A brewery told me 2 things which I wondered if it is an ok practice?

[Finlandbrews]

A local brewery told me that:

1) they dont filter the water because there is no chlorine in the water and minerals are very low. Is no chlorine possible? And if 0.1 ppm, can it be problematic or not? Can't there be any other compounds that could be problematic?

2) they had empty bottles which were pre sanitized and I was told they don't need a rinse. Is it so that there is no need for rinse? I thought that bottles should be rinsed always.

 

[Homercidal]

No chlorine is very possible. Not all municipalities have to resort to treating their water (as far as I know anyway.). Or if they do, maybe they use Chloramines (But I assume they included Chloramines in with Chlorines when they said no chlorine.) If there is any chlorine I prefer to treat simply with Campden Tablet to neutralize it immediately. Chlorine can also be heated for a certain amount of time to flash off, but Chloramines are not as volatile and they recommend a VERy slow pass through activated Charcoal, or simply using Campden tabs.

Water *might* have other compounds, but if the minerals are low it's *probably* ok. You might have high levels of Iron or something, but you'd have to have it tested to know for sure what's in there. If you like the brewery's beer, then I would assume the water is probably ok for your brewing. You might ask your municipality for a water report and see what's on there. Not sure if the EU has an inexpensive testing center like Ward Labs in the US.

As far as bottles go, even if they had "Pre-sanitized" bottles, I'd still perform the very quick and easy process of re-sanitizing right before bottling. Rinsing may not be absolutely necessary if they are clean and you are going to sanitize anyway.

 

[kh54s10]

1) It depends on the water source. There easily could be no chlorine or chloramines in the water.

2) Not sure of their process. But I use Starsan which is a no rinse sanitizer. If you rinse it is no longer doing anything, and is only as sanitary as the water you rinsed with and whatever contacts the bottle after the sanitation.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

A local brewery told me that:

1) they dont filter the water because there is no chlorine in the water and minerals are very low. Is no chlorine possible? And if 0.1 ppm, can it be problematic or not? Can't there be any other compounds that could be problematic?

2) they had empty bottles which were pre sanitized and I was told they don't need a rinse. Is it so that there is no need for rinse? I thought that bottles should be rinsed always.

You're in Finland? I have this vision of the local water in Finland being freshly melted off some glacier and then dribbled down the cleavage of some smoking hot nordic girl.

No wonder the beer tastes good there!

 

[ericbw]

If they are sanitizing the bottles and then letting them sit somewhere, I would think a rinse might be in order to get any dust or anything out. But if they're covered, no bacteria is going to grow on glass. There is no food and no water for it.

 

[hvjackson]

1. It sounds like they have a lab report of what is in the water and what is not, and they are satisfied. Water quality varies widely around the world so there is no way to know what is in the water without a lab report of some kind. Cities that provide municipal water often do regular lab test and make the results available to the public so that is one way to find out without paying for your own lab test, although I think most breweries would want to do their own testing. It is not that expensive.

2. I'm assuming this is a commercial brewery and they are buying new glass bottles. Bottles usually come from the factory sanitary and packed in such a way as to remain clean. There is no reason to re-wash them. Obviously a home brewer is not going to have access to bottles in the same condition.

 

[elbinwyp]

You're in Finland? I have this vision of the local water in Finland being freshly melted off some glacier and then dribbled down the cleavage of some smoking hot nordic girl.

No wonder the beer tastes good there!

Just spit my drank. Thank you.

 

[cloudybrewer]

You're in Finland? I have this vision of the local water in Finland being freshly melted off some glacier and then dribbled down the cleavage of some smoking hot nordic girl.

No wonder the beer tastes good there!

With freshly melted glacial water dribbling down her cleavage, she could probably pop bottle caps with her nipples.

 

[Finlandbrews]

1) It depends on the water source. There easily could be no chlorine or chloramines in the water.

2) Not sure of their process. But I use Starsan which is a no rinse sanitizer. If you rinse it is no longer doing anything, and is only as sanitary as the water you rinsed with and whatever contacts the bottle after the sanitation.

Yes good points! It is reservoir water that has been treated by RO or UV filter with very high rejection from the municipality, in my commune there is chlorine but very little like 1 or 2 ppm. I get a bit of harshness in their higher hopped beers and even more with their neighbor competitor which I thought could be from the water or a too long contact time with heavy dose of hops with leafy matters. This grassy/vegetable plant like taste with some astringent bitterness I don't exactly know if water but could be... I volunteer at the better one of these two breweries but still find that getting the fresh pungent exotic and clean hop profile seem far away from what is being brewed there and anywhere in the country actually... Odd!

Iron maybe...?

 

[Finlandbrews]

You're in Finland? I have this vision of the local water in Finland being freshly melted off some glacier and then dribbled down the cleavage of some smoking hot nordic girl.

No wonder the beer tastes good there!

Ahahah! Yes Finland but for some reason you are wrong! I would rate Finland beers as being in the middle of European craft beer by country. Finland has maybe better beer than Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Slovakia and maybe France and other small states too but otherwise we are behind all the other more famous countries like Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, England,...

 

[kh54s10]

If they are sanitizing the bottles and then letting them sit somewhere, I would think a rinse might be in order to get any dust or anything out. But if they're covered, no bacteria is going to grow on glass. There is no food and no water for it.

Bacteria might not be growing on the glass or be abundant, but it is there....

I am sure they are not just taking bottles out of a box and putting them on a filling machine.

 

[Finlandbrews]

Bacteria might not be growing on the glass or be abundant, but it is there....

I am sure they are not just taking bottles out of a box and putting them on a filling machine.

Yes straight from a plastic wrapped pallet through labeling and then to filling station.

 

[myndflyte]

Bottling for me involves putting foil on the mouth of clean bottles and then baking them in the oven at 350F for 60 min. After that, I leave the foil on and never rinse them again before filling. Never had an infected bottle.