Been thinking on using rain water for my brew

[Squidmanoo7]

I was wondering if there is a cheap way to filter rain water to use in my brews without getting infection or bad bacterias any help is appreciated

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Depends on where you live and how the water is collected to determine how bad of an idea this is. I wouldn't worry about infection as you will be boiling the water. I would worry about all the stuff in the air the rain picks up on the way to the ground.

 

[Squidmanoo7]

Well I'm close to the Ohio river and there are power plants but I'm a bout 20 mins away from the nearest one....is there a way to test it?

 

[unionrdr]

You could send a sample to one of the labs found online. There's one the guys here use a lot I forget the name of though. I'd say at least filter it & test the PH.

 

[dkeller12]

I was wondering if there is a cheap way to filter rain water to use in my brews without getting infection or bad bacterias any help is appreciated

Just out of curiosity, why would you want to use rain water instead of tap or bottled water?

 

[BalloonGuy]

My kids just did a science project to see if we could reuse k-cup filter to make rain water ready for drinking. I bought a water quality tester. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I was very surprised to see that the rain had only 24 ppm compared to the 174 ppm from our tap. We have a small inline filter at the sink. That got the water down to 121 ppm. I think it is worth a try if you can collect enough water...

 

[unionrdr]

I was wondering if, like us with this house we rented in Cinci, he might have a cistern that the rain gutters feed into? Ours was under the back porch pad with a concrete cover. Clean water in a galvanized tank. Something like that would be worth a try.

 

[Squidmanoo7]

I may sanitize a barrel n make something like that

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

You could send a sample to one of the labs found online. There's one the guys here use a lot I forget the name of though. I'd say at least filter it & test the PH.

Definitely get it tested (Ward Labs?). In addition to concerns with acidity from power plant emissions, any rainwater gathered from roof gutters can have additional contaminants, especially the first runnings:

"Due to the acidic nature of ambient
rainwater, chemical compounds from roofing materials may leach into the harvested rainwater
(King and Bedient, 1982). Specifically, heavy metals such as cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, and
chromium have been detected in rooftop-harvested rainwater (Quek and Förster, 1993; Lye,
1992; Yaziz et al., 1989)"

"Generally, the first flush contained the highest concentrations of microbial and chemical
contaminants in comparison to the subsequent collection tanks, indicating that the quality of
harvested rainwater improved with roof flushing. However, the rainwater harvested after the first
flush did contain some contaminants at concentrations above United States Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) drinking water standards (i.e., turbidity, TC, FC, iron, and
aluminum). This indicates that harvested rainwater must be treated prior to potable use."

http://greywateraction.org/wp-conte...-Quality-for-Rainwater-Harvesting-Systems.pdf

 

[Cyclman]

Chemicals from pollution, plant exhaust, even wood fires can be in rainwater. Unless you're going to run it through a RO or other high level filtration, too many variables at risk here.

A neighbor works for the water district, he spends his whole job testing water, there's a reason why.