Bottled water or filter?

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Please keep us updated, I don’t have anything to add as to your question but like you I’m not interested in messing with water chemistry and I don’t want to get an RO system due to the amount of wast water I would just like to use a series of filters.

With a "series" of filters, you can remove TSS (total suspended solids - meaning UNdissoved chunks of stuff), and you can treat chlorine and chloramine. But your TDS will remain essentially unchanged. If that is ok with you, no problemo. We have all the housings, fittings, tubing, and cartridges and can build it for you.

Russ

 

[shaky6]

Why would you want to filter out everything completely down to RO water? You remove all character that lends into your beer. Take out the harmful stuff, minimize the difficult stuff, analyze the rest, and aim for a target. In this age of renaissance brewing and historical efforts it seems counterproductive to make chemistry lab beer. Robot beer: creating perfect booze with no character, but hey it's cool cuz my water met NSF/ANSI 53 standards just like in olden days.

 

[day_trippr]

 

[Blazinlow86]

Why would you want to filter out everything completely down to RO water? You remove all character that lends into your beer. Take out the harmful stuff, minimize the difficult stuff, analyze the rest, and aim for a target. In this age of renaissance brewing and historical efforts it seems counterproductive to make chemistry lab beer. Robot beer: creating perfect booze with no character, but hey it's cool cuz my water met NSF/ANSI 53 standards just like in olden days.

I actually spit my coffee out when I read that. thanks for the laugh. Cheers

 

[Home_alone1]

I just got a water report and used brunwater to then blend distilled water and then add my adjustments .

 

[Homergah]

To answer your specific questions:

After numerous trials with bottle water I now use Crystal Geyser. They furnish a real water report on their website. I've made great beer with and without salt additions.

Next question: iron can be filtered, but it will quickly plug a filter.

I was raised in the water business. No I'm not a chemist, but I know water.
Just buy your water for now.

 

[z-bob]

Lost in the discussion, I think, is the aggravation of having to go buy and then schlep around RO water every time you want to brew. For me--YMMV--that's a pain, and if I were able to get it in large enough containers, well, I don't want to be carrying that.

I have an RO system at home w/o the pressurized tank. I have a 7-gallon aquatainer I use to fill my BK at the start of every brew, then I immediately set to refilling it for the next time. I never have to move more than 3 feet to get that water, and it's always there and ready for me. No having to plan around having to go get that water. That's important to me--YMMV.

I don't just use that RO water for brewing; I have a Keurig coffee brewer in my office and I bring RO water in 1-gallon jugs to feed that. RO means no (or virtually no) buildup of scale over time and thus no having to clean it out. So I have that benefit too--and no going to the store to get that, either. At any one time I'll have a 7-gallon aquatainer full of RO water, plus anywhere from 5-13 1-gallon jugs of RO water waiting for use in brewing or for my coffeemaker.

There is the downside of a system--there's up-front cost, and the water isn't completely free. But for me, the time savings and convenience are worth it.

Others might have different parameters in deciding what works best in their situation. And in the end, we all get to apply our own interests and values, and make our own choices. Nothing wrong with that.

That's why I've learned to use my tapwater. (that, and the challenge) But if one is going to buy bottled water, buying bulk RO water from the supermarket dispenser is the way to go.