise, just get yourself a decent water filter for you Florida tap water and you are 85% of the way there.

I'm on well water where I am; the ground water has a very high iron content. I have a Culligan filter system for things like ice, coffee, and cooking- this water tastes fine, but waiting for it to produce 6 gallons would take up too much time. I don't mind spending a few bucks on bottled, I just wanted to hear if anyone had any + or - experiences using the local bottled types.